Vaccines

I was recently around some women who for whatever reason chose to opt out of some standard vaccines for their newborn/infants. When I was in the hospital and transfered to my recovery room, one of the first pieces of paper I was faced with was information on the Hep B vaccine. I was told that they would be back the following morning to give the vaccine if I wanted Jude to have it, so they wanted me to have the information to look over in advance.

Now, I got into the room after a long day around what, 9 or 10 o'clock? I had a newborn in my hands and already probably wasn't going to get much sleep. Having not done my homework on any of this before hand, I agreed to the vaccine - I don't want Jude to get Hep B, right?? But at the same time I thought to myself, if it's so necessary and important, should they really give you a choice?

Well, after being around others who opted out of certain vaccines I did a little looking around. I know I'm coming up on Jude's 1 month visit and if I'm presented with any standard shots I want to at least be semi-informed on what he's getting (I mean Hep B is pretty straight forward, but some of the other names I have no clue what it's about).

During my research I found some scary stories. People who gave their child the 2nd shot in the Hep B series (a 3 part series) thinking, like I do/did, that it was standard and necessary. When they got home that night they put their child to sleep and they never woke up the next morning. You have to wonder how much is true, how often these things happen, etc. But, considering the only way Hep B is transfered is through sex, needles, and other bodily fluid sharing, you have to wonder why they're giving it to newborns? I mean he's not a ladies man yet and hopefully not a junkie (other than that, it really recommended for people who work in hospitals and people who live with someone who has it). From what I've gathered it's not unreasonable to wait until their immune system is a little more mature to start with the Hep B when there's less of a chance for side effects. What I got from my research is that the only reason they give newborns the first part of the vaccine in the hospital is because they know they can get them all there (and because drug addicts and prostitutes aren't lining up for it, so they have to market it somewhere). If they wait for parents to get the shot later, you risk losing infants who might not get their well visits and thus lose a big chunk of the population.

Either way, I'm currently on a mission to research the vaccines Jude will be presented with and to make a decision with Ryan on what's necessary and what's really just a ploy for the pharmaceutical companies to make more money (like polio??? who actually gets polio anymore??). For example there are apparently 2 or 3 vaccines that are presented together that all come with a high risk for seizures. The research I've done recommends that these three be spread out over a period of a few weeks to lower the risk (good to know!).

AND since I was very much in the dark, I'll try to post some information here that I might come across in regards to things we will/will not be giving Jude so that maybe others will have some information going in.