Vaccinations

I went to the doctor today for my nine-month checkup. It's hard to believe I'm that old already, isn't it! The doctor said I'm doing great, and he gave me another stick (tongue depresser) to play with. I weigh 19 lbs 9 oz (although probaby in all actuality I'm less than that, as I'd just eaten breakfast and had half a bottle), and I'm 29 inches long (that's 3 inches short of half Mommy's height!).

I wasn't scheduled to get any shots today, but a woman from Duke was there recruiting babies to get a meningococcal (meningitis) vaccine. It's used on kids as young as two in Canada, and the Duke people are running a study to see if it's effective for infants as well. I got a shot today, and then I'll get a shot at my next check-up when I'm 12 months and some bloodwork when I'm 13 months. I cried for just a few seconds when the lady stuck the needle in, and then I was over it. I'm a tough little guy!

There are a lot of babies out there that aren't being vaccinated, and that really scares me. Vaccines only protect you if everyone gets them. I know one argument is that you don't need a certain vaccine because no one gets that disease anymore (like polio, which our family gets upset over because both of my paternal grandparents had it). Well, yeah, no one gets that disease anymore because so many people were vaccinated against it! If you stop vaccinating, it'll come back!

Mommy recently got really rude with a woman who didn't get her child the MMR (measles/mump/rubella) vaccine. The woman was pretty sure that her child actually had rubella, but she wasn't worried because if a kid gets it, it's usually a pretty mild case. Mommy went off on her because you know who is affected? Pregnant women in the first half of their pregnancy! It causes miscarriages and birth defects. Can you just imagine some poor woman coming into contact with this rubella-infected kid, having all these problems or losing her baby because of it, and the kid's mom not feeling guilty at all because her kid's ok!!! And it all could have been prevented by a couple shots. That's pretty socially irresponsible, if you ask me.