I loved Aviva Jill Romm's Vaccination: A Thoughtful Parent's Guide

www.amazon.com/Vaccinatio.../ref=sr_1_1

She too doesn't go nuts with fearmongering the way so many people do on this subject.
She offers information about how to do the best you can on the path you choose: how to recognize illnesses and how to treat them (and when to go to the doctor) how to support your family's immune function overall with nutrition and other lifestyle choices, and also how to work to try to prevent side effects if you do choose to vaccinate (and how to help vaccines do what they're intended to do.)

Robert Mendelsohn's writing on the subject seemed pretty far out and wacky to me when I first read them, but the more I research and learn, the more I find myself seeing eye to eye with him. Like him, I decided a few vaccines were useless right away, crossed a few more off the list after further reading, and then ended up taking a long time before I decided to skip Tetanus, as well.

I recommend his book How to Raise Healthy Children in Spite of Your Doctor
www.amazon.com/Raise-Heal.../ref=sr_1_1
He wrote it quite some time ago, but the concepts he covers are pretty universal: don't fear the fever (with full explanation) is a big one that comes to mind.

There is a lot to consider when it comes to vaccines.
I don't want to debate or try to change anyone's mind.
This is the sort of thing that is up to the parents to research and decide.

That said, I'll give my reasons we skipped vaccinations in a nutshell:
I don't like to use medicines unless I am confident that they are 1) needed 2) safe and 3) effective.

1) needed?
Many vaccines are intended as cheap solutions to bigger problems. It's cheaper to give kids a shot to prevent measles than it is to make sure every kid gets enough quality Vitamin A in their diet. We eat a good diet, so I don't see that we need any help fighting off the measles!
Adequate dietary Selenium is another immune-boosting tool, as is limiting sugar.
I feel very blessed and privileged to be able to feel this confidence.

Some illnesses can strike anyone at any time, but the right information about treating them makes all the difference. Whooping cough/Pertussis doesn't have to be a big deal at all, when the parents have information about the amazing efficacy of Sodium Ascorbate in fighting it off.

Other vaccines target illnesses that are most always mild. Often this same diseases will confer genuine lifetime immunity, unlike vaccinations.
Here's a fascinating discussion of Nutrition and Immunology:
www.mothering.com/discussio...thread.php

And of course, breastfeeding confers all sorts of tailor-made immunities.
Studies have even shown that adults who were breastfed as children are far less susceptible to meningitis!

2) safe?
It's hard to figure this one out. While we can learn what *may* be in some or most vaccines, the actual ingredients lists are considered "proprietary information," so they don't have to tell us!

Very common ingredients include mercury, aluminum, egg protein, nut oils, and aborted human fetal tissue:
Metals intended to provoke an immune reaction, foods that can cause fatal allergic reactions, and... human ingredients.

I don't know the answer to this one- but I just can't accept something that's not guaranteed 100% safe if I'm definitely not sure it's both necessary and 100% effective.
DO ask to see the inserts for any vaccines you may consider. There is a printed list of warnings, contraindications, and side effects that comes with every vaccine. There is no excuse for a doctor's office to not provide it, especially if you request it. The lists of known side effects often include some very scary, serious problems. This hasn't been the focus of my research, so I don't have much to offer for links or books. A few personal experiences in my own life have led me to deeply doubt the true safety of many vaccines.

I remember reading that nations that delay vaccines until children reach age two have much lower rates of adverse reactions, so that is another option to consider: delayed and/or selective vaccines. With our first child, while we were still doing the research, I decided to delay everything until our daughter turned two. As it turned out, those two years gave me enough time to feel informed enough to make the decision not to do any at all.

3) effective?
Check out these graphs that illustrate how strange it is that vaccines got the credit where it wasn't exactly due:
www.vaccinationdebate.com/web1.html
and these (scroll to the end of the article)
www.tetrahedron.org/articles...cacy.html

Many vaccines seem to be very effective, but only for a relatively short period of time. Nobody can predict how long an immune-boosting effect with linger. Again, the illness itself tends to confer lifelong immunity, while the shot wears off invisibly with time.

Today's flu shots have not improved the mortality rate for influenza at all. The CDC's response? Vaccinate MORE people. Hmm...

Here's a little collection of quotes I just dug up from an old file of mine:

"There is a great deal of evidence to prove that immunization of children does more harm than good."---Dr. J. Anthony Morris, former Chief Vaccine Control Officer and research virologist, US FDA

Immunizations not only did not prevent any infectious diseases, they caused more suffering and more deaths than has any other human activity in the entire history of medical intervention. It will be decades before the mopping-up after the disasters caused by childhood vaccination will be completed."--- Dr. Viera Scheibner, PhD

Sometimes paranoia is just having all the facts. William S. Burroughs

"We do know that to have serious allergies, a person has to have high levels of IgE antibodies, and to have a Th2 skewed immune system. And we also know that aluminum-adjuranted injected vaccines don't activate the first defenses (Th1) that infections normally trigger in the cellular immune system. Instead they activate the last defenses of the humoral system, antibodies, which are preferentially Th2. That is the job that aluminum is designed to do. But no one has looked to see if the increasing numbers of vaccines, by skewing the baby's immune system to exactly the state it needs to be to provoke serious allergy, are implicated."
(Just a Little Prick by Hilary Butler, page 445)

"It's a double-edged sword when you stimulate the immune system." Bali Pulendran


"Approximately 15,000 cases of adverse events following vaccination are reported in the United States each year. This number exceeds the current reported incidence of childhood vaccine-preventable diseases." From the CDC website


Mothering Magazine's forum on the topic is an AMAZING resource.
Check it out:
www.mothering.com/discussio...isplay.php

Best wishes to you and yours!

I chose the book you suggested Yewni, because I know you and trust your judgement.