we do, however, vaccinate our kids. measles and whooping cough are nothing to mess with.
while i truly hate the idea of a potent cocktail of live and dead viruses coursing through my kids' little bodies and developing immune systems, i'd feel so much worse if they got sick from a preventable illness, made other people sick, or died.
i don't even want to think about that.
the hepatitis vaccine seemed like a good one to delay. although hospitals try their best to pressure parents to vaccinate newborns before they go home, hepatitis B is spread through sex and needles. vaccinating my new-to-the-world infant (or toddler for that matter) against hepatitis B did not seem worth the side effects or toll on their developing immune systems. waiting until kindergarten seemed entirely reasonable.
and then, today, at dylan's 2 1/2 year check up, the nurse came in and said that she was giving dylan two shots: the Hib vaccine and the hepatitis A vaccine.
"oh no," i said. "we're delaying the hepatitis vaccine."
"she's already had the first dose."
"what?"
the nurse waived dylan's immunization chart, containing my signature.
awesome.
apparently, there is a separate hepatitis B vaccine, that to my knowledge, neither child has received, but evidently, i'm not all that informed about such things.
i'm the mom who signs at the X and asks questions (months) later.
not wanting dylan to need to repeat a vaccine in the future that she'd begun without completing, i consented to the second dose. we talked with the nurse about our chickens to distract dylan, and when the needles plunged into her little legs, her big, beautiful eyes got even wider and welled with tears.
"mommmmmy!" she pleaded, as if to ask, "how could you let this happen?
later, when dylan woke up from her nap, sweaty and crying in a puddle of vomit, i felt truly awful and guilty.
that's motherhood, some days.
we make mistakes. we can't prevent all hurts. but we pull our kids close, wipe their tears, and cuddle up snugly on the couch.
and we run a big load of laundry.
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in cheerier health news, we found something that works on dylan's eczema even better than bird oil: visit my review blog to enter to win ancient minerals magnesium bath flakes.
image: unicef sverige
