Someone recently posed this question to me - and I get it all the time:

QUESTION:
What are your feelings on immunization shots for babies?

RESPONSE:
Hi there -

This is a touchy subject.

It is personal preference and I believe one should really do their homework individually before deciding.

It depends on a multitude of factors:
  • Parents' health.
  • Geographic location.
  • Breastfeeding or not.
  • Region's current public health situation.
  • Overseas travel.
  • Deciding if you want to do some or none or all of the vaccinations.
  • Vaccinated pool of children around your kids - many or few?
  • Current health status of the child, siblings and others nearby.
  • Time of the year ie. what season is it?
  • and others...
A parent needs to know exactly:
  • What a vaccine does.
  • How it effects the overall immune system.
  • What all ingredients and additives are.
  • Potential consequences of not vaccinating.
  • Potential consequences of vaccinating.
I have vaccinated one of my boys with everything except hepatitis B (we traveled overseas to Russia and the Baltics when he was 3 months old).

Our second boy we vaccinated only with diphtheria and tetanus (no additives and thiomersal free – special request)

Some useful resources: For a thorough discussion, you may want to connect with a naturopathic physician, aka ND, near you and they can discuss all the pros/cons with you. Be sure to locate a ND who specializes in pediatrics as they will be most current on all the vaccination issues.

In health,

Dr Ben
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Labels: autism, baby vaccine, breastfeeding, child vaccine, childhood vaccinations, hep b vaccine, mercury amalgams, thiomersal, vaccinations, vaccines