Agreed. The medical community has a responsibility to provide us with the latest information.
I do not advocate anything but vaccines for life-threatening illness. I generally do not get flu shots - because the flu, for me, isn’t life-threatening. I didn’t get my kids the chicken pox vaccine - because it’s life-threatening in only very unusual circumstances.
Right there, it sounds like you've been doing exactly what many of us on the other side of the debate have been doing. More below...
The childhood diseases that can be vaccinated against should be - and unless you have something better on your side, you should just follow the vaccine schedule.
The doctors around here would say that your kids are not fully vaccinated - because they didn't have the chicken pox shot. The chicken pox shot is the one doctors have lectured me about. They seem to forget it wasn't even required until recently. (Ironically, I have agreed to the chicken pox shot, so there's at least one shot you've declined that I've agreed to.) Other parents are just doing what you and I have been doing - listening to what the doctor says, considering all of the information, and then making their own informed decisions.
Lately, I've noticed even more shots have been added to the immunization schedule - such as Hep A and Rotavirus. I just counted - there are now 28 shots recommended for children just between birth and age 6. And 25 of those shots are given before age 18 months. That's why parents are starting to balk:
As a side note, I went along with whatever the doctors advised until one day: One doctor (and the nurses) had been assuring me my children were caught up on all of their immunizations. Then a second doctor in the same office told me they weren't and tried to insist on giving them more shots before I checked with the first doctor. That's when I finally put the brakes on.
Correction on my last post #238: I counted again - it’s actually now 29 vaccination shots by age 6, not including the flu shots which are also recommended.
