@KerriBlue: hahaha, I came home from swim class, and my sister was changing me for bed and I had them all over, I wasn't itchy at all. I thought they were mosquito bites.

I'll definitely agree that some of the terrible mosquito bite attacks I've had were far worse than chicken pox ever were.

This might be off topic but I'm almost positive most of us never got a chicken pox vaccine. We got chicken pox and survived, maybe with a few pox scars. Why are they suddenly inventing vaccines for things that aren't necessarily dangerous?

And yes, before you jump down my throat, I realize there is a risk with getting chicken pox. There's a risk walking out your front door in the morning too.

I managed to get Chicken Pox twice in my lifetime. Once when I was two and again when I was 5 or 6. My parents wouldn't pick me up from school the second time. They thought that since I already had it, that I must be lying to come home!

I also managed to escape the Hep B Vaccine until I was 20. Bhuahahaha!

@winged centaur: did they ever give a reason for you catching chicken pox a second time? I've never heard of that! lol.

And how did you manage to avoid the Hep B vaccine? I know my parents got threatened with fines and whatnot when I didn't have it in 7th grade.

Another thing that swayed our decision was the fact they wanted to inject him with 3 shots at 6 weeks old. When I asked if they could be split up, the doctor informed me that he would be getting 5 needles. She seemed to think that all I cared about were the needles.

No. I cared that they were going to inject 5 viruses into my 6 week old son's body whose immune system is hardly developed. Those included: Diptheria, Pertusis, Tetanus (DTaP), Inactivated Polio Virus (IPV) and another shot of Hep B. I told the doctor Hell no and found a new ped that takes my son without him being vaccinated.

5 Viruses in 1 6 week old baby... that's INSANE.

My god, that's so terrible to do to a baby :( I remember my hep shots, and those things HURT.

I could see maybe giving a pertussis vaccine that early on (since don't a lot of babies die from that?) and polio. But Tetanus? What's the baby gonna do, roll over on a rusty nail? And diphtheria from what I know is only passed if someone else has it. Sick people shouldn't be around a baby anyways.

Personally I know I'd want my baby to have a polio vaccine - it scares me to think about my baby getting it :(

But I do think Hep B could wait until they were a bit older, really. I got it in middle school, why does a newborn need it?

okay so after looking at the wiki page for tetanus - apparently babies can get Neonatal tetanus from an infected umbilical stump.

But isn't the stump gone at six weeks? (it's been SOOO long since I was around newborns.) Like that just seems irrelevant.

The stump is usually gone about 2-4 wks.

MaVieAramis - You and I share the same feelings on the absurdity of today's vaccine's schedule. Today's list of recommended vaccines for children have TRIPLED since we were children. There have been extremely limited studies done to determine what this overload of vaccines can do to young infants. Not to mention, what if your child DOES have a reaction (as my daughter did after the rotavirus vaccine)? Hard to figure out which it was if you've just allowed Dr. Pharma to inject your baby with 5+ vaccines. No thank you!

@Jessica: My parents said that the doctors were just as baffled. Their best reasoning was that since my first case of Chicken Pox was very mild that I didn't develop a full immunity to it.

I didn't intentionally escape the Hep B shot. I went to school in AL in 8th grade, and the school offered the shot in the spring semester, but I moved to Canada between the fall and spring semesters. They did shots in 7th grade in Canada, but they offered them again in 10th grade, so they said we could wait. But I moved back to the states after 9th grade. My new school must have assumed I had it. It's unheard of for a 15 year old to NOT be vaccinated for Hep B, so they probably didn't even look at the paperwork.

I didn't realize I had missed it until I looked through my vaccination records before my out-of-country cruise. I needed a tetanus shot and a Hep B shot. lol, my doctor's office didn't believe me either. I had to bring in my vaccination records to prove it to them. :P

The Hep B vaccine is easily waived nowadays. You just sign a form at the hospital (and unfortunately, you may have to guard your child like a deranged guard dog shortly after birth). :P

Wanted to add that the polio vaccine is one we definitely skipped. There has not been a case of polio in the US since the 80's, so unless we were considering international travel (we aren't), we didn't deem it necessary.

