For those who don't believe in vaccinations. How would you like to be this parent?

[pnwmom]

11. How would you like to be my mother in 1960, when her baby died the day after her DPT?

And yet I actually believe in vaccinations -- safe vaccinations, administered carefully.

After my sister received her 2nd DPT shot, she developed encephalitis, a known complication of the vaccine, and died in less than a day. It turned out that my mother had lost a cousin to a DPT vaccine, but the doctor then said it must have been a "bad batch."

So my kids had their vaccinations, but we proceeded cautiously. After they started having serious reactions to the DPT (high fevers in one, seizures in another), our doctor gave them the shot without the P (pertussis). Eventually, when a safer vaccine became available (I think it's called DTaP), they were able to get that without problems.

After my oldest had burning diarrhea with the live polio vaccine (the oral version that the pediatrician gave her), I brought her to the health department to get the shot instead (the killed vaccine). By the time my youngest was born, the FDA was recommending the killed vaccine for all children. I didn't have to make a special trip to the health department for the safer vaccine.

And I spread their shots out more than the usual schedule, so if there was a reaction we could know what they were reacting to.

So if you want to encourage vaccinations, which I do, I don't think the solution is to try to brow-beat nervous parents. It's to make sure the vaccinations are as safe as possible, just like any drug that gets approved.