I know that many of you don’t want to vaccinate. But you do anyway. You are concerned about exposing your child to too many toxins over their young lives and having their immune systems challenged in an unnatural way. Yet, you’re also concerned about getting in trouble by some anti-anti-vax Doctor with CPS on their speed dial because you chose to not vaccinate and you’re scared that your religious freedoms not to vaccinate won’t protect you somehow. So, you got bullied into it. I know you ladies are out there. Well, this blog is for you. I happened upon an interesting thing to consider if you’re being pressured into getting that second MMR dose.
MMR (Measles Mumps Rubella) Vaccine
I found this statistic: “The first dose of MMR vaccine produces good immunity to measles (95–98%), mumps (97%), and rubella (95%). The second dose of MMR is intended to produce immunity in those who did not respond to the first dose, but a very small percentage of people may not be protected even after a second dose.” So, then by that statistic, which you can find here, essentially, around 95% of our children get an extra MMR vaccination that they don’t even need. I hate that. Prior to getting a second dose of a vaccination, we could be getting our children a blood test to see if the first one did the trick, because from the sounds of it, at least 95% of the time, it does. This isn’t going to make you feel any better as you get pressured into the other vaccinations, since many vaccinations only provide some immunity for a handful of years. But it’s something. And since the MMR vaccine is linked to increased rates of febrile seizures and low platelet counts, I think that for a mother, it’s an important something. Also, it could mean your child getting one less vaccination and having nobody be able to argue with you about it.
Says Who?
Now, before anybody gets all suspicious, thinking I just pulled my information off of a crazy hippie site (which I never do, by the way,) let me explain that I got this information from IAC, or Immunization Action Coalition which has been in direct partnership with the CDC. For more than a decade, in fact, the CDC has worked with and provided financial support to IAC for the purpose of educating health professionals about U.S. vaccine recommendations. So, even the CDC backs up their information for those of you impressed by that kind of thing.
That is good to know. I have actually been researching some alternative vaccine schedules for my new baby. (too late for my other two-luckily so far no bad reactions for either of them). But now that I know more about vaccines in general I don’t want to take any unnecessary chances. When looking into the vaccines it seems that the MMR was one that had a lot of bad things associated with it, so now I have something I can say to the doctor. She won’t be getting a second dose.
And I don’t think you pull things off of hippie sites Dawn 😀
My pediatrician (who is pro-vax of course) told me that what you just described is true about ALL the shots. Now maybe not all of them work to such a high percent the first time (maybe only 75% are immune after one dose), but the majority of kids are getting 2-3 unnecessary jabs of every shot! She said it’s just cheaper and easier for them to give everyone 4 doses of something rather then check everyone’s blood every time.
Good to know. I am going to look into this. I do NOT want anymore than we need. Seems like that could be what causes the bad reactions.