My son who is now eight contracted pertussis when he was 6wks old, just 2wks shy of getting his first set of shots. He was hospitalized for a week and it was the worst time of my life. The way he would cough and cough and cough and then stop breathing was the scariest thing ever. While he was in the hospital, there was another infant there also who died the same week from pertussis. It can cause severe respiratory issues (he has severe respiratory allergies year-round), and we just had an episode where he was on 2 different allergy medications, steriods and an inhaler (he doesn’t have asthma) and he still had to sleep in my bed to make sure he didn’t stop breathing. When a child contracts pertussis, everyone that they come in contact with also has to take antibiotics. You always wonder if holding off to put them in daycare or keeping people from being around them could have made a difference.

ITA Shiela!

I’m all for staggering vaccinations or breaking up vaccinations into non-combos (I plan not to give my son the bundled MMR shot, but will get him each shot separately), but I think it is so important to vaccinate.

There was just a deadly mumps outbreak in Chicago last year. It’s pretty sad when science comes up with a cure for a deadly disease and then people decide to risk their children’s health anyway. If people stop vaccinating, then polio, mumps, whooping cough, and a host of other deadly diseases will kill our kids. The risk of death from these things will be MUCH higher than the risk of autism if a large portion of the population decides to to vaccinate.

How insane would it be for you to loose a child to the same disease that killed a sibling of one of your great-grandparents??

Thank you Sheila! Its about time some of us call out the crazy comments! Way to go!

But Kristen where are they getting the information? I want to see some valid proof that vaccines are bad since a majority of people are not having the issues that you and others claim.

I applaud CBB for publishing these comments.

Lauren, I agree with PP. There have been deaths reported with the new Gardasil vax. Reviews of statistics have shown 5 deaths, 51 girls disabled, and 2,207 adverse reactions reported in all. These have been reported in teh US. In Australia 7 girls were hospitalized after a school campaign for the vaccine. Go ahead and Google it, as the PP said she did. You’re going to find it out there.

Your choice to receive the vax is your own – but you cannot criticize young women and their parents who choose to wait and research further before getting it. It is their choice.

You are also incorrect that vaccines have eliminated infectious diseases “such as whooping cough” – this campaign in fact proves what doctors denied – whooping cough is alive, well, and killing babies – even though the DTaP vaccine and its predecessor the DPT vaccine have been around for decades.

Some diseases such as polio have seen a big decline since the advent of public vaccination campaigns.

But it is naive to blindly say that mothers who choose not to vaccinate are “intolerable.” On the contrary, mothers who have chosen not to vaccinate, to delay vaccination, and/or selectively vaccinate their children have spent countless hours pouring over research, considering it for their children, and searching their own hearts for what they believe is the right answer.

“Also the vaccines for infants contain thermosil”

No they don’t, anymore. And it’s thimerosal. Unless you think that vaccinations contain a high density arc and heat resistant material used in fire barriers.

“I also had whooping cough as a child and no side affects from the illness itself”

Well, my brother suffered no permanent effects from falling down the stairs, so maybe I’ll just get rid of the baby gate in my house and leave the door to the basement stairs open.

” but there are a myriad from vaccines!
Like autisism and a vast array of learnig disabilties!”

What is “autisism”? Oh, you mean autism. The condition for which rates are still going up in a population that is seeing fewer vaccinations currently.

“Read up and be informed please”

You first.

Shelly, Shelly, Shelly! Did you really have to go THERE with blaming AUTISM on vaccines? Come on now! Do you have children? How about children with autism? I do, on both counts, and have investigated (yes, as a MEDICAL PRO.) these claims, and if you would have looked before you leaped, you would see that autism has not been blamed on or vaccines. The coincidental timing of certain vaccines and the “outing” of autistic tendencies is just that, coincidental! Its so sad when people are so un-educated about disorders such as autism. The day that they can fully “blame” autism on one thing or another than I will gladly recant my comment!

All of my children were fully vaccinated against pertussis. But when my son was 4 years old- he developed a horrible cough (resistant to all medicines prescribed or over the counter). I had taken him to the pediatrician several times to be evaluated and they insisted there was nothing wrong with him- because he wasn’t coughing in their office (which is typical, I found out later, of pertussis)- we just needed to make sure there was moisture in the air in our home. I had read about pertussis early on in his illness and I had mentioned it to his doctors who shrugged it off. Eventually- and 12 weeks later- I gained the sympathetic ear of one of the doctors who agreed to order a pertussis test. Sure enough it came back positive. He admitted that in their practice, they were seeing a sudden rise in pertussis cases in children that had been previously vaccinated. My son had suffered through 12 weeks of pain,fevers, exhaustion, uncontrollable fits of coughing, choking, gasping(and subsequently vomiting). Despite what the DTAP pamphlet said about the rare possibility of contracting whooping cough after vaccination- and if contracted it would be a much milder version-ours was a full blown case and I believe that my son’s experience with pertussis led to the development of many other chronic upper respiratory ailments- which we eventually resorted to controlling with complimentary medicine under the care of a fully certified homeopath.
Our experience with pertussis happened four years ago and our pediatricians were still practicing under the belief that once vaccinated- children were always protected. Soon after our son was diagnosed- we were hearing more news from the media that children would need boosters when they reached the middle school years because the vaccines over time lost their effectiveness.
I just think that it needs to be known that even if fully vaccinated, there is still a chance of contracting the disease and it isn’t always a mild, easily managed case. Ours was a horrible drawn out experience.

Also the vaccines for infants contain thermosil another word for mercury that in it’s self would keep me away!Would you poision your child?
I also had whooping cough as a child and no side affects from the illness itself but there are a myriad from vaccines!
Like autisism and a vast array of learnig disabilties!Read up and be informed please we are talking about small little helpless bodies here!

I support and believe in vaccines. I think me it’s sad that there have been so many stories made up about the HPV vaccine. If you don’t want to get it yourself..fine but don’t tell someone else not to get it..they may have a higher risk of getting cervical cancer than you do and this shot could potentially save their life.It seems to me that people are going on not valid research to go against vaccines.It bothers me when I see people discouraging people from getting a vaccine just cause they don’t support it.I believe in doing everything I can to make sure that my family and I will be healthy and if that involves shot..so be it.It wouldn’t shock me if people who are anti-vaccines cause such things as polio to come back full force