Immunizations - Seattle,WA

We do not immunize. We have the proper vaccine exemption forms, should we need them. It is very easy in Texas. You sign it, get it notarized...and then you're done. I won't get into all my reasons against vaccinating, because I don't really feel like getting hatemail on the subject...yet again. I DID do my research. Years of it, in fact. I did not listen to the extremes. They are not based in fact.

My pediatrician...who is Harvard educated...does not vaccinate his 3 children. Meeting him was very enlightening for me. TO the parent who said, "Why wouldn't I protect my child?" I AM. I did through, painstaking research (Legit research on vaccines, is hard to find in all the pro-con nonsense.) I believe parents who walk in and inject things into their child, without knowing anything about what they are doing...are not protecting their children. If a parent were to do much research and still come to the conclusion vaccinating is best for their family, then they are doing what they feel is right. For someone with a completely uneducated opinion, to accuse me of not protection my son...is plain ignorant.

I am not vaccinated. I have never had one in my life. I am also the healthiest person you could meet. I am so thankful, that my parents did what they could to protect me. People can be very ignorant, and talk about/accuse you of things they have no real basis on. I love to have educated discussions with people. However, I do not have discussions with people, who simply accuse me of bad parenting. I have done my research. They haven't.

Why would you not protect your child? You can follow a program that is different and still get all required vaccines.

Pedis are more than helpful with this since there has been such a backlash of parents chooing to forego immunizations and more and more people getting sick with diseases from long ago.

Illnesses that were long gone are now creeping back into society due to parents who may or may not be well informed and choose not to vaccinate. It is somewhat selfish on the part of the parents who decline and then they are the first to be angry when their child gets sick.

The ONLY vaccine we declined is not required and it is the Guardisil.

In the end, it is a personal decision for parents to make.

We have done none but plan on doing tetanus. I did a ton of research and many doctor friends weren't vaccinating. The best book I found is called the sanctity of human blood, his website is www.thedoctorwithin.com. In our state, we have medical, religious, and personal/philosophical exemptions for school, under the new law for philosophical, a doctor mist sign to say that you were given information on vaccines before refusing them. We have never had problems with school or activities. Hope you find a good doctor, I saw your post the other day. Welcome to Washington!

EDIT: we can all learn things from other peoples' points of view, this is true! And many people that contracted measles or pertussis is these "outbreaks" were fully vaccinated and still got it. My kids were directly exposed to pertussis last year, got a fever for one day and nothing else. The doctor said my kids are the healthiest he knows (like other non-vexed kids I know), and that their immune system is strong enough to fight it, and that they now likely have 30 years immunity rather than 10 with the vaccine.

I have three children. My first was immunized according to the recommended schedule up to age 4 then we started doing research and stopped. My younger two have received no vaccinations and won't get any. My husband and I did tons of research and decided that for us, the risks of vaccinating outweighed the miniscule risk that our babies would contract a deadly disease before age 2 (after 2, the illnesses which we vaccinate against are not serious). You will NOT have any trouble getting your child into a public school and probably not into a private one if you go the same route. The law says that children must be vaccinated OR the parent must sign a waiver saying that they have chosen not to vaccinate. Funny how so many people don't know about the "OR" part of the law (I'm a lawyer, its there...trust me). Good luck to you. Please do what your heart tells you to do. If it feels wrong, be strong and do what you feel is best for your child. If you refuse vaccinations, you will find plenty of support from people on this site and others...you would be by no means alone in your choice even though you may have to defend it to people who come down on the other side.

We've chosen to delay and selectively vaccinate. We have not had any problems enrolling our children in school, public or private, without all the vaccines on the current schedule.

