Try It Tuesday: The Vaccination Book by Dr. Sears

Choosing whether or not to vaccinate your children is an important decision, the outcome of which can affect their ability to attend public school and travel globally. Vaccinating your child without doing ample research runs you the risk of suffering severe consequences, on the flip side being cavalier about not vaccinating your child could hold equal risk. I have seen both sides of this dilemma. One friend now parents a child with mental and social delays that she credits to additives in her young boy's vaccination. Another lost her newborn to a preventable disease after choosing to opt out of its vaccination. Which is worse, a loss caused by action or inaction? These are the questions I've weighed since becoming pregnant last November.

Oliver is nearly 3 months now. With his 2 month pediatric appointment come and gone, and his next one in a few days, I am knee deep in this decision. Even if he receives all of his shots this Friday he will still be on a "delayed schedule" as we opted out last time. Currently our decision stands that we will choose to vaccinate him (on the basis of preventing death, but also making access to future school and travel easier) for only severe illnesses. This means we will opt out of the chicken pox (varicella) vaccine and all seasonal flu vaccines. We will, however, boost his immunity through the homeopathic flu shot which you can read about on one of my earlier blog posts. He will, therefore, be receving the mandatory DPTP and MMR but I have to say I am not looking forward to helping him through this tough appointment.

Recently I read "Your Child's Best Shot" by Ronald Gold and was very disappointed to see how biased it was. It was essentially 400 pages of assurance that there are barely any risks or side effects of vaccination, and scare tactics about the potential risks of the relevant illnesses. The book also featured information about past, subpar vaccinations put out to the public and how we've miraculously (note my sarcasm) improved them. By my logic, if a previous shot was, at that time, promoted as safe and is now seen as risky, could we not assume that future editions of this book will feature information on how 2011's vaccination versions were inadequate? We never know what future research will show us about things that we currently have confidence in: see thalidomide.

But here's a book that's worth its weight in gold: Dr. Sears' The Vaccine Book. He is a brilliant man, promoting concepts and philosophies well before his time. I believe future generations will look back on his books and say "This is what changed everything." Because the public library does not offer it, I recommend purchasing it now!



What a hard decision for any parent, but how lucky we are to have this information at our finger tips.