Why are some parents against vaccinating their kids?

Can I copy and paste from another website? lol. I'm sure ruchele can give more and better detail, but the short version that I know is that some people think most diseases (like small pox) is gone so we don't need to vacinate (um, its gone because we vacinate - if we stop it comes back), others say it is unnatural and unhealthy - some studies actually show vacinations can cause autism and cerabal palsey (prob more, but I don't keep up on this research). I personally say the benifits outweigh the risks. I would rather raise an autistic child than have him die from small pox.

Oh - and people who refuse to vaccinate have to home-school their kids.

This answer was edited by mma_mom 238 days ago.

Reason: I forgot something.

There is a lot of controversy about vacinations, both with humans as well as animals, for instance, I was never vacinated as a child because of my mothers religious beliefs, so when my oldest got her first polio, I wasn't allowed to change her diaper for 2 weeks because she was shluffing live virus. I have since been vacinated, but I never did agree with live oral polio vaccine, so my oldest had it once and after that all my kids had the killed injection, and go figure, now that is all they give. Some parents believe that the benifits do not out way the risk. My kids were never given whooping cough vaccine because the research I was directly involved with proved the risk of the vaccine far out weighed the benefit. There is also controversy as to how often vaccine needs to be given. We know for instance in dogs and cat that yearly vaccination unnecessary, every 3 to 5 years after their initial vaccination group is sufficent, but municipalitys still require it yearly, we have seen a great increase in cancer in animals vacinated yearly. Some vaccines are also associated with higher incedence of allergies, autisim (the new en vogue disease) and certain types of cancer. I don't see how anyone can associate it with cerabal palsey when that is proven to be a birth injury, but some researchers do. I actually have a 13 page article on it that I published in JAMA several years ago, if you are interested, I will e-mail it to you.

Wow. I had never thought it was an option because I am a working mom, so my daughter went to daycare for a couple of weeks and I never even knew it was or was not an option. Are there licensed pediatritians that practice and advise about not vaccinating and if it's a religous thing if you can sue the school - just kidding. But I wonder if they have to let you in school.

Not into it, I freak out when she has a diaper rash so the benefits out-weight the risks for me, I just saw a mom on a forum I participate in that said breast-feeding, co-sleeping, non-vaccing mom and I was wonder about it. Thanks!

No, there are options when it comes to this. I know someone that chose not to vaccinate her son. It usually comes down to beliefs that the mom has around such things. There are ones that have/had their place. Like polio and small pox and the like.

If I had a kid I'm not 100% sure which way I would lean on this.

Because I'm not a complete believer in things like the flu shot and most western medicine. I don't believe in the flu shot idea because the thought of a flu bug that goes around infecting people seems silly.

Yes, they have to let a child in school, you would have to sign a waiver with the school is all.

My child is on a delayed vax schedule. I chose it because I researched the ingredients in vaccines and I honestly don't feel comfortable with some of the things in them (formaldehyde, thimerisol/mercury, aluminum etc). Also there hasn't been any proven or disproven link between vaccines and autism. Another reason is that in the cases of some of the vaccines the deaths caused by the vaccine are more than the deaths by the virus. If you check out VAERS you will notice that vaccines aren't without serious side effects. We just don't hear about all the of the problems they can cause in the news so most people think they are completely safe.

In (I think) all 50 states there are medical exemptions, but in many states there are religious and personal exemptions. In my state you can sign an exemption based on any of the 3 for daycare or school and it's accepted.

Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System
http://vaers.hhs.gov/

The CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/ss/ss5201.pdf

Vaccine Ingredients - package inserts
http://www.vaccinesafety.edu/package_inserts.htm

More on ingredients and the chemical make-up
http://www.wnho.net/vaccine_ingredients.htm

The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC)
http://www.909shot.com/

VaccineTruth.org
http://www.vaccinetruth.org/

Vaccination News
http://www.vaccinationnews.com/dailynews/may2001/whatsinvax.htm

Religion is the number one reason parents are against vaccinating their kids and have been able to sign off on getting the shots because of their religion.