Vaccines

Annika had her 6-month doctor's visit today. She officially weighs 17 lbs, 5 oz. and is 26.25" long, which puts her in the 75th percentile for girls her age. She got 4 shots and 1 oral vaccine today. One of the shots was for the seasonal flu. They had run out of H1N1 vaccine so they're going to notify us when they have that available. She promptly fell asleep about 5 minutes after the shots. I imagine she'll sleep most of the evening. Pretty typical after shots.

I also went to my moms' group today and learned that 2 of the babies in the class have not received any vaccinations at all! Really crazy! The moms are worried about autism, even though, as far as I know, there are no scientific findings linking vaccinations to autism. Apparently there was one paper that came out about it, but since then, it's been completely disproved. I was pretty shocked to hear that they weren't vaccinating their children. It seems to me to be so incredibly irresponsible, and quite selfish from a public health point of view. Their reasoning is that the baby isn't going to get polio or diptheria or whooping cough, so why expose them to the supposed risks of the vaccines? The obvious point that they're missing, of course, is that the only reason why their kids aren't going to get those diseases is because everyone else is vaccinating their kids! It just makes me even happier that Annika has gotten several rounds of her vaccinations. You never know whose kids are going to be the ones that aren't vaccinated and come down with the bizarre disease!

The funny thing is that they were also talking about how hard it is to find a doctor who agrees with their philosophy about vaccinations! Well, duh. Doctors are supposed to advocate for what's best for your child, not just agree with everyone's weird ideas about raising their kids.

In general, I'm totally for letting people do what they want with their lives and their kids. But I really believe that vaccinations are one of those things that everyone has to do, for the good of the public. What would those moms do if their kid gave a newborn baby some horrible disease because the baby was too young to receive the vaccination? That would be unconscionable.

Anyway, Annie will go back for her second flu shot and her first H1N1 shot in about a month, and then her next doctor's check-up is in January at 9 months! Amazing how the time goes.