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No Needles?
The Great Immunization Debate
By Lisa A. Goldstein
"About a year later, our doctor warned us that for our son, getting the chicken pox was much more dangerous for him," Propper says. "If he got the pox, the medications he took for asthma would make the pox worse and could cause severe breathing problems. Our doctors encouraged us to do it. We felt the benefits, for him in particular, outweighed our concerns."
Other parents may believe in vaccines but not the way they're administered, like Marissa Farrell of Natick, Mass. She waited until her boys were 8 to 9 months old for their first vaccines, and then spread out the rest of their shots to one each six months. This is a slow process of dosage, she explains, as normally there are two to three shots per three months.
"I felt that their little bodies deserved time to absorb and assimilate each type of vaccine instead of bowling them over every few months," Farrell says. "We all have different ways of going about the vaccine process. Many feel that we as kids had the shots with no problem, and many feel they are just too risky to do at all. I felt that the middle of the road was the way to go, especially since my pediatrician was comfortable spreading out the pattern of shots."
In some cases, rejecting an immunization is medically necessary.
Nancy P. Hemenway of Arlington, Va., decided not to have her youngest daughter immunized due to concerns about compromising her already somewhat stressed immune system and because she has a disorder that at present mandates she stay in a homebound instruction situation from school. "Before she was pulled out of school by her doctor, we were put in a position of the school mandating a shot the pediatrician didn't recommend for her age," she says. "We told the school no and as a result, ended up signing a 'religious' exemption form in order to dodge the shot."
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