@ ein Rosa - The chance of a child dying from a VPD are considerably lower than Vaccine Adverse Reactions. Especially today since we know more information about our bodies and know that a healthy diet boosts your immune system, our sanitary conditions are vastly improved as well as our health care. If a child doesn't receive adequate health care while they're sick then that poses a problem. Btw, to see a list of vaccine adverse reactions head over to - VAERS.gov

Thank God (or whom you ever believe in), that your daughter didn't have an adverse reaction.

However, to say that you would rather have your daughter get autism is shocking. Because any parent with an autistic child can say that it is extremely difficult to take care of a child with autism. The constant appointments, therapies, eating problems, frustrations, digestive problems, developmental problems...let's just say I wouldn't wish that on my own enemy.

I began learning about childhood vaccines in 2008 and even then it seemed pretty well-known that there is no link between vaccines and autism. Why is this making news again?

That being said, we accept very limited vaccines for our daughter. Of course, the skeptics think we're just misinformed about autism. :P The reality is that there are many other reasons for limiting childhood vaccines and autism is simply not on our list of concerns.

I guess I am the minority here.

My son is NOT vaccinated.

Now before you rant about herd immunity, my son is medically exempt from all vaccines that include egg (MMR, Varicella, Flu...etc) because of a very high egg allergy.

For the others, we are religiously exempt. And we can use these exemptions for him to enter public school.

We chose not to vaccinate because of the ingredients, and no it's not because of Thimerosal. (There is no Thimerosal in the MMR because it is a LIVE vaccine. There is no mercury in live vaccines, fyi.) The CDC website has a pdf that clearly lists the ingredients and my husband and I were completely grossed out.

Are we worried about these childhood diseases? Frankly, no. Autism was not our concern, it was the ingredients that swayed us to stay clear away from them.

So your son never got the Polio vaccine, either?

No.

The only one that he got was Hep B when he was born without my consent. Still in the process of getting my medical records to see if I did sign for it.

Does the Polio vaccine have egg in it? (I'm just curious I don't know much about the vaccine itself ;D)

Not that I know of. But it does have Monkey Kidney Tissue... getting the link from the CDC now.

www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/downloads/appendices/B/excipient-table-2.pdf

It's a pdf file so it's going to ask if you want to save it or just open it.

I read through the ones that I know of, and nothing really seems that gross to me :-/
If you don't mind me asking - which ingredients were so disturbing to you?

Monkey Kidney Tissue, Bovine Protein (This is either cow or human), Calf Serum Protein, Chick Kidney Cells, 2-Phenoxyethanol, Mouse Serum Protein, Formaldehyde...etc.

I personally don't think that's that bad... most of the stuff used to preserve food these days is probably worse than monkey kidney tissue. And it doesn't prevent illness lol.

Serum Protein is just part of the blood (correct me if I'm wrong, I think it is!). I mean monkey/chick kidney tissue is a little gross, but its not like they're lathering you with chunks of it, it's just a teeny bit. Although if rolling around in chunks of monkey kidney prevented polio, I'd probably do it.

I think most of you know I got chicken pox when I was 20. I would not wish it on anyone but my worst enemy. Vile, vile illness, and I have a lot of scars. I also got shingles in 2009, but you can get tablets for that which stops it from spreading. The shingles were nothing, but the chicken pox was just dreadful. I wish like hell I had been given the vaccine :(

:( That's about how old my sister was when she got chicken pox. I felt so bad for her, she always looked like she was in absolute agony.

I got shingles when I was 20 and it was the WORST thing ever. It hurt so bad. Even after the rash was gone I felt like I had a stiff neck for 4 weeks after. It was miserable.