I want to take the time right now, before I begin, to say that I am not against vaccines, but I am against parents not informing themselves before potentially destroying their baby's life - which stands true to either side of the vaccine debate. I deeply regret not having educated myself before choosing to vaccinate my first child. I have chosen to not get my boys vaccinated any longer, but this does not mean that I do not respect parents who do, especially those who have done their research prior to deciding.
This is a long post, just fore-warning, but it will give you a good place to begin your research.
Where I would recommend beginning, would be to call the clinic/pediatrician/doctor/whomever will be administering the vaccines, and find out what specific vaccines are being used by them. You can then you can go here*, or search via google, to find out what ingredients are in those specific vaccines. If you are unsure of what something is, research it so that you do know. Just to note that aluminum is a known neurotoxin, but is currently the only approved vaccine adjuvant. (*The CDC website is a US website, but may still contain ingredient lists on vaccines commonly used in Canada as well, so it is worth it to check).
The vaccines used in the clinic where my boys would be vaccinated are listed below with their ingredient lists, as an example. This is for the Johnstone Community Health Center in Red Deer, AB. (Drag images to the address bar to see full sized).
2, 4 and 6 months - Diptheria, Tetanus, and acellular Pertussis - Infanrix IPV HIB
12 months - Measles, Mumps, Rubella, and Varicella - Priorix Tetra; OR;
*Please also note that the measles and mumps viruses are cultured in Chick Embryo Cells, the rubella and varicella viruses are cultured in lung tissue of an aborted human fetus. [ reference ]
; OR; 12 months - Measles, Mumps, and Rubella - MMR II
Also useful to know, is that there are risks associated with any vaccine, though generally you will be told by anyone in the health care field that they are extremely safe and effective, and that you have a very small chance (I know for DTaP in particular they will rate it at 1:1,000,000) of an adverse reaction. What they do not tell you, is that that rate is merely for an allergic reaction to the shot, not for any adverse reaction. Encephalitis (swelling of the brain) and seizures (typically febrile as a result of a rapid spike or drop in body temperature, but not always) are much more common than this allergic reaction, listed at 1:1,000 and 1:14,000 respectively.
Vaccine Risk Awareness Network
National Vaccine Information Center
Vaccination Council
Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (US)
Adverse Vaccine Reaction Stories
This page is very great information so that you are as prepared as possible to vaccinate, if that is the choice you end up making.
When you are looking at the spectrum of risks, you will want to look at the risks associated with the vaccines, and how they relate to your child in regards to how likely (based on your child as an individual, since individual health does come into play. Healthy people are less likely to get serious adverse reactions to vaccines) they are to have an adverse reaction. You will also want to look at each individual disease, what the potential complications are from that disease, how it is contracted, what the rates for potential complications are (as well as what may increase the risks for them), and then consider your child's lifestyle/health/etc. to see what their personal risk would be.
For an example, tetanus is contracted by the bacteria Clostridium tetani entering the bloodstream. This bacteria traditionally comes from horse manure, but due to that being the primary mode of transportation before motorized vehicles, it is widespread throughout the dirt. So now we know that if you get this bacteria, via dirt, in the bloodstream, you could get tetanus. How this information is relevant, is that your baby here in North America, does not really live on the dirt like babies in say Africa would. Their chances of both having an open wound and coming into contact with dirt that has Clostridium tetani present, are really not that likely. Even on the rare chance this could happen, who is to say you could not immediately go get the vaccine then as a precautionary measure, as opposed to vaccinating now under the very slight potential risk it will actually ever happen. This is also the unfortunate thing about combination vaccines, is you often can't really pick or choose the antigens you have to receive. If you wanted to vaccinate only for diptheria, you'd also be vaccinating for pertusis and tetanus. There is only one vaccine that can be split up, and it is to remove the 'varicella' antigen from the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine (MMR).
On the topic of antigens, this page is also worth a look. It is a recent study that shows that repeated 'immunization' by antigen alone (no adjuvants), inevitably caused autoimmunity in autoimmune resistant lab mice.
If you can, also do your best to hunt down the rates of vaccinated and unvaccinated people who are catching these diseases (here is a good document to show the rates of vaccinated people contracting pertussis/whooping cough). This will show you how well the vaccine actually works, because it will show you if the majority of people who catch these diseases are unvaccinated (like so many pro-vaccine people like to think and say), or if they have in fact been previously vaccinated for that disease. In the instance of pertussis (whooping cough), you will actually find that the vast majority of children who contract it, have been previously and 'appropriately' vaccinated against it.
At this point you have at the very least a good place to start, and generally I find that you'll find your own stuff you want to research while you delve into this. I could seriously go on, and on, and on, and ON, so please always feel welcome to ask questions, ask for clarifications, ask for more links, challenge me if you find something you feel is very compelling toward vaccination, or whatever you want. If you want to refute anything I have written here, please do - I always love an opportunity to learn. I will never tell anyone not to vaccinate (though I will seriously recommend to everyone to under no circumstances receive the flu vaccine, let alone on a yearly basis, and instead opt for elderberry syrup - I'll save this for another blog post), because I feel that what is right for one person is almost never right for anyone else, let alone everyone else. Each child is different, their risks are never the same, and only each child's parents can determine if the benefits outweigh the risks for each vaccine or each disease.
It is from my own personal understanding from my research, that the potential complications that come with 'vaccine preventable diseases' are far more favourable to the potential adverse reactions of the correlating vaccine, at least for my children. This is coming from the mother of two very healthy boys, who are unlikely to have serious adverse reactions to the vaccines. In fact my oldest son has been fully vaccinated, on schedule, until 18 months. I then got educated on the topic, and now fully regret every single one of them. He actually had a fairly bad reaction to the MMR vaccine at 12 months. Bad to me but in reality it was very, very mild compared to almost any other adverse reaction that could happen from this shot.
If you do choose to vaccinate, I will still respect you as a parent. I respect all parents who always do what is in their child's best interest. Which is what you are doing now by digging deeper on this issue. Also remember to never, EVER vaccinate on a compromised immune system. Not even so much as a runny nose or cough, as they could make vaccinations fatal. It is ALWAYS better to wait a couple of weeks until they are feeling better than to just risk it.
Good luck in your journey for information!
