Can my baby's immune system handle so many shots?
It's easy to be scared off by the idea of injecting your child with even an extremely weakened or inactive form of an illness. But think of this: The average bacterium that causes a common ear infection is made up of about 3,000 immune components. Every dose of every shot that your child will receive between now and age 8, added together, contain only about 150 immune components. Even when your child gets many shots at once, it's still just a tiny amount of the billions of bacteria that her immune system deals with on a daily basis.
What are vaccines exactly?Are vaccines safe?Why do kids today get so many more vaccines than they did years ago?Is it okay to skip some vaccines?Do these diseases even still exist?What happens if parents choose not to vaccinate?Wouldn't my unvaccinated child be protected if all the other kids are immunized?Doesn't getting the disease itself give my child better immunity than she'd get from a vaccine?Can't I wait to vaccinate my child until she is ready to start school?What is thimerosal?Doesn't the flu vaccine still contain thimerosol?How worried should I be about side effects?If my child is sick, should I wait he's better to have him vaccinated?If I'm breastfeeding, isn't my baby immune to all the diseases I'm immune to?
