Did you follow the CDC/Doctor recommended vaccination schedule, or did you look into and possibly follow an alternative? My wife and I are going through this right now trying to decide when we want our newborn son to get all of his shots, and I'd be interested to hear what other parents decided on and why.

We decided to follow the CDC vax schedule. I did my research and decided that the risk of an adverse side effect was smaller than the risk of them getting a terrible disease that could be prevented. There are a lot of parents out there on the web who choose not to vax or do delayed vax'ing. I'd suggest doing some google searches and reading up on both sides of the argument then make the decision that's best for your family. I'm sure that if there were people in my family who were boarderline autistic that I would have made a completely different decision.

The problem with Google searches is that they give the same weight to both actual scientists and people who pretend to be scientists.<br><br>The real scientific work is in peer-reviewed medical journals. The hokey science is on the Internet.<br><br>Along the same lines, true experts in any scientific field don't waste their time writing stuff on the Internet. They are too busy doing actual, real legitimate work. I guess it's like this: Those who can, do, those who can't, write about it on the Internet.

I've done some looking into this and we're following the schedule set out by Dr. Sears. The same vaccinations are given, just on a different schedule. She's spearheading this mainly, rather than myself for once. I've looked through about 500 pages of data relating to the fingerpointing towards autism and the normal schedule, but I can't find one solid study or piece of data to back it up. It doesn't bother me to use the alternative schedule, since the kid will be getting them anyway, just on a different timeline. If you look at it, there's a helluva lot of things that are done at birth that they just do. Don't have a reason, or a good one anyway, just do. For example the silver nitrate in the eyes (anti-VD) or the vitamin K injection. Some information on the schedule we're going with can be found here www.askdrsears.com/thevaccinebook/labels/Alternative%20Vacci... His book is a VERY good read, it's no B.S. and to the point. I've backed up some of the information stated by backtracking, and this guy's right on the money. The most important things to look at are WHAT is given, timeline isn't so much important, I won't say why, do some digging and you'll see for yourself.<br><br>Hope this helps some, new fathers are confused enough without this in the matrix of destruction.<br><br>Bri-

Thanks for the responses all. Yea, I think The Vaccine Book is the one my wife wants to get. I'll definitely look into it.

I think we should do a show on this topic. I just put it on the production board. Thanks for the idea, Mike. There's so much more anxiety surrounding this issue now than when my youngest was born four years ago. Even so, we really talked this one through with our pediatrician. We've gone with a pretty standard course (though with my oldest, the preemie, we did synagis, which is a whole drama unto itself). As a matter of fact my boys (10 and 4) went to the Dr. together and both came home smarting from the shots. Coop was brave to impress his older bro.<br><br>Speaking of shots, on Sunday I completely demolished my house looking for shot records so my fragile camp/childcare system would remain in tact. I'm running around, pulling the stuffing out of sofa cushions looking for those damn documents (you think this product is a joke...).<br><br>Finally dig them up. Dude signing kids in at the camp doesn't even ask for them. Perfect.

We went with our docs schedule, which is the CDC schedule. Figured she's the expert, and has been doing it awhile. While I do believe there is a link to autism and the vax, I believe it's a minute chance and it has as much to do with the child as the chemicals. As Sutts stated, there are no studies showing direct correlation between autism and vaccinations. But, there are people who have had children seemingly turn autistic suddenly after shots. That's where I think perhaps THOSE kids had a reaction that caused the autism... Autism is a condition that is so bizarre, but I don't think there is ONE thing that causes it. But honestly, what the hell do I know? Just my opinion... SO anyway... the short answer, we trusted our pediatrician.

Thanks for all the knowledgeable posts. We're grappling with this (and many other questions) and appreciate the discussion.

Very interesting topic. I made a group named Health and nutrition, please post your topic and discussion there. dadlabscrib.ning.com/group/healthandnutr...;br><br>Sam

Well, I'll be the multi-national weirdo here (a Canadian who lives in Argentina). I tried to follow Health Canada's calendar. This mostly follows the CDC guide.<br><br>But I live in Argentina, and a common vaccine here is the BCG TB vaccine, which isn't considered needed in the English speaking part of North America. And the vaccine calendar for Argentina doesn't include two that Canada's calendar does, and substitutes certain vaccines for cheaper version (oral vs. injected polio for example). I am a paranoid first worlder and was prepared to insist on the conjugate version of all vaccines, but our doctor said Of course this is what we are going to use. It seems the less expensive version is only used if you go the public health system route.<br><br>Our doctor said the Meningococcal C and Pneumococcal vaccines were not needed here, as they only cover strains that are not common in Argentina, and they only last until my son is 2 years old. Just the same I got these, I hope to travel to Canada, where the vaccine is recommended.<br><br>I had read about the rotavirus vaccines before visiting the doctor, and he told us pretty much was I had thought. That the vaccine is super new, and the previous approved vaccine proved to have intestinal side-effects worse than a rotavirus infection: so the current vaccine could also have this problem. And the vaccine didn't cover the common rotavirus strains in Argentina. And Health Canada doesn't recommend its use (they were looking into). Plus our doctor said a rotavirus infection was really only a big problem if medical care was hard to come by, like rural Argentina (travel from certain regions to a hospital could take 2 or more days). But that didn't apply to us (I can walk to 5 or more hospitals in under 30 minutes).<br><br>Thus I skipped the rotavirus vaccine. But got everything else.<br><br>Now, I am firmly pro-vaccine. I think if there is a reasonable chance of a disease infection, that I should get the vaccine. There is only three excuses, in my books, for not getting a vaccine:<br>1) It doesn't really work<br>2) It does more harm than good (the vaccine causes things that are the same or worse than the disease)<br>3) The risk of getting the disease is lower than can justify the cost of the vaccine (e.g. for me rabies)

We're doing whatever the pediatrician recommended.<br><br>We were a few weeks late in scheduling our daughter's 18-month shots, and were surprised/creeped out when our health insurance company called and left a message on our voicemail to remind us that we had not yet scheduled the 18-month appointment for shots. Hello Big Brother, anyone??<br><br>As others have stated, there is actually no evidence at all that autism is related to vaccinations. This theory was cooked up by folks on the Internet, and continued to gain momentum. Other theories cooked up on the Internet that have gained momentum: (1) Cars that run on water (2) Morgellon's disease (3) Brain cancer from cell phones<br><br>My observation is that most of these folks probably barely passed Chemistry and Biology 101 (if they bothered to take those scary science courses at all). Now, however, after conducting extensive research on the Internet, they fancy themselves as experts.<br><br>Everything on the Internet is true. The Internet is serious business.