Vaccinations and 2 month stats

Today was Makena's 2 month check-up. It was the date we'd been dreading. Time to start vaccinations! We have been researching and figuring out what we wanted to do for a while, and got it all decided last night.

But first, her 2 month stats:

Weight- 13 pounds 3 oz.
Height- 24 1/4 inches

Doctor Wally says she is growing perfectly, she's a big strong baby! At the top of the percentiles but right in the middle proportionally. He said her recent fussiness could possibly be boredom, or early teething. Yikes! The red mark on the back of her head is the same as the one on her right eye lid, just something she was born with and it will go away in time. We mentioned that she took a shower and didn't mind the water in her face/eyes, and he said studies have shown that babies who don't mind water like that are more likely to be developmentally advanced. Once again, more proof that we have a super baby! :)

She gave him lots of smiles and when he checked her ears he asked us how we clean them. We said we've only once used a baby q-tip, and he said we should clean her ears with our elbow. lol! This guy is such a riot! So basically he means leave them alone. He ended the exam by saying we're doing a very good job with her.

And this was AFTER we had a long discussion about immunizations! He repeated that we chose him to be our baby's advocate, and it's his job to protect her and make sure we're informed. We explained that we've done our homework and told him our reasoning and ideal vaccination schedule. He said he is going to work with us to do it the way we feel comfortable doing it.

So. Here's what we are going to do:

2 months- DTaP (Daptacel brand) and Rotovirus (RotaTeq brand)
3 months- Pneumococcal (Prevnar brand) and HiB (we asked him to order ActHiB)
4 months- DTaP and Rotovirus (we aren't giving her the RotaTeq again after her reaction to it the first time)
5 months-Pneumococcal and HiB
6 months- DTaP and Rotovirus
7 months- Pneumococcal and HiB
15 months- Pneumococcal and HiB

At 1 year we will re-evaluate and possibly add the MMR, and Hep A...but I have a feeling we will be delaying those. As for Polio, Chickenpox and Hep B, I don't think we will even consider them until she is older. Same with the flu shot. We will continually research and make sure we are confident in our decision.

The current American Academy of Pediatrics Recommended Vaccine Schedule:


According to that chart, we were supposed to get 6 vaccines today. We got 2. How did we come to our decision? Choosing be selective about which vaccines to get and delaying the ones we are getting was a decision we came to after many hours of research.

Things we considered:

-Spacing out the shots to watch for adverse reactions to be better able to pinpoint which vaccine caused it. (This means we will be adding extra visits to the Dr. to catch up on shots, but we are more than willing to do it this way.)

-The aluminum content in each shot to spread them out and not overload her body with too much of this dangerous additive. (It's a proven fact aluminum is toxic in high levels and can cause neurological harm. The schedule that the FDA has approved includes aluminum levels that FAR exceed what is thought to be safe for babies and their immature kidneys.)

-Which diseases are the most dangerous and the probability of her being exposed to said disease. (The fact that she is exclusively breastfed and not attending daycare are reasons to relax a little on her risk factors. But we live in a very diverse and rich community, meaning lots of travel to other countries which adds to her risk of being exposed.)

-Which vaccines have the most severe side effects and the probability of that happening. ( 1 in 14,000 chance of seizure; 1 in 1,000 chance of nonstop crying for 3 or more hours; 1 in 50 chance of vomiting; 1 in 16,000 chance of fever over 105 degrees...the list goes on...)

-The different brands of each vaccine and the ingredients used to make it. (Each brand has a different aluminum content and ingredient list.)

And after weighing all the pros and cons, and using Dr. Sear's approach to a selective/delayed schedule as a guide, we feel we've made a plan that works for us.

It's scary though, no vaccine is 100% safe. There is always the possibility of a side effect, from mild (slight fever, redness and swelling at injection site) to severe (heart inflammation, seizures, bleeding disorders, allergic reactions, infections, paralysis.)

So today, we've protected Makena from Rotavirus and Diphtheria, Tetanus, and Pertussis. But we also made her swallow a live virus that contains monkey kidney cells and blood from cow fetuses. And we injected formaldehyde into her. :(

Instead of getting the Pentacel brand DTaP shot which our Dr usually uses, we asked for Daptacel. Pentacel is a combo shot and includes the DTaP, HiB and Polio. But since we want to delay the Polio vaccination, we opted to use the Daptacel which is just the DTaP. Also, the Daptacel doesn't include cow extract and contains less than 1/2 the Pertussis components than the other brand. Since the P component of the DTaP is the part which triggers the most side effects, in this case we feel less is better, even though Pertussis (whooping cough) is a severe and common disease and the risk of exposure is higher than either Diphtheria or Tetanus. Unfortunately there isn't a Pertussis only vaccination.

As for Rotavirus, nobody mentioned to us that it's a live virus and therefore will be in her system (and exiting her body in her poop) for up to 10 days. Because of my research I've found many accounts of family members catching Rotavirus from diaper changes after the baby has been vaccinated. So, armed with this info, we know to wash our hands especially well after changing her diapers. And also cloth diapering will be on hold for a while. The virus lives in poopy diapers for a long time, and can only be killed by bleach.

But again, no one told us any of that. No one said that Pam and I are now at risk of catching Rotavirus! No one suggested that we get the vaccine ourselves, and since it's a fairly new one, we surely haven't been immunized against it.

So when people ask me why we're nervous about vaccinations it has pretty much nothing to do with the pain of the needles or the fear of Autism like they assume. It's so much more than that, and all it takes is some reading to learn the reasons why we're being cautious.

And now that we have this beautifully wonderful miracle of a baby to care for, we know we're in for a lifetime of concerns and worries! But oh, it's so worth it already. :)

ETA: Just hours after posting this there was a news segment about how the FDA is suspending the use of RotaVix, the other Rotavirus vaccine. Thankfully that's not the one we gave Makena. But still, it gave us a small heart attack nonetheless to see "Vaccine Safety?" flash across the TV.