These days it's hard for a mother to know what is best for her child. The modern medical machine has its ideas, and it will tell you what is best, but can you trust it? There are many who argue that you cannot, that the drugs and vaccines that are pushed on you are not necessarily in the best interests of your children. So how do you find out what to do? How do you know who to trust?
Not everybody does their own biomedical research. Lots of people look things up on the internet, but the information here is scattered, and biased, and incomplete. What you really need is a doctor who has studied vaccines and immunology, and help you determine which options are right for your baby. What you need is a Naturopath (ND).
Whatever kind of doctor you choose, make sure that they are willing to give you customized recommendations instead of feeding you the standard line. You want a doc who thinks for herself and recommends stuff on a case by case basis. There are docs who tell everybody to do the same thing. The vaccination schedule is held as a law of some sort. That is silly. There are some vaccinations that are worth having for everyone, like polio. There are others that are optional, like chicken pox. There are some that are bad news for most babies, like the Hep B shot at birth. It's best to decide which ones to get based on your baby's specific situation. Children's vaccines are routinely given on a schedule that suits the healthcare industry, but maybe not the best timing for your baby's health. Mamas can be ferocious to protect their babies, and these days, you need to be strong in the face of modern medicine.
The conventional medical system starts pumping vaccines into babies starting at birth with the hepatitis B vaccine. When a child is just born, their immune system (the part of them that fights infectious diseases, and learns from vaccines) is not grown up yet. When a baby isn't ready for a vaccine, they don't respond correctly to the shot. Giving vaccines too early increases the child's odds of having allergies of all kinds, including skin problems and asthma. Unless you, the mama, have hepatitis B, there is no reason to give hepatitis B vaccine to a newborn. Your baby won't be at risk for this disease until they start having sex or doing IV drugs. If you are giving birth in a hospital, and you don't want your baby to get this vaccine at birth, you will have to pay attention to what you are signing, and ask a lot of questions! They will funnel you into the beaten track unless you work hard to get off that track.
How do you keep your baby healthy when their immune system is still baby sized? Giving a child vaccines before they are a year or more old could be a bad idea--unless you have an overriding medical reason to do so, which you would determine by talking to a trusted doctor. Nature's plan is for mamas to breast feed until their baby's immune system is big enough to face the world. For most babies that happens around 12-18 months. In the olden days mamas breast fed babies until their teeth came in. Nature knows best. The very best defense against babies getting sick when they're young is to breast feed them. Whatever bugs you get exposed to, you will naturally protect your baby from. There is no formula that is halfway as good as boobiefood. If you can't get your own boobs to make milk, see if you can find another mama who has some milk for your baby. It's worth gold to a mama who cares.
Everybody is arguing about vaccines because they contain poisonous stuff. They put mercury and aluminum in them to keep contaminants from growing. Lots of people think mercury causes autism, though it isn't "proven" yet. They took the mercury out of children's vaccines, but the aluminum is still in there. Mercury is still in some adult vaccines, like tetanus shots. Mercury is neurotoxic. The last thing you want to do is poison your baby's brain with mercury.
Aluminum has been shown to be related to Alzheimer's disease and other health problems. Some vaccines contain egg proteins, which may be why so many people are allergic to eggs later in life. Your baby may be able to tolerate and eliminate SOME vaccines without being hurt. But if you let them give your child too many vaccines too close together, the risk goes up. If you are going to selectively vaccinate your child, have a doctor check their health first, and space the vaccinations at least a month from each other to give your baby time to clear the toxins between shots. You may also consider giving a vitamin A supplement at the same time as a vaccine, because exposure to some viruses and bacteria causes a drop in vitamin A levels which then reduces the body's ability to respond.
One last item is especially important for mamas with baby girls. Vaccines seem to be causing auto-immune diseases, especially when the girls get vaccinated between the ages of 5 and 11. Girls also have more trouble with vaccines from puberty through some time in their 20's, and it seems to be hormones making the difference. This may be why some adolescent girls are dying after getting the HPV vaccine. So the BEST TIME vaccinate your baby girl is between the ages of 2 and 5. That way she has a grown up immune system, but is not in the risky time period for getting auto-immune disease. If you want her to have lots of vaccines, schedule them a couple months apart during those 3 years, and let the doctors sample her blood to make sure she is processing them OK.
Good luck ferocious mamas!
It's a mean world out there, but nobody is feistier than a mama with a baby treasure.