Dax is so sick today. His little eyes are red-rimmed and watery. His sneeze is explosive. His cough is mucus-nasty. He slept so poorly last night, whining and wheezing. I kept him in bed with me most of the night to soothe him, but he woke up this morning in full cry! I called the pediatrician immediately, and was on the road in hours.
Luckily he's fine, but I had no idea how fruitless the trip would be. I should of stayed home (although truly I wouldn't have been able too and am glad to hear all is good). But they're like, "He's sick. Yup. Keep the snot out of his nose." I'm like: "Really, that's it? Wow..." I don't know...did I think I would get some super-special infant prescription that would magically save him this dis-ease? Yes. I guess I did.
They did, however, remind me that I have not yet scheduled my two-month well baby appointment. And Dax is now three months old, so I'm late! I nodded and said yes yes i meant to, but truly, I've been procrastinating. I wanted to research all those vaccines that they give these little guys. I'm absolutely not anti-vaccine, but I also don't like to blindly follow advice when they are telling me they are going to inject my newborn with six different vaccines made from live viruses, drops of aluminum, and in the case of the polio vaccine, animal blood tissue.
This last weekend I actually did all my homework and read read read finally as I knew I had to make that appointment. And I made all of my decisions for the next 8 months on the series. I know this subject is so highly controversial and I'm not going to get into all the details of decisions now, but basically my belief is that I do believe MOST vaccines are good & necessary, but I don't think they all need to be injected at once. I also think it doesn't hurt for some babies to get older for some vaccines so that their immune system is more mature.
So anyway, I basically skipped my two-month appointment and decided to start any vaccines at four-months so he's a little older. I would have waited till he was six months old, but we are cruising the Caribbean in June, so I want to make sure he has the preliminary vaccines before that time is up. We will be vaccinating for HIB, Pc, and doing the DTAP vaccine. I'm too late for the Rotavirus vaccine.
And I will wait on the Polio vaccine till he's older. There's not been one single case of polio in the US for quite some time, so he's at no risk to not take the vaccine. He will get it later just so we can keep our US immunity, but I just don't think he needs another vaccine, when he's getting all those others.
I'm 50/50 on the Hep B vaccine right now. The only reason I'm thinking of getting it is because he got a shot a birth (a mistake I feel on my part) and I feel we might as well keep the schedule of the AAP on that one then. But in hindsight, that one could have been delayed for much much longer.
Did anyone else delay or slightly tweak the AAP schedule? Did your pediatrician throw a fit? I'm slightly worried I'm gunna get chided...
9 comments:
i think if your ped chides you, then it might be time to find a new one. we followed the schedule, but i think our guy would have been ok if we hadn't. it's good to be informed and do your own research. i wouldn't be comfortable with someone who chastised me for making thoughtful decisions (particularly if you're following sears or someone, ya know, INFORMED!).
Aw, I hope your little guy feels better soon. I need to read up on schedules sooner rather than later since I want to be prepared when our baby arrives in July.
I feel so bad for the little guy! He looked so sick last night when I was taking care of him. I love that he still manages a smile from time to time. We need to get him to sleep, sleep, sleep...thats his best medicine right now.
I am trying to push back Carsyn's I got the one in the hospital and his 2 and 4 month ones, but I haven't gone for the 6 month ones yet he is almost 8 months old. I want to delay, but my pediatrician throws a fit and say it is going to charge extra. I have tried to find new ones but we live in the smallest town.
By the way Carysn has been sick on and off for FOUR months. Doctors keep telling me the same thing. It is a cold it will go away. I have seen so many different doctors. Drives me nuts.
Hope your little man feels better soon and that you don't get too much problems from your pediatrician.
I agree that vaccinations are very important, but also that parents should use their own judgement. Here's what I've decided what to do for my baby:
http://mwaonline.blogspot.com/2010/10/it-just-feels-wrong.html
It's a variation on the Belgian system, but we can all learn from each other, right? I found your post very interesting in the light of my adventures in baby-medical-land.
mwa: I just read your post....do they use hep B vaccine there? ugh....i am so unsure about this one...
DTAP is a combo shot of whooping cough, tetanus, and diphetheria (sp)...
just out of curiosity, do they vax for whoop or diphtheria?
I admire you for researching this topic and sharing all of your new mommy thoughts with the world :)
To answer your question, Grant didn't get his vaccinations on schedule either.
I strongly do not believe there is a connection between mercury, shots, and autism. I didn't come to this decision lightly, but I did come to it before Dr Wakefield was discredited. http://www.aolnews.com/2011/01/05/dr-andrew-wakefield-falsified-study-linking-vaccines-to-autism/
I believe this in part because of books like "Autism's False Prophets" which I highly recommend reading.
I wrote you a really long response initially and hesitated to send it.
So I really mean this and I know you probably won't, but I would be happy to share with you the information I have gathered and support you no matter how you move forward with your decision making. I am happy to hear you are going to get him vaccinated, but if you are afraid D will get autism...I feel confident that my son would have ASD regardless of shots. I really don't see a connection and wish I never would have feared it like I did before he was born.
i feel like this is one area where you start feeling like a bad mom either way. my kids were not vaccinated on the normal schedule, but they are vaccinated. there have been whooping cough outbreaks here so i am thinking of taking my four month old (who is so far shot free) to get that one at the health department soon. do what feels right and find your own way, mama. you sound like you are on the right path by researching and understanding before you make any decision, whatever it is!
We are actually delaying my little man's vaccines until he is 2. I did a lot of reading on the shots and I still am not totally sure which ones we will get. The thing I do know from everything I learned in grad school is that there is a WHOLE lot of development going on in the first 2 years, especially myelination of the neurons and I didn't want anything to mess with that. That said, my little guy did get whooping cough, BUT my nephew (who is 18 months older than my son) and got all of his vaccinations on schedule also got whooping cough when he was an infant. So...my mommy guilt was a little assuaged at that point.
My pedi went along with the delayed vaccs without too much chiding. The NP was a lot more strident, so we chose not to do well checks with her ;-) We just moved to another city and have to look for a pedi that will be amenable - not looking forward to that!
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