My Take on Vaccines as a Medical Professional.

There is so much controversy right now in the media about the current measles outbreak and whether or not parents should have the choice to vaccinate their children.

As this topic has been bubbling I have become excited to jump in and share with all of you my take on vaccines.

 Let me tell you from experience not from experience as a parent but experience as a healthcare worker. I am the girl in your pediatric office or primary care office who is physically giving your child and yourself his or her vaccines. The experience of my own studies, hearing from people and watching families I have found that vaccines are sometimes a topic that is over looked when deciding on how to care for and raise a family.

 I do believe that vaccines were created to help. I am not convinced that everything you hear about government conspiracies and vaccines being produced solely to make money is completely corrected for all vaccines. I do how ever think there are certain vaccine topics that are under that category, but Because of time and length, I am going to stick with children vaccines for this particular blog post.

Below I have uploaded a timeline, this time line came straight from the CDC website. Take a Look at it.

I want you all to understand that I am for most vaccines. I do believe that with certain vaccines that I administer that I am protecting a child from a certain disease. However, I am not a fan of the current vaccination scheduled that all Doctors’ offices reference when it comes to vaccinating children.

I am all for what some would call a Delay vaccine schedule or some may call it Alternative vaccine schedule. If you would go ahead and take a look at the CDC vaccine chart I posted above. Which if you have children, you should have received something at some point that looks like this chart. It is standard; many offices print this chart right from the CDC website itself to hand out to parents at well child exams. Looks where it has a list of vaccines under the two month age. You will see that at two months babies are given 6 vaccines, give or take one.  

My personal belief is that at two months, 6 vaccines is a lot. I have given many 2 month, 4 month, 6 month, even 12 month babies up to 6 vaccines at a time. Let me tell you, it’s hard. It’s hard on the babies. It’s hard on the parents.  Babies, sweet babies are trying to build up an immune system, which is being exposed to all kinds of stuff, thanks to family members, church friends, grocery stores. At two months on a regular vaccine scheduled you are introducing the body to 6 new things. Were on the "Alternative"or "Delayed" scheduled you might only introduce their body to 2 new things. I think that there immune-system, and over all response to the vaccine are  on a Alternative  vaccine schedule is better, making it easier to watch for things such as side effect, allergic reaction, maybe even signs of Autism.

Dun dun dun….. AUTISM.

MMR, is the vaccine that protects against Measles, Mumps and Rubella. This is the big vaccine in the spot light right know.  The most recent outbreak of Measles has caused many political figures to once again over step there boundaries and say things like, All children Vaccines must be administered at certain times, and Parents should not get to choose if there child gets vaccinated or not.

 Um hello Mr/ Mrs. Senator or whoever you are, did you take any medical classes? Oh that right, you didn't.

MMR is also the vaccine the raised the debated a few years ago about vaccines causing Autism. (see how I linked this all together) Most Doctors will say that test were done, and Autism does not link to MMR or they will say not enough reports of Autism after children being given the MMR vaccine, I'v heard it all. In my soul, I want to believe that vaccines (in general- because I think that it is just not MMR that could be causing Autism) don't cause Autism, but to be honest I think there could be a link, between  vaccines and the appropriate number of vaccines being given at one time, because there are a lot of un-answered question about Autism, and with autism now considered an Epidemic, Something has to be causing it. (promise rant is almost over) Parents should be more watchful when vaccines are administered, and especially careful if you are not choosing to be on a delayed/alternative schedule. 

Now it is completely wrong for people to be angry or mad at parents who have chosen a Delayed/Alternative vaccine schedule. We live in a country with open boarders, companies with business overseas, and frequent travel.  We saw a great example of this a few months ago with Ebola being a huge concern across the United State. When I worked at Akron General, we had many patents with families with children, who were brought over by companies to work. They were not properly vaccinated. It seemed that If you were here on a work Visa it did not matter if you had  proper vaccine records. It wasn't until they were going to be traveling to other countries for work, that we would say, look you should have your Hepatitis vaccine to travel, Or they would want to put their children in American school, and we would have to vaccinate there 12 years old with vaccine they should have already had, but they hadn't. I have had patients who have hepatitis, and until proper lab work was done they didn't know.  In my experience, a lot of diseases we as Americans are exposed to, come from over-seas or  those who have not been vaccinated at all. There are some religions and or groups of people in America that do not believe in vaccinating their children, and that it a risk that they take. Do I think it is wrong? No, because they answer to God and we live in a free country, and if other children have been vaccinated, no need to worry. Right?

so to all you parents and no parents out there: Think about the children in your life. Self educate yourself and take time to research which vaccines the children in your life need, and what is the appropriate schedule for your families.

Until next time- rant over!

Sunshine Girl in Red