One in Four Toddlers Improperly Vaccinatedby Valorie Delp | More from this Blogger 15 May 2008 03:36 AM CDC researchers are concerned because recent studies show that one in four toddlers are improperly vaccinated. Either they are missing doses or are given vaccinations too early or too late. However, the CDC is calling this a "wake up" call. Interestingly, one issue that the study discovered was that babies were being immunized too early. If a baby or toddler is immunized too early and/or has their shots too close together, the CDC counted them as invalid saying that there is a window of optimal response. If your baby has the shot too early, then the response might not be as effective. (This by the way, explains to some extent why sometimes children are vaccinated against something like the flu and get it anyways.) On the other hand, you don't want to wait too long because then the child is exposed for longer periods of time. Delayed Vaccination What the report doesn't acknowledge is that many parents are choosing to not vaccinate or to delay vaccination. Many people believe that children are no longer at risk for some diseases that we vaccinate for. Other parents prefer to delay vaccinations and/or skip some things that are on the recommended vaccine list. These too would make up the 'one in four' statistic that we are seeing. As a result the CDC is recommending that doctors aggressively seek to vaccinate their patients. However, I have to disagree. We have talked at length about this in the forums and you can read part of the discussion here, but I do think that parents should have the right whether or not they choose to vaccinate. Furthermore, there is a lot of good and valid research that supports delayed vaccination, which as some of you may know, is what we do. (For those of you who are interested in learning more about delayed vaccination, see The Vaccine Book by Dr. Sears.) Regardless of where you stand on the issue, it is one that deserves careful consideration and reflection. Parents must educate themselves from all angles. Have a vaccine question? Ask me! Valorie Delp shares recipes and kitchen tips in the food blog, solves breastfeeding problems, shares parenting tips, and current research in the baby blog, and insight, resources and ideas as a regular guest blogger in the homeschooling blog. To read more articles by Valorie Delp, click here.
Related Articles: You Can't Have Your Cake and Eat it Too: Thoughts on Refusing Immunizations Yet Another Study Refutes the Autism-Vaccine Link What If We Stopped Immunizations? Learn more about Valorie Delp  Hello everybody! My name is Valorie and I am one busy lady! When I'm not writing or editing for families, I am busy trying to get my brood of 5 in line. Relevantbaby tags User Comments Samual (11722) 15 May 2008 08:47 AMAt the moment the British government are thinking of bringing laws in so that primary school children need major vaccinations, MMR and Tetanus Polio, to be able to go to school. They are also thinking of bringing the flu and chicken pocks vaccine here too.  Valorie Delp (49340) 15 May 2008 09:00 AMThere are laws here like that but there are ways around them as well. You can claim a religious exemption and you're not required to vaccinate your children if you homeschool. I don't think that parents should be forced to vaccinate, however, neither do I think that they have the right to expect schools to accept them if their kids are not vaccinated. Samual (11722) 15 May 2008 09:14 AMAt the moment the British government are thinking of bringing laws in so that primary school children need major vaccinations, MMR and Tetanus Polio, to be able to go to school. They are also thinking of bringing the flu and chicken pocks vaccine here too. Samual (11722) 15 May 2008 09:16 AMnice double post there Here your child can be exempt for medical reasons, but if a school has any high risk children, such as those with CF or HIV the school is allowed to say no to any children without certain vaccines, especially the TB vaccine in the teenage years. Discuss this article
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