I had one of those moments the other day. Last Thursday Baby and I had our 6-week checkup and weigh-in with the midwife. Five weeks, 6 1/2 days, to be more accurate, but who's counting? Baby was 22 1/2 inches (up from 21" at birth) and tipped the scales at 13 lbs, 1 oz. I wonder if I manufacture cream or something...
Anyways, I was asking the midwife about her thoughts on vaccines and such. She reaffirmed my plan to do a "delayed schedule" of sorts, and I'm not going to worry about it for a year or two or so. I casually mentioned my astonishment when I started looking into them, and especially the routine practice of giving Hepatitis B vaccines to babies at birth. Her return comment was the "well duh!" moment for me, because I'd never linked it in my mind, but it makes perfect sense.
Here's the thing: Newborn's livers/gallbladders are just beginning to work. Hepatitis is a disease of the liver. Vaccines are dead or debilitated viruses that let our bodies manufacture antibodies so in case we get the "real thing," we are ahead of the game. So, introducing a liver-disease virus might affect the liver (especially a newborn's!). When the liver can't do it's job well, what happens? Jaundice! How many babies do you know who had to be wrapped in bilirubin blankets early in life? My girls didn't have that problem, but I know plenty of others who did.
I wonder if they had the Hep B vaccine at birth? I wonder if newborn jaundice could be avoided if we were a little slower to vaccinate them against an STD? I wonder why I never thought of this before?
8 comments:
We chose not to vaccinate for a variety of reasons, but mosly because the vaccine can do more harm than good. As for Hep B, we're pretty sure our 5-month old won't be coming into contact with others' bodily fluids. :)
We thought our daughter would have severe jaundice when she was born because I'm AB negative and she's, uh, not. (Is it bad I don't remember the blood type of my baby?) But she came out with perfectly pink, rosy skin and stayed that way, so there was no problem.
Even my mom, who was a nurse and is pro-vaccine, was shocked when she found out how many shots babies get now. We are definitely delaying and selecting if we do ever vaccinate. Since we anticipate Isabel nursing for at least another seven months we aren't too worried about it now. She gets all my antibodies :)
That's probably more than you wanted to know.
Annie, thanks for your comments. As to whether it's bad if you don't 'remember' your baby's blood type, uh, I have no idea what my kids' are! I discovered my blood type (b) in college biology, and my rH thingy during my first pregnancy. I don't know about blood-typing and jaundice, I recall the 'blue baby' thing for the rh factor issue.
I am pretty bothered by some of the stuff in vaccines (I wrote an earlier post about a vaccine challenge), however, I'm also bothered by polio and other such problems. Have you read the article by Jay Wile (Apologia homeschool science curriculum guy - think he's a nuclear chemist or something) about vaccines? He doesn't claim to be a biologist, but he's familiar with reading research, and became concerned when so many homeschoolers were stopping vaccines entirely. He claims that a lot of the anti-vaccine stuff misrepresents what is in the actual research. It's a good read, one of the more 'trustworthy' ones for the 'pro-vaccine' camp, in my opinion.
Just another thought, since a nursing baby gets mama's antibodies, why don't they get our polio ones and such? Hm... Or would we have to have a 'new' shot..? Hm...
Is the Jay Wile article online somewhere? I'm really interested in reading it. We're re-thinking vaccines...at least some of them. I'm definitely interested in delaying. At my 3-month old's 2mo checkup they wanted to give her a vaccine called Rotateq. What in the world? It's a new vaccine for the Rotovirus. And they want to use my baby as a guinea pig. I don't think so. We've decided to give our kids the Hep B (although not in the hospital) because my husband is in dental school and will be working with Hep B patients. The chance that he'll bring something home with him and pass it to the kids is pretty remote, but when they get old enough we'd like for them to work in his practice.
I am going to answer the question you left on my blog. I came down with a cold on Sunday night, so I've been on survival mode since then. My husband and I have talked about it (our convictions on having children, birth control, etc) many times, but your question has prompted me to write my thoughts down. I think I'm actually going to make a post out of it. I know that there are others (some family for sure) who are wondering the same thing!
Laura, I think you are very wise to decline the invitation to "try out" a new vaccine, and also very wise to consider your husband's work environment.
The site with Dr. Wile's articles is here. There are a few of them, addressing different aspects (safety, effectiveness, etc), and there are links to each, if I recall. Apologia is (I understand - my kids aren't old enough for me to be looking into it yet) a well respected, heavy-duty-ish science curriculum based on creation, etc.
I look forward to your post.. I've been checking. :) I have a lot of questions, and not a lot of answers for the subject in general.
Wow! That's exactly what I've been looking for! I've asked several non-vaccinating friends for some factual info...not just opinions, and I have yet to receive any. That's not to say that I'm completely against not vaccinating. I'm considering it myself and very well may end up not giving my children a lot of the vaccinations. But I want facts about the issue from both sides, not just opinions (although I don't completely dismiss those either). Thanks for the link...I'm going to read the whole thing when I get a chance.
Laura, I'm so glad the info is helping. I too am not totally sure what I think overall. I have friends and acquaintances whom I respect that have chosen not to vaccinate at all, but I'm not sure that's best for us. Could a lot of these almost-eradicated diseases return? Chicken pox is one we could probably handle, but there are others that I don't want to mess with.
Certainly research and much prayer must go into each decision for each child.
I have read the Wile article, also. We had vaccinated our first two children, and our third has not received any vaccines yet. We don't see the point of putting a ton of toxic things into such a little one's body.We are not sure if we are going to just delay her vaccines, or avoid them altogether. My midwife has 10 children. She said that the first batch were all vaccinated and her last batch were not.Her younger ones have been much healthier. I read this quote, stated by the Director of Chemistry at U. of Kentucky, "A single vaccine given to a six pound newborn is the equivalent of giving a 180 pound adult 30 vaccinations on the same day." I have been looking at this site lately: http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/vaccines.htm#1 I think it is wise to study each vaccine, before having one's child receive it. (just google it and read the package insert from the manufacturer.)With vaccines, I truly feel it should be up to the parents' discretion, and there is no easy answer!Sorry to have rambled.Blessings!
Christine, I will check out that website. I'm in "the same boat" as you; we gave fairly routine vaccinations to our first 2 girls (6 and 3) until a couple years ago. Our 7-week-old born-at-home daughter hasn't had any (I call it "organic!") at all. I feel like no vaccinations would be preferable... until there's an outbreak of a really serious disease. That hasn't happened yet, thankfully, but with all the illegal immigration, there's a lot more 'stuff' showing up. But you're right; there's no easy answer.
I don't mind a ramble at all... It's all I *ever* do, I'm afraid! :)
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