Difficult Decisions...

No one really warned me that parenthood is fraught with a series of difficult decisions. It seems since I got pregnant there have been decisions to make that are quite difficult for me and that cause me considerable stress. Each decision requires one to take the time to consider the possible outcomes. Of course for each decision I only want to do what is best for Little Dude. Mostly it seems no one truly knows what's best. There is no black or white clearcut answer as to the right path to take. Tomorrow morning at 10:30 a decision I have been dreading must be made. LD's two month appointment is tomorrow. As I've stated more than once I don't believe in the autism-vaccine link, so that doesn't play a part in the stress caused by the prospect of deciding how to vaccinate. My concern is simply the fact that according to the CDC/APA there are five things that LD should be vaccinated against tomorrow. Five things seem like a tremendous amount of things to expect his little immune system to process at once. I got The Vaccine Book and have read a lot of it(not all though), I sort of skipped around to the parts I felt most concerned about since I have little time in which to make my decision. The book is not an anti-vaccine book, he advocates that all children should receive the vaccinations recommended by the APA. He spent 13 years researching vaccines and gathering information regarding vaccine reactions. He discusses each vaccine throughly, what it's made of, what it protects against, and potential side effects. In the end he presents an alternative vaccination schedule for parents concerned about minimizing the potential negative reactions and providing the vaccinations in what he believes after his thirteen years of research is the safest possible way. Basically it provides the most important vaccines first, the ones that protect against the most common diseases during this stage of the child's life. He also recommends limiting the number of shots containing aluminum that children receive at once, to allow the body to process it out easier. The Sears schedule requires more visits to the pediatrician, which for some people is not possible. In turn you must see your child get shots more often which is probably not fun for anyone involved. In my case neither of those drawbacks matter too much because I'm able to take LD for shots without worrying about taking time off work, and seeing him receive shots while it won't be fun if it's better for his body to get them in a more spaced out manner I'll deal with the consequence of seeing him stuck more. I was pretty secure in my decision to vaccinate this way, but in the back of my head I wondered about leaving him vulnerable to certain diseases longer by giving the shots in a more spaced out manner. He eats breastmilk, which contains some immunological properties. He also isn't in daycare so he isn't around other children. Some of the diseases we immunize for aren't even in the US anymore. I understand the importance of vaccinating against them to ensure they aren't allowed to return though. So here I am still unsure which path to take and only about 24 hours to make my decision. I'm hoping the pediatrician can offer some guidance tomorrow based on our situation and the risk factors that most apply to LD. A fellow blogger shared her decision this week and presented the information she used to make her decision. So for those of you struggling to make your decision like I am, I recommend Dr. Sears book, even if you only skim through it. I was able to find information that I felt was truly helpful. I also recommend you check out this blog's last two posts which offers a different set of information. It sucks that I basically agree with both, but they are opposing each other in a way. In the end I guess we all do as my Grandma told me to do last night when I was stressing out about it, "Just make a decision and live with it." That's all we can do right?