I'm only tackling one vaccine here, the one I'm struggling the most with, Varicella, or Chicken Pox.
When we started doctors visits and vaccinations, I thought "of course I'm going to vaccinate my little girl, it's selfish not to." It never occurred to me that it didn't have to be an all or nothing adventure. It never occurred to me that I could choose some vaccines and not others.Retrospectively I did feel a little bullied into some of them, rotovirus for example. I would have chosen for her to have given time to think about it, but at the time I didn't feel I had time to think about it.
Anyway, to give the pox vax or not?
Yes?
No?
Later?
Again, bring on the research.
Let's start with how this whole vaccine thing works. They inject either a inactive {dead} or live form of the virus into your body tricking your immune system into thinking you've contracted the disease. This causes your immune system to make antibodies toward the disease, these antibodies protect you if you are exposed to the disease in the future. In short you get the benefits of being exposed to the disease without the pesky symptoms {i.e. chicken pox blisters}.
So what's really in these vaccines?
{1} The virus. Okay I understand that. But how do they get that virus into the vial in first place?
{2} Remnant DNA and other material from the cultivation of the vaccine. They take the live virus from an infected child and {in simple terms, see the detailed explanation here} grow the live vaccine in different issues. Parts of these tissues stick around.
{3} And according to Merck {remember there are other manufactures, this is just one} Inactive Ingredients: sucrose, hydrolyzed gelatin, sodium chloride, monosodium L-glutamate, sodium phosphate dibasic, potassium phosphate monobasic, potassium chloride, residual components of MRC-5 cells including DNA and protein, sodium phosphate monobasic, EDTA, neomycin, fetal bovine serum.
Does all of this stuff really need to be in my kid?
Okay, devils advocate. But if she gets the chicken pox it can be serious. Can, can be. Strep can be serious, are we rushing to vaccinate against that? What are the numbers?
In 1992 there were 158,000. Of these 100 deaths occurred, and more than half of them were in adults {nvic.org}. So 158,000 cases and 157,900 of them were fine. Before the vaccine, 3.7 million cases were estimated to occur annually.
Alright, so there's a bunch of stuff, including a live vaccine, in that syringe and the number of cases seem to be much improved, so why give it?
Well, it's kind of dicey. The cases are low ... because we have been vaccinating. In fact according to the CDC the number of cases has dropped 90%. So the chances of your little one getting wild {meaning not created for the vaccine} chicken pox is pretty low.
Furthermore, the vaccine isn't foolproof It is only 44% effective against the disease of any severity, and 86% effective against moderate to severe disease, according the FDA as stated here.
But there's even more to the story.
Okay great, we've kept our kids from getting the chicken pox. But what now? How long does it last? In short, we don't know. But according to Dr. Sears, our best guess is 13-20 years. I gave it to my child at 1 and 3 years old, now she's 23 and no longer immune? And the pox is at greatest risk for complications as an adult! What the what?!? How is that a good idea? Oh wait, no worries, the drug companies will come out with a booster, they'll make more money. No need to get your panties in wad. {Sigh}
And I have to add this dandy little article because it made me laugh. Out. Loud. Have fun Americans, the UK is waiting to see what happens here before they take the plunge. What, why didn't we do that? Oh yea, forgot drug companies, money. How silly of me.
There's still more. What's all this about the singles I've been hearing about? The concern is raised because shingles is a later outbreak of the same virus that was the chicken pox. It's believed that casual repeated exposure to the chicken pox virus helps protect against shingles development. But with the vaccine, no one's exposed {more than the little bit the vaccine does} so won't the virus that is the chicken pox vaccine we were injected with cause us all to develop shingles? No one knows. But no worries, there's a vaccine for that too.
Back to the original question. To vax or not to vax?
Unfortunately, the answer is that depends on where you live. I entered this arena a little to late to really have an opinion. Everyone else has taken that from me. Because we vaccinate everyone against the little buggers, there is a rare chance that my child will contract it naturally. Meaning my child will probably have to have the vaccine eventually anyway because she'll more than likely make it to adulthood without being able to tell her children about oatmeal baths, placing bandaids on every blister because they went into her insides {smile}, the horrible itchy mess that is the chicken pox. Our children will not have those memories.
The health system we have, that pushes vaccines for anything, has made it impossible for me to say no.
And that makes me sad.
Will I be giving the vaccine? Yes.
Will it be now, at 1 year? No.
The vaccine is approved for children ages 12 months and up.
No thanks, I'll wait until we're a little further from the minimum age.
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For those of you who also choose to vaccinate, I found this nifty tool that helps you decide the manufactures you'd like to use and combinations of vaccines to ensure you give the least amount of extra stuffs.