I understand that some of us here are ok with immunizations and some are not. For those that do not want immunizations given to your newborn, how do you say it to your doctor exactly? My friend had her baby 2 days ago and has an appointment tomorrow morning with her doc. She asked me to go with her as her "backup" cause she has a hard time telling her doctor 'no'. The problem with me going with her is that I can be very straight forward and some doctors take offense to that. Since this will NOT be my doctor, I am a little worried about the way I will say things. I tell my doctor like this: "My child is a non-vaccinated child and its my choice, so he will not be getting any shots..." Sometimes I think that I could say things a bit more gentle, kwim? How do you tell your doctor?

Well... is she going to go no shots at all?

we chose to do some and to not do some others... we also decided until Natalia got older

so we just said we were still thinking about it and that we were going to do some but not all of them and that we were going to spread them out....

we said it just like that... and were "open" to any information the pediatrician wanted to share with us about it... Praise God our dr. was very nice and she said she would still have to "mention it" in every appt. 'cause that's her job but that she understood and we just signed a waiver... she has really been great with that and does not push it...

So, if your friend's doctor cannot understand a mom making the choice she thinks is best for her baby I would take that as a red flag!

Also, if I was you I would just probably "be there" as support but not say anything to the dr....

:) I hope everything goes well....

Paloma.

Just tell your doctor that you don't do it and why. If they don't like it and talk to you condescendingly about it, find another doctor. Seriously. :)

Hannah's pediatrician lectured me at each and every visit about vaccinations. I switched to a family practice doctor for the kids after Micah was born and he asked me once at the first visit if I was doing them. I said no. He never brought up the subject again.

Our doctor is against vaccinations so it's pretty easy for us.

I just wanted to mention.. be careful about signing any waivers! The waiver might make statements like, "I am aware I am putting my child at risk.." ect. You can change the waiver before signing it to say you are aware you are NOT putting your child at risk or just not sign it all together. If you do sign it you'd be agreeing to statements like that and other worse statements too. More then likely you'll never have to worry about that being used against you but you can't be too careful about that kind of stuff.

Read EVERYTHING before you sign it. I've sat in the office and crossed things out, added things and such. Last time (they make us yearly) they gave me a form for if someone else brought the kids in (most mom's around here work) and it said I gave permission for vax's to be done if my person I named on the form brought the kids. I crossed that out, then wrote in that I gave permission for the person to decline any and all vax's and that I do not give permission for the kids to get them. I was surprised when they came and took the paper that no one read it before letting me leave....

My dr. is pretty good about not pushing it. I got suckered into two with the eldest at her 2 month visit. She had the same reaction to them that she had to the hep. B I got pressured into at the hospital. Haven't done it since. And I'm glad.

The last time we had a nurse prac. she grilled me on it, and I said nicely that I was still thinking about them, and weighing the options. My kids' ped, after I told him the reasons why, has never pushed the issue. Though I did get kind of chewed out when I had to take Dainie to the ER for hitting her head a year and a half ago. It wasn't as bad as I expected (the chewing out), but still, it made me feel like a bad parent. Oh well. The doc there even tried using the religous exemption against me.

Be polite, state reasons calmly and clearly and stick to your guns. If pushed, find a new one.

I told my health visitor a couple weeks ago that Lydia won't be having any vaccinations. I just told her that I've never felt at peace about it and that dh and I have finally come to the decision not to vaccinate. She was actually really good about it, but I think she's used to me and my non mainstream parenting...LOL.

We made an appointment with our prospective ped when Em was about a month old. (our midwife did the well baby checks for the first month) We sat down and was very straight forward...we told him we were not going to vax and asked him point blank if we would be harassed at the appointments for our choice. He was wonderful, and never pressured us.
When Mak was born, that doc was gone so we saw the new ped. he somewhat tried to pressure/guilt us into vaxing, but we told him right out that we were not vaxing. I had to see the other ped in the office one day because our "rude" ped was gone and she was awesome! She was respectful of our choices so we switched to her. She has not ever pressured us or told us how we were wrong. I even sat down with her one day and went over each vax with her. I told her we did not want to have any vax given that the disease could be treated if the kids had them. She said that none of the diseases are untreatable EXCEPT Polio, and she even told us that there was not any real reason to get the Polio anymore. (and my doc is pro-vax)
I think you need to go into the docs office with confident, having done your research and know why you are not vaxing. Just doing it because isn't a good reason. It's the doctors job to inform you as a parent. It's our job as a parent to make choices based on the information we recieve. That's all there is to it. They are working for us...it's a business. The quicker people figure that out, the easier it is to not be bullied.

Blessings,
Amber

I understand that some of us here are ok with immunizations and some are not. For those that do not want immunizations given to your newborn, how do you say it to your doctor exactly? My friend had her baby 2 days ago and has an appointment tomorrow morning with her doc. She asked me to go with her as her "backup" cause she has a hard time telling her doctor 'no'. The problem with me going with her is that I can be very straight forward and some doctors take offense to that. Since this will NOT be my doctor, I am a little worried about the way I will say things. I tell my doctor like this: "My child is a non-vaccinated child and its my choice, so he will not be getting any shots..." Sometimes I think that I could say things a bit more gentle, kwim? How do you tell your doctor?

I think that in this instance, I would let your friend do her own talking as much as possible. I would probably only step in if the doctor gets insistant and your friend finds herself at a loss for words. I would also try to educate myself a bit and encourage your friend to do this also.

Personally, we didn't have a problem because our doctor was fine with whatever our choice was. I think when you get to school age, you run into a little more flack.

I agree with Madre! I think also if she seems confident in her decision and as Madre said has educated herself well it really helps. I think if it seems to them like you are only doing it b/c someone else told you to or you really don't know your reason why they do pressurize more. I found that once my boys Nurse practinioner got to know me and our family, she respected my decision. At first they were kind of weird with us about it but then she could see I was a good mom and there was a reason behind my vax concerns. Hope it gos well for her!

When I help clients during births- I often find myself using this phrase to my clients infront of the doc: "did you have any questions about this procedure or concerns about the risks or do you understand what this procedure is?" This helps with giving them time to find their voice.

In regards to immunization/vaccine- in my area the quickest way to avoid harassement is to state that your choice is for "religous reasons".

In terms of what one can actually say, I'd be hesitant to speak for your friend unless the doc was verbally agressive. I'd coach her on things to say before the appointment.

d:)