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My kids go to public schools, and vaccinations are mandatory (since I have no religious strictures against them). I've wondered if I'm doing more harm than good. I think immunization is amazing, and the fact that some deadly viruses have been eradicated with them is just a miracle. When you consider the socioeconomic factors that play in people's health, it's important to realize that it's not just my own kids' health at stake, it's the rest of the school, the district, the city, the state, etc. I do my best to keep my kids healthy. I know other people think I some kinda weird hippie, with barefoot, practically naked, no sodas or storebought crap or fast food kids. But I still have to consider that, even with amazing health, it's possible to contract something and not know it, but pass it on to someone else. And if you believe that living the way you (the collective you) do will prevent illness, you still need to remember that the kids across the street probably don't, yet.

I respect people's decisions not to vaccinate, and the same with people who do it. I know the shots contain poisons, in very small amounts. I know intentionally infecting a person with something horrific seems barbaric (though they did get the idea from nature, since we build up immunity to some things that we're exposed to in small amounts). Also, my oldest child got the chicken pox as a direct result of someone else getting the vaccine.

I hope vaccines get better, and less dangerous, because I don't see us humans retreating into small clans that have little contact with each other. Thanks to that good old Agricultural Revolution, we're just too many.

My first was vaccinated on schedule, but my second had a bad reaction to his DTaP at 4 months and I started looking into things. We stopped them all until I felt comfortable with a decision.

We now delay, and selectively vax. I can see pros and cons on both sides, and it's probably the hardest parenting decision I've had to make.

We use the religious exemption at school, it's more philosophical, but it works for us.

There are some vaccines I won't give my boys, and there are some we will. My middle boy won't get the DTaP again, though I'd be okay with just a tetanus shot.

Our decision is also based on our lifestyle… I'm a stay at home mom and I breastfeed at least three years. If my kids were in daycare, or if I formula fed, or if a family member had Hep B… we would make difference choices.

I'm not really pro or anti – I'm all for parents educating themselves and making the best choices for their own families.

We don't give our son any vaccines. I spent countless hours researching vaxes during the last few months of pregnancy & came to the conclusion that they are entirely unnecessary & do a great deal of harm to the infant's natural immune system. Especially since I myself have auto-immune problems. On top of that, it does not provide the child with immunity (more than 1/3 Cali's pertusis was vaxed) It was a difficult decision to come to, after all, I've been listening to the vax propoganda my whole life. But the more I read, the more I was convinced that my child's immune system would be strengthened, not harmed, by the virus's. Once I researched the treatment protocols, all my unease vanished. Most required hydration & rest & patience lasting up to a couple weeks. I am a stay home mom & have plenty of time to nurse my child through the measles, something a working mom or day care might not have. As for the idea that it protects other children, well, I am more concerned about bringing my boy around recently vaxed children because of the vaccine shedding that occurs for up to 3 weeks following a vax. I don't believe that a test-tube measles virus mutated with DNA from other animals & aborted human tissue will provide my son with true immunity from the real virus, but would just get him really uselessly sick. For this reason, we do lots of playdates with other non-vaxed children, especially when other kids were in the vax schedule age.