Vaccinations

First, thanks for waiting with me! (and no, not yet a mummy..)
[and Tiara - loved your dream :-)]


I am now trying to learn about vaccinations. It was all along clear to me that I won't necessary give my child all the vaccinations, and that those I do give won't necessarily be according to the routine schedule here. I don't know how it goes elsewhere, but it is (in my eyes) quite a crazy schedule. [I tried adding a chart of the schedule here, but I'm not really succeeding (it comes out tiny)]. It starts of with hepatitis B at the hospital. That was the first one I knew I won't be giving as there is really no need if I don't have it! And then it goes on every month or so. I think I read that 30 vaccinations are given in the first year (which I suppose doesn't mean 30 times the needle as some are a combination. But it is less the injection per se that concerns me, more what goes in to my girl. If already I'm for splitting them). And not giving them in the regular routine means I'm planning on starting late. Not sure when exactly, I think I'd like to start after she becomes a year old, but maybe I'll start as early as half a year.

My first lesson on the subject came when I was in the eight grade. I was always late for school, so not surprising I was late on the day they had some kind of test injection done for this vaccinations (not sure which. maybe tuberculosis?) and so hadn't had the test done. Then the day of getting the vaccine came. Up till them I knew how important vaccinations are and how we must all get all our vaccinations, etc etc, so of course I was waiting to get mine! But as I hadn't done the test, I was brushed aside, told how it wasn't a big deal not getting this shot! I think they might have stopped that particular vaccinations a few years after, but still it echoed in me that it is not such a must as I thought, that one doesn't necessarily have to get all the shots. [and yes, I was a very naive child. When on a school trip the bus in front of us didn't stop at a red light, I was sure the police would come right there and then and arrest the offending driver! because in my young life there was right and wrong, no in between]. Anyway though it might have been my first lesson on the issue of vaccinations, it took many years to process it..

And so I said to myself that this is something I want to learn, but never really got round to looking into it. I mean I did here and there but not too seriously. There is this Israeli site I found, but they seem too radical to me, completly against all vaccines. But then other sites are all for and say how important and wonderful they all are... What I wanted was to learn about each vaccination - how, why, when, so I can make an educated decision. But I guess finding a neutral source is not really possible..
Anyway, my sister got me for my birthday a book on vaccinations (The Truth about Vaccines) which now that I finished my pregnancy and birthing books and have time on my hand, am digging into. I still have no idea what, how and when, but finally I feel like I'm doing some learning on the subject :-).