My daughter, Jill sent this as an email to a friend. There will not be any vaccinations at the 2 week check-up. The first round of shots according to the typical schedule comes at 2 months. I can't remember all the vaccines they want to give at 2 months, but it is quite a lot. I would recommend that you ask your doctor at her 2 week appointment for a vaccine schedule. That way you'll know what the doctor plans on giving Chloe, and at what age. I won't tell you what to do about vaccines, but I can tell you what we did and I can point you toward some literature on vaccines so that you are informed. When I was researching vaccines, I wanted to be balanced so that I was not reading only pro or con literature. These were the best two books I found, and you can buy them on amazon.com:
The Vaccine Book- by Dr. Sears- Dr. Sears is actually pro-vaccination, but his analysis and explanation of the individual vaccines is pretty honest for the most part, and he does not seem to hide the negative side effects of the vaccines.
The Vaccine Guide- Risks and Benefits for Children and Adults- by Randall Neustaedter- This book was very informative for providing a detailed history of vaccinations and a detailed explanation of side effects. It is more anti-vaccinations than the Vaccine Book, but it provided valid and proven data about vaccines that you won't get from most doctors.
I have also heard that Stephanie Cave's book, "What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Your Children's Vaccinations" is pretty good, but I have not read it, so I can't fully recommend it.
I think these books will help you have a clear picture of vaccinations and the side effects. Even with the negative side effects, we have still partially vaccinated Lana, we just waited until she was older and weighed more, and we staggered her vaccinations so that she did not have more than one at a time in case there was a negative side effect, we could tell which vaccine caused the problem. This was the schedule we did with our oldest daughter:
8 months: DTaP
9 months: Hib
10 months: DTaP (2nd shot)
11 months: Hib
12 months: DTaP (3rd shot)
13 months: Hib
24 months: Polio
26 months: Polio
2 1/2 yrs: Measles, Polio
You will have to decide what schedule you want to create or whether you want to go with the standard vaccinations. I think in Dr. Sears' book, he actually has a delayed/selective vaccination schedule, which is helpful. The DTaP (Diptheria, Tetanus and Pertussis [whooping cough]) vaccine actually has a scary side effect history, but I was concerned about whooping cough and they do not offer a Pertussis-only shot, so I had to give her the entire DTaP shot. You will find that they do this frequently, including the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella). I was able to get Lana a measles-only shot, but they do not offer it anymore as far as I know. One vaccine that I can say is pretty useless (even my doctor acknowledged it) is the Rotavirus vaccine. It is one of the newest ones and basically we probably all had rotavirus as kids, and we survived.
Elly is almost 6 months and she has not had any vaccinations. We will probably do the same schedule with her that we did with Lana, but we have not decided yet. Every time we go to the doctor, we get somewhat pressured about vaccinating, but my doctor is pretty understanding for the most part. They also try to scare you with stories of kids that get whooping cough, etc., but my kids are very healthy and I think it is partly due to the fact that their immune systems have not been overloaded and compromised by over-vaccinating. The vaccine schedule that exists now has several more vaccinations than we had when we were little.
If you have any questions, please let me know. Like I said before, you have to make your own decisions about vaccinating, but I would suggest reading those books to get a good picture of what vaccinating involves. There are other considerations too, like if Chloe is going to daycare. I did not have to deal with this because my mother-in-law watches my kids. But, if they had gone to daycare, I might have done things a little different. Hopefully this information helps. This is one of the first major decisions you have to make as a parent!!
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