kurty[B]

My boy is coming up on his 2 months immunizations, and his mother seems to think there is no reason for him to get immunizations. Her excuses range from her beliefs (she claims to be buddhist, but only when it's to her advantage), to he could get sick from them, or she doesn't want to emotionally scar him from getting shots. I have no recollection of getting shots as an infant, only as a four year old, and I remember crying histerically then (more out of fear of the needles then pain), and it was nothing a sucker and a huge hug didn't resolve. I think aside from beliefs she is simply following a friend of hers who has her kids get only one shot at a time, in so doing she visits the doctor many more times, and all her kids are behind on their shots (given, both of these are Medicaid cases and doctor's visits are cheap for them, but of course end up as a burden on you and I in tax dollars).

So, does anyone have any resourceful medical links, and logical reasoning that might convince sheer willpower in this case that immunizations are not an awful thing that will cause autism in your child.

I will be looking up state laws on shots required for public education (I don't want my child to have to wait to go to school because his mom only takes him to get shots one at a time; if that's the case I might be the "evil" dad who takes my kid to the doctor to get his shots, and I'll deal with the screams of "I don't want to go to daddy's he makes me go to the doctor, and doesn't believe in holistic medicine!"). The only other argument that has seemed to bend her ear is the fact I plan to travel to Uruguay, Brazil, Europe, and so on with him at some point in his life, and want to make sure he meets the immunization requirements for traveling to foreign regions.

Her reasoning for not getting the shots also includes "when is he going to run into these things, and get sick from them".

My argument comes from someone who has traveled outside of the country and believes in modern medicine (some of the shots I think are a little frivolous, but the majority I would like to have taken care of). Her argument comes from someone who has left the state of Colorado two or three times in her life.

So, let's make this a debate. If you are for immunizations I will try and argue her case against yours, and if you are against immunizations I will argue my case.

The shots I'm looking for specific medical information on right now are.

Hep B
DTaP/Tdap
Hib
Polio
PCV
Rota

Shots for a year from now I am also interested in

MMR
Varicella
Hep A

and what is MCV4?

I don't want this to turn into an argument of what horrible parents her or I or her and I are, I just want to educate myself more thoroughly so my arguments aren't simply, well I got all my shots, I don't remember my infant shots, and I even got nine shots in a row before being sent to Iraq (lost my immunization records), and I turned out fine.

Is there reasoning behind doing one shot at a time, or is that simply a wife's tale? I know when I received nine shots at once my white blood cell count jumped that evening, and I sported a fever for the night, but was fine the next day aside from two very soar arms.

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