[Yaelle]

My first child has autism and I did have my 2nd child vaccinated but MUCH later than their crazy schedule. At least 4 shots at 2 months old, again at 4 months old, and again at 6 months old??? Into newborn immune systems??? I think it is insane! I deliberately brought my 2nd child later for each vaccine. You can also ask them to split up the doses of those killer triple disease vaccines. They don't like it, the baby doesn't like it (more shots), but less chance of overdoing it and making the baby sick.

I personally believe that the reason they shoot 'em all in at once and so early is because they feel that at the newborn stage the parents are less likely to "miss" the appointments (well baby checkups that are usually covered by insurance completely). They feel they've "got" the attention of the parents then, so shoot 'em all in while they can.

I also feel that if you keep your baby near home most of the time, and don't overexpose your baby to germs (no daycare), you can safely bring your baby late to his vaccinations. Breastfeeding does help the new immune system somewhat, too.

[GailA]

Right now they have no medical insurance until Mom's kicks back in. So this comes out of their pocket. I told my son to put off the next appointment and to tell the doc that it has come down to feeding and diapering Matthew or enriching the doc's coffers.

[glory]

Actually I understood that they vaccinate many at a time now because the vaccinations themselves are much safer then thier predecessors(sp) so they can be given together all at once.

"I also feel that if you keep your baby near home most of the time, and don't overexpose your baby to germs (no daycare), you can safely bring your baby late to his vaccinations. Breastfeeding does help the new immune system somewhat, too."

Not a knock on bfing, but as a mother who has both a formula fed child and a bf one for some of the first year, I'd have to say I think the single most important thing to my children maintaining good health while those little immunse systems were maturing was keeping them HOME!! They both have had very good health(in fact my formula fed daughter actually has had BETTER health overall than my son and that's not to say I draw correlation to how they were fed saying that) compared to thier DAYCARE counterparts, not to how they were fed. I know my anectdotal evidence may not measure up, but overall in my circle it seems the daycare children, bf or not, are sicker than those who are home with thier mothers. Like I said, not downplaying bfing, but it certainly is only ONE factor in the overall health of a child and imo not even the most important one.