The Vaccine Book

So, I just finished reading "The Vaccine Book" (pictured above). I read this book for two reasons: 1) I work with children with Autism and there is a lot of controversy surrounding the issue of vaccines being linked to Autism and 2) Noah and I hope to have kids of our own in the future, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to read up on the issue.


I found the tone of the book to be good; the author provides a lot of information regarding the pros and cons of getting or not getting each vaccine and basically leaves it up to the reader to decide what they would do for their child based on all the information presented. The fact that the book is not blantantly pro- or anti-vaccine is refreshing. However, after reading this book, I feel a little overwhelmed by the whole vaccine issue. There's so much information regarding the pros and cons of vaccines. At the end of the book though, the author provides an alternate vaccine schedule for those parents who still want to get vaccines, but in a way that doesn't bombard their child with multiple vaccines at once. This seems like something to consider....


Also, the book is eye-opening in the sense that it gives information on the specific ingredients that are in vaccines...formaldehyde, fetal cow blood, monkey kidney cells...yikes! Monkey kidney cells...who knew?!

Anyway, this was definitely an interesting read. I think I may need to read it again (and maybe some other info) before actually making a decision on the issue. It's good to be informed though because at one point in the book, when talking about the Hep B vaccine, the author says, "Parents should be aware that some hospitals give the hep B vaccine to babies without discussing it with the parents first" (pg. 53). Wow, that's a little scary.

So, for any of you out there that read this blog and want to weigh in on the vaccine issue, I'd love to hear your viewpoint. Please leave a comment!