Vaccines

Thankfully I love to read, because we've got research to do and some decisions to make soon after Gabriel comes home.

Vaccines.

To get them? Or not? Or on a delayed, selective schedule?

This is not a subject that was even. on. my. radar screen until about 4 years ago. I was blissfully ignorant. And then...

About 4 years ago our dear friends' child started showing unnerving symptoms. Through their journey - and D's subsequent recovery - we've learned lots.

Before that, I was one of those "good" parents who didn't question at all that I should fully vaccinate my children, right when I was told to. Elisabeth, Noah and Daniel were fully vaccinated when they arrived home. Never mind that they had little books from China that showed they'd been vaccinated already (and scars to prove some of those shots). When we checked Elisabeth's "titers" when she arrived home (shows immunity level) and they indicated no immunity, we started her over and followed the full schedule.

So we didn't even bother checking immunity in Noah and Daniel...and we just started them over on the full schedule.

And with Lily Kay, being over 2 years of age when we adopted her...the law at the time of her adoption (the US law, backed by the CDC) said that she had to be fully immunized before she would be allowed on US soil (the law has subsequently - thankfully - been repealed). So we had to take her to get 7 shots while we were in China. Seven!

And I prayed the entire time she was getting those shots...because I was no longer ignorant.

And now...now we'll be starting "from scratch" with Gabriel.

What to do? And what not to do?

I don't know the answer yet. But I certainly intend to find out the answer for our family. I ordered three books yesterday on the subject:

I ordered those books yesterday, and then today on one of the blogs I follow and love, guess what her post was about? You guessed it: Vaccines! It is amazing the controversy (and anger) this topic can raise, on both sides of the fence! (Just read the comments to her post to see what I mean.)

I'm no longer ignorant of the fact that this is something we do need to look into for ourselves...and we're not just going to follow blindly this time. Our decisions this time - whatever they turn out to be - will at least be researched and thoughtful.