My husband and I have chosen the "pick and choose" method when it comes to vaccinations. Partly we prefer not to have our daughter stabbed at all if it can be helped. She got enough of that when she was born, heel pricking for jaundice checks. We've also chosen to homeschool, so a lot of the "childhood" illnesses kids get in school we've opted to skip vaccination because we know her chances to be exposed are slim to none.

while you may have good reasons for not wanting to vaccinate, it's important you also understand the potential risks of not immunizing b/c there is a real risk that your child could get one of those diseases.

i nearly died from whooping cough as an unimmunized infant. That was in the early 70's when vaccine rates were quite high. My father brought it home, he was a high school teacher. he didnt get that sick, but it was very serious for me, trips to the hospital & 24-7 monitoring b/c i could not breathe.

While I dont trust big Pharma and am skeptical of how they push and test drugs, the diseases that the basic vaccines protect you against are very serious and have life changing effects. There is a reason Jonas Salk won a nobel prize for his vaccine for polio- it literally changed the world for the better.

When you choose to protect your child from a risk posed by a vaccine, you are putting them at a different kind of risk. Not all vaccines are the same- some have worse things than others- find out what is safest.

What vaccines protect you from also varies greatly- getting rotovirus sucks, but isnt life threatening. We did not immunize against it and our whole family got it- puke and/or projectile diarhea for 2+ weeks each. I used two weeks vacation time and did an amazing amount of laundry. We did have to monitor for my son (11 mos) for dehydration but we all came out of it OK. The more serious diseases could have lifelong consequences- not everyone comes out of those OK. i would strongly encourage you to read up on the risks of the diseases for each choice before you make your decision to not vaccinate at all.

Lastly, I would also ask you to consider being part of something bigger. What if we ALL decide not to vaccinate? Read the death and physical disability rates on diseases prior to the invention of the vaccines. These diseases are not gone, they are held in check by a vaccinated population that prevents them from spreading effectively. Even with modern medicine, one in 100 newborns who get whooping cough dies, 1 in 200 older babies/children. I doubt those are odds you want for your child. It is highly contagious and can run rampant thru unimmunized populations. Vaccinating is a personal choice, but our personal decisions impact our community and the world.

hello - I am for vaccinations because you must realize that the reason many of these diseases are not around anymore is because of the vaccinations. These diseases do exist in other countries and occasionally do pop up here in the U.S. That being said, I choose not to have the chickenpox vaccine because I wanted my kids to just get chickenpox and have the immunity built up in their bodies naturally. They still have yet to get chicken pox - and I will consider getting the vaccine if they do not get chicken pox by the time they are 13. Supposedly chicken pox is much harder to recover from if you get it when you are older - my cousin did get chicken pox at the age of 27 and it took him 3 weeks to recover. I also will not get that HPV shot for my daughter when she is a teenager - I haven't done much research on it, but I'm hoping we can avoid the whole HPV issue in a different way - I'm not clear on the all the issues around HPV so I will research that more as my daughter gets older.
Good luck with your decision.

My pediatrician is the most down to earth, natural parenting and attachment parenting activist and even he suggested some vaccinations. I trust him and I decided to do SOME vaccinations. Not on the schedule that they ask for--but on what is best for my child. I don't know about where you are, but in CA we just have a form that we sign if the kids are not vaccinated. It just states its for personal or religeous reasons. Its no big deal. IF you are trying to get into a private school, they CAN deny you but they couldn't say that it was because of the vaccinations. GL with your decision!

M

We are on a delayed schedule, so our vaccines are always "behind". In WA you can claim a philosophical/personal exemption for preschool/school. All you need to do is sign a waiver when you fill out the forms. If something is going around, say a measles outbreak, you child can be excluded from school for the time that it lasts - but that's it.
We have never had an issue with missing vaccinations...
Good luck.

You can sign an exempt form for school. Either medical or religious. My kids were allergic so I got an exempt form. Even with so many in my family allergic to them, we're still pushed and manipulated into getting them, which we always decline.

I like what "Bug" said!

My children's private preschool does want all vaccinations (privates schools vary). I think in most states you can get an exemption for public school. I did some research and choose to vaccinate on a delayed schedule. My kids didn't have many if any vaccinations before 6 months. I also try and do them one at a time when possible. No problems so far. My 5 year old has everything he needs for K and my 2 year old has some but not all recommended for her age.