To Vaccinate or Not

This is another one of those "hot topics"...tends to be controversial and can really spark some good debate. Know that I have no energy for that right now. :) But, Leah brought it to light in mentioning it yesterday in her comment, so I do want to just talk shots for a bit and explain what we do and why. Some of you might say, "it's none of our business what you do and why...we don't really care." But, some of you have truthfully asked over the years (new parents, even newer than us, trying to decide what they'll do about this issue). So, here goes...

There are many reasons that people choose not to vaccinate. If you have never heard of any of these reasons, all you have to do is google...there are plenty. Beyond the natural reasons, we have friends who don't necessarily choose to forego vaccination for any of those reasons, but instead just, after prayer, do not feel peace about vaccinating. I just have to say that God knows your child better than any studies or odds or risks or fears you may have. If God has not given you peace about vaccination (and you've ruled out the possibility that you are just living and acting in fear), then chances are your child would do best not to have vaccinations. Just my guess considering that GOD IS GOD AND KNOWS BEST, right? Could it be that your children would have a bad reaction? Could it be that your child would be one of the ones that comes down with any number of the things that the non-vaccinators say are caused by vaccinations? Whatever the reason, if you feel God is telling you not to vaccinate, don't. This is just another one of those areas that I feel like people sometimes don't even think to pray about. I'm telling you people, pray about everything. Seems like I've heard that somewhere before (um, Bible maybe).

Just wanted to throw that out there. Sometimes we just do things because that is the status quo...that is what is expected of us. Educate yourselves, learn, and pray about what is best for your child.

Now, on to us. We had Grady and were deciding about all of those kinds of things. We had several friends who had chosen not to vaccinate and several, of course, who did vaccinate. We talked to all of them, read alot, prayed alot, and in the end decided to vaccinate, but not according to schedule. Here's the deal. We knew we would eventually be going to another country. Chances are, we were going to be going to an underdeveloped country or underdeveloped parts of a country somewhere. In those places, there is still cause for concern and certain diseases running rampant. For instance, Brasil...here we get a TB vaccination. They don't even have a TB vaccine in the U.S. We asked the lady at the shots place yesterday why that was (even though we felt we knew the answer). She said that there was no need in the U.S. In fact, her words were that "TB is a poor people's disease." I found her answer to be very interesting on many levels, but we won't get into that right now.

Point is that there are people who go to underdeveloped parts of the world who still choose not to vaccinate. We are not those people. God will protect those people He has told not to vaccinate...in fact, like I said, if He's told you not to vaccinate, that is probably His protection right there. But, after much prayer we felt we were supposed to.

Now, one thing we did differently is that we waited. Each baby was at least 6 months old before we started introducing them to shots. Why? We just felt like we wanted to know our babies a little better than we know a newborn. If they had some sort of reaction, we wanted to be able to know our babies and the norm for them in order to be able to spot a possible reaction. We know a couple who told us a story about their 2nd child (they now have 7). She had a reaction to a shot and if they had given that shot to her when she was supposed to get that shot (according to the shot schedule), they just wouldn't have known her well enough to be able to spot it so quickly. It made total sense to us and we wanted to just know our babies before we started introducing things like shots. By the way, we probably would've waited more than 6 months, but with each child, circumstances encouraged us to go ahead at the age of 6 months (traveling, etc.).

With Cass, here in Brasil, honestly the higher prevalence of illness/disease here coupled with the lack of options in healthcare (as compared to what we are used to in the states)...and all of that in light of the risks and odds involved in vaccination: Again, after much prayer, we feel more peace and feel it best and wise to just go ahead and give the vaccinations to her now without waiting until that 6 month point. We feel the risks of not giving them to her outweigh the risks of giving them to her in these circumstances (given our location).

So, just a little history of us concerning shots if you are one of the ones who wants to know. ;) I hate to keep going back to this answer, but this is again another one of those things that I feel like is a very personal, you-have-to-be-led-by-God-individually things. It's not about fear or studies or risks or circumstances...all of those things can contribute to your reasoning. But, in the end, it's 'what did God say to you about it?'

Sorry, I have no new pictures...another reason it was a good day to post about this. Give me your thoughts...again, no right or wrong here, just tell me what you feel God has told you to do in this area. It'd be interesting to see the different answers each one of you have gotten and the reasonings God gave you. I know there are people on both sides of the camp that read this. Share.

We're off to Goiania for the day...last check-ups for a while for both me and Cass. Have a great day!