Vaccine Research Update

I had no idea how complex the vaccine issue was!  We haven't decided on every vaccine, but from the research that we've done, we want to wait at least a year before giving any.  There are so many other factors that go into supporting a healthy immune system and vaccines seem like an extreme measure.  Before looking into it, I was influenced by the argument that an unvaccinated child puts others at risk, but if you look at that logically, it's people who are sick with communicable diseases that potentially get other people sick, not a healthy child.  In fact, people who have recently received some vaccines such as the nasal flu spray can shed  the virus for weeks and infect others even if they don't show symptoms. (National Center for Infectious Diseases article)

I still have more research to do to answer all my questions, but something that has definitely hit home is the importance of washing hands, staying away from people that are sick (and crowded places in general) and supporting our family's immune systems with good nutrition.  This helps prevent disease no matter what our vaccine decisions are.