I choose not to vaccinate because my LO has a family history of strange reactions to vaccines. People on his daddy's side have nearly died and were in critical condition due to vaccines they were given. I already was on the fence about vaxxing my baby but upon hearing this my decision was final not to go through with it, not with that family history.
Same here, though the reactions were not as acute there is a history of vaccine induced allergic reactions both delayed and immediate in my family and two of my boys have been affected. I thought very carefully about it and delayed my youngest's vaccines until he was nearly two and due to him being over a year he didn't have all the vaccines they normally have at 2, 3 and 4 months. My youngest's legs still swelled up and went hard after having the delayed vaccines so I am glad that I delayed and with the new baby I will be delaying for the same time period. Xx
Me too, as far as reactions go, though we've chosen not to vax at all. DH's sister's legs swelled up after the Dtap (within minutes of getting the vaccine, while she was still in the pediatrician's office), and then a couple of hours later she had a seizure. She's had seizures ever since, many of which can't be controlled by meds, a couple of which have nearly killed her.
It's one of the hardest decisions I've made as a parent so far, but the more I research vaccines the scarier I find them. I completely understand why parents choose to vaccinate, but for us it just wasn't the right choice.
Also, and I'm wary of posting this tbh, but I figure what the heck
My LO contracted pertussis over Christmas when she was 10 months old. Of course my DH and I were freaked out the first time we heard that awful cough at night, and we called her pediatrician on Christmas morning (woke the poor woman up!) Our pediatrician DOES do vaccinations IF parents want their kids to have them, but she respects parents' choices either way, and in general she tries to use naturopathic healing as much as possible (along with seriously promoting really good nutrition as a first defense against getting really ill), and uses allopathic medicine less as a preventative measure and more as an in-case-of-emergency measure. Anyway, we called about DD's cough, and she told us to run a humidifier with essential oils (lavender or eucalyptus) in her room at night, and to give her high doses of vitamin C. Honest to god, within a couple of days her horrendous, scary cough was gone; we continued with the C for 3 weeks, per pediatrician's instructions (she said the cough could return if we stopped too quickly), but once we did stop giving it to her she remained perfectly fine.
I'm sorry if this seems off-topic; I just meant to illustrate that sometimes there are measures you can take against really scary diseases that we traditionally immunize against. Obviously, every parent needs to do what they feel is best for their baby and their family, and a child's age and general health will probably affect how well various measures work, but this wasn't something I'd ever heard before, and as whooping cough was one thing I was terrified of LO getting, esp. as the Dtap was the vaccine that caused such problems with my SIL, such a natural cure was a big relief.