CDC researchers are concerned because recent studies show that one in four toddlers are improperly vaccinated. Either they are missing doses or are given vaccinations too early or too late. However, the CDC is calling this a “wake up” call.
Interestingly, one issue that the study discovered was that babies were being immunized too early. If a baby or toddler is immunized too early and/or has their shots too close together, the CDC counted them as invalid saying that there is a window of optimal response. If your baby has the shot too early, then the response might not be as effective. (This by the way, explains to some extent why sometimes children are vaccinated against something like the flu and get it anyways.) On the other hand, you don’t want to wait too long because then the child is exposed for longer periods of time.
Delayed Vaccination
What the report doesn’t acknowledge is that many parents are choosing to not vaccinate or to delay vaccination. Many people believe that children are no longer at risk for some diseases that we vaccinate for. Other parents prefer to delay vaccinations and/or skip some things that are on the recommended vaccine list. These too would make up the ‘one in four’ statistic that we are seeing.
As a result the CDC is recommending that doctors aggressively seek to vaccinate their patients. However, I have to disagree.
We have talked at length about this in the forums and you can read part of the discussion here, but I do think that parents should have the right whether or not they choose to vaccinate. Furthermore, there is a lot of good and valid research that supports delayed vaccination, which as some of you may know, is what we do. (For those of you who are interested in learning more about delayed vaccination, see The Vaccine Book by Dr. Sears.)
Regardless of where you stand on the issue, it is one that deserves careful consideration and reflection. Parents must educate themselves from all angles. Have a vaccine question? Ask me!
Valorie Delp shares recipes and kitchen tips in the food blog, solves breastfeeding problems, shares parenting tips, and current research in the baby blog, and insight, resources and ideas as a regular guest blogger in the homeschooling blog. To read more articles by Valorie Delp, click here.
Are you subscribed to the Families.com Baby Blog? With the click of a button, you can receive an email notification anytime a new blog is posted in the Families.com Baby Blog! Just look to the right of this blog and find the subscription center (it looks just like this picture). Click on “Subscribe via Email”. You’ll be instantly subscribed and the email address that you registered at Families.com with will receive an instant notification whenever we post a new Baby Blog! Don’t miss a thing – subscribe now!
Related Articles:
You Can’t Have Your Cake and Eat it Too: Thoughts on Refusing Immunizations
Yet Another Study Refutes the Autism-Vaccine Link
What If We Stopped Immunizations?