What to Do About Niece Not Being Vaccinated

Listen carefully, because this is GOOD advice. :)
Whether or not to vaccinate is, and should continue to be, a personal decision that lies with parents. It's not your place to judge where she has obtained the info that has led her to this decision. If she's not asking for your help with this, don't offer it! Some moms get very defensive when they feel their parental rights are being intruded upon.

As far as being concerned with the health of your niece, don't be. There are tons of children out there who are not vaccinated and the chance that they will actually get one of the diseases we vaccinate against are actually lower than the chances that a child will be somehow hurt by a vaccine. I was not vaccinated as a child ad I am far healthier than my husband, who was, and most adults for that matter. There is currently little to no research to support vaccines that is not paid for by the manufacturers of the vaccine!!!

I'm not trying to start a vaccination argument, I'm just trying to ease your fears about your niece's safety.
Remember, when it comes down to it, we all need to be left to make our own parenting decisions. Hopefully they are well-researched. But even if we all do the same research, we will all come to our own decisions of how to apply it to our family. If you want to share information with your sis, and she is willing to listen, go for it! But if she's not, you're doing more harm than good, as she's most likely not going to change her mind.

Good luck!

No doctor is perfect and medicine doesn't have all of the answers, but neither does Jenny Mcarthy. No one knows if the shots are the cause or not. Life isn't that simply. All you can do is suggest . I have two sisters who don't always listen, even when they should. Your sister will decide regardless of what you say. Just be there to suggest. Maybe even show her kids who have had no vaccinations and still got autism and other problems. All we can do is protect our kids as much as possible. Thats the goal of parents AND doctors.

GHood luck, J.

You could point out to your sister in law that it may matter later in life, when your niece goes to college or gets a job, if she's vaccinated. When I tried to take classes at MTSU I had to prove I had been vaccinated for measles or I would not be allowed to take classes - at ALL - even online classes! Imagine if your niece wants to be a nurse when she grows up! Do you think any hospital would hire her if she's not vaccinated? I used to work for Vanderbilt - not in the Medical Center, but on the University side - and I was required as an employee to keep my vaccinations updated.

My sister spent a few years living in Yemen teaching English. Her classrooms were full of children who were deaf & mute because their mothers, who had never been vaccinated, caught "German measles" during pregnancy (this is the Rubella part of the MMR vaccine). Yemen and Sudan experienced outbreaks of polio in 2005 because too many people were not receiving vaccinations, so they are campaigning now to get all their children immunized.

Obviously I am pro-vaccination, and I consider it a matter of public safety rather than a personal decision. If you think it might make a difference to your sister in law to think about how this might effect your niece later in life, or to realize that diseases we thought we had "eradicated" start breaking out again when people stop vaccinating, then I hope you'll share these points with her.

I would get The Vaccine Book by Dr. Sears . He gives the most balanced view I've seen.
Dr. Sears Book goes into detail about the disease each vaccine is trying to prevent, what the risks are of getting that disease, and how dangerous it is if you get it. Some diseases are almost nonexistant. There are others that are no worse than the common cold, while some could be deadly. This would help your SIL know which diseases pose a real threat to her child.

Also, he tells about each vaccine, the ingredients, and the risks of those ingredients. The main offender being aluminum, which replaced mercury as a preservative. The truth is there are no real studies on the affects of aluminum in the vaccines. Thanks to his book, hopefully there will be soon.
Ultimately, it is your SIL's decision. There are risks to vaccines other than autism and many people feel that the risks outweigh the benefits. Also, keep in mind that many many people choose not to get there kids vaccinated and there kids don't get sick, while others vaccinate and yet there kids still get sick. Though people on both sides of this argument think they are right, it is an individual decision.

S.-- I would say before you talk to them you need to decide what it is you are concerned about. If it is the vaccinations I would ask her why she doesn't want to do it and most likely autism will come up. Or maybe she wants to wait until the baby is older -- something that is becoming more common because of the belief that it is safer for the baby this way. Or maybe she is going to space them out differently, again because of the belief that it is better for the baby this way. Whatever the case, it is ultimately up to the parents to decide what is best for their child and after an intelligent conversation with her I would let it go--The dr. may recommend them but he/she can't make them get the vaccines anymore than you can. If your brother and sil plan on enrolling your niece in public school they will most likely have to get them at some point (some people do get letters from their dr.s exempting them).
If you are worried about the your niece getting the proper nutrition--does she seem lathargic or smaller than she should be? Are you sure she is eating every hour and a half or could this be a slight exageration on your brothers part? As for her being fussy, did they recently start her on cereal? She could be having a hard time digesting it and maybe a different kind would work better. If they haven't started her on any other kind of food then maybe you could gently suggest that maybe some cereal could help her get enough to eat. At 6 months she definetly should be starting other foods besides breast milk.... Wich at her check-up the dr. will probably ask about and if solids haven't been started then I would say it is a safe bet that he will tell them to start.
As for bringing any of this up....do so in the nicest way possible or it could cause a whole bunch of trouble. You could even take some cereal over to them and say it was on sale so you picked them up an extra box.
Don't know if any of this helped....but good-luck