Before I got pregnant, everyone I ever knew vaccinated their kids. Not getting vaccinated just wasn't an option. I never questioned whether or not I'd get my kids shots - of course I would! Why wouldn't you?

Somewhere along the line I encountered parents who did not vaccinate their kids. These parents claimed that there were all sorts of nasty things in vaccines that shouldn't be put in kids. The government requires these shots, and how could the government require something that could actually harm your kids?

I ended up doing a little bit of research, and ended up deciding to get Lauren most of her vaccinations. We decided to skip the chicken pox vaccine until she's older, but went ahead with the rest. I'd heard some bad things about the ProQuad vaccine (MMR + chickenpox), and asked the doctor to just give her the MMR without the chickenpox. He kind of looked at me like I was crazy, told me that it was required to enter school, blah blah. I told him that I knew all that so he went ahead and just gave the MMR.

I think the pox vaccine is kind of silly to begin with, since it's not a life-threatening disease or anything. Yes, people die from it, but mostly adults or people with immune diseases. For me growing up, pox was like a right of passage. I got it in kindergarten from my cousin who was a few years older. I remember my grandma taking me to her house to play just so I could get it.

Anyway, today I stumbled across this article today while googling for info on roseola (yeah, I think Lauren has/had it), and now I'm so glad that we decided to wait on the chicken pox vaccine. Basically, it talks about kids who have autism and how the parents think that autism can be linked to the ProQuad shot. Basically the ProQuad shot has about 10x the amount of chicken pox vaccine that the regualar chicken pox vaccine has, and combined with the MMR vaccine, the combined vaccine stresses out the immune system and triggers autism. I know there's probably research out there for/against this argument, and if I wasn't so busy I'd try to find it. Either way....it can't hurt to hold off on the chicken pox vaccine until the kid is older. Autism scares me, especially this regressive autism that may/may not be triggered by the ProQuad vaccine.

Something to think about. Holding off on the chicken pox vaccine can't hurt, could help. Never know!