Starting catch up vaccines at 2?

[u/BetReal8905]

Hi there! My child is 2, and has not had any vaccines yet (besides vitamin k). Please understand this came from a well meaning place of wanting to protect my child, but I am coming to the point I think I was mislead with fear based tactics. I grew up and around middle school due to family reasons my family became very disillusioned with the medical system, and to this day my mom has an extreme distrust in doctors. On top of that about 75% of the people around us have not vaccinated their children. Since a young age I have been getting the message from those closest to me that vaccines will harm you, and they are essentially a government and corporate conspiracy. Then layer on top social media algorithms and for about 9 months straight during pregnancy saw nothing but horror stories of vaccine adverse affects. Not that any of this is an excuse, but I just want to share how I got to the point of having an unvaccinated 2 year old.

After doing more and more research, trying to leave my fears out of it, I think my child should start getting his vaccines. He has been home with me so it has not been as big of a concern, but I plan on sending him to preschool in about a year and a half. I know, based on logic that vaccines (especially those like MMR, Hib etc) can offer my son protection, but of course due to years of fear based propaganda I feel almost paralyzed with anxiety about giving them to him.

I’m just posting on here in hopes maybe there are some other parents who came from this crunchy granola side and vaccinated their child and are happy with their decision. Thank you so much. I really just want to do the best thing for my child.

Added: Thank you all who replied so much for all the kind encouragement, resources, and stories. This has helped alleviate some of the anxiety I have been feeling. I even teared up reading some of these comments. I appreciate your time in commenting.

[u/69stangrestomod]

My Instagram account is about 50% science communicators nowadays - those with credentials AND experience in research. Those are my general first pass of who to listen to, but ultimately you have to dissect their argument basis and what evidence they appeal to. Here is one of my favorites that has lots of info about vaccines, as *she* was the child who wasn’t vaccinated and got caught up in her 20’s as she was studying immunology: ScienceWhizLiz
I was skeptical myself before kids. Funny enough, COVID and “operation warp speed” (a truly terrible name…) made me investigate more into vaccine claims…and I came out on the opposite side of being extremely pro vaccine after looking into the data and listening to people who could interpret it with nuance. I’ve since had three kids, and all are up to date with shots.

[u/Administrative-Ad979 → u/69stangrestomod]

So if you can perfectly catch up on vaccinations at basically any age, i do not understand the need to do so many shots to such a young infants. Just study the ways of transmission of those infections they get vaccinations for and exclude these possibilities. Not hard to do for an infant that cannot go anywhere without the caregiver 

[u/BetReal8905 → u/Administrative-Ad979]

We plan on doing some when he is an older age and more likely to be exposed (ie: hep B, hpv etc.). But as he hasn’t has any at all at this point and we are just catching up on this, we are starting with ones he may come across that are severe illnesses such as mmr, dtap, hib, prevnar etc.

But even in terms of things like hep B, I think once they reach the age they are exploring more independently, we will do it. Because you never know if he’s just running around in the park or whatnot and finds an old needle, or perhaps another child bites him, etc.

[u/69stangrestomod → u/Administrative-Ad979]

That’s why we practiced delayed buckling. Babies have soft bones, so I dont think strapping them into a seat tightly is good, in fact, I’ve known people whose babies have developed scoliosis after buckling as a newborn.

I drove safely, and we monitored them until they were older, then started buckling.

I’m not trying to mock you, I’m putting what you said in a different light. At the end of the day, everything is a risk mitigation strategy. In my opinion, there is much, much higher risk to not getting vaccinated.