Children's Vaccines Health Center

My Vaccine Decision: What 3 Moms Did

My Vaccine Decision: No Vaccinations continued...

Our original pediatrician’s office was not very supportive, so when she was nine months old, we switched to a more holistic practice. Most of our current pediatrician’s patients are vaccinated, but he’s not judgmental if you choose not to. I also attended meetings of a holistic moms network, where I found more moms who shared similar views, and that made me feel better about my decision.

What ultimately convinced you to make the decision you did?

For our daughter and in our situation, I think it’s the safest thing. I left my job and am watching my nephew so I can contribute to the household but not have to put my daughter in day care. If she were in day care, we’d have to think strongly about which vaccines we wanted to do, but she’s not in contact with enough other children for us to worry about it now. I know I’m lucky because I don’t have to worry so much about what someone else is bringing in.

We try really hard to make sure that no unnecessary chemicals are in her body. We buy organic as often as we can, she’s still breastfeeding, and we try to avoid exposure to toxins. It was hard to wrap our heads around injecting her with chemicals that we weren’t comfortable with, especially the amount of aluminum that is in vaccines now. We’re more scared of reactions than we are about her getting sick.

Do you ever worry about your decision?

Our daughter was in the hospital a few months ago with a high fever caused by a virus. In the ER, it was scary thinking, “Did I cause this, is this my fault because I didn’t give her a shot?” Although it turned out that it wasn’t because she wasn’t vaccinated, we did revisit the discussion with our doctor because I couldn’t imagine having her sick in the hospital because I didn’t do something. He said that she will get sick sometimes, and that this had nothing to do with being vaccinated or not -- but he does recommend the DTaP vaccine because of the pertussis outbreaks recently. Still, he didn’t want to pressure us just because we were scared.

How do you feel about your decision now?

We definitely feel very comfortable with our decision. Every now and then, we’ll talk it over and see how we feel. My husband was a little less on board with it than I was. He’s definitely more concerned with her not being vaccinated, but it’s something that we talk about and address. He does think he wants to revisit it at school age, and I’m comfortable with that, but I don’t know if I’ll change my mind.