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