Colorado Springs Functional Medicine

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After the Baby is Born

My wife just delivered our third son.  The oldest was born in the hospital and the other two were born at home.  With my views and practices on health outcomes, I get a lot of questions about what we do during and after pregnancy with our kids.

After the Baby is BornWhat is of interest is that as a parent, and if you’re one too, all you want is your child to be healthy and happy.  The point of interest is that so many people have different ways of trying to achieve those outcomes, especially the healthy part.  Here’s the basic journey we took with our 3 boys.  As of yet, none have had an ear infection.  None have taken an antibiotic.  None has ever been given a fever reducer.  None, except for our oldest, has ever seen a traditional doctor.  The oldest went to two ‘well baby’ visits when we were fresh into the parenting thing.

We quickly realized that the sole purpose of the well visits was to give vaccines and since we were denying them, we were pretty confident in weighing and measuring our own children if we were really curious.  If there was a problem we were concerned about, we wouldn’t hesitate to got to a traditional doc but that hasn’t been the case as of yet.  I’m sure as they age, we’ll probably have a couple ER visits in our future.

After the Baby is Born

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Hepatitis B

Vaccine choice is under constant attack.  As of this writing, if you live in Colorado, you have a choice.  You can choose to get every single one, at the exact recommended interval.  You can choose to get a few here and a few there at any time you desire.  You can choose to not get any at all.

Just don’t make the decision blindly.  I don’t write this with intent to give you medical advice.  I write this with the intent of giving you parental choice.  Since I have small children and want the best for them, this is how my wife and I decide if we should vaccinate or not.

The Truth About Vaccines

Hepatitis B Vaccine:

If you have a traditional hospital birth, you have to decide within minutes of your baby being born if you want your little bundle to have the hep B vaccine.  It’s the very first shot your child is recommended to receive.  The child is also expected to get this shot at 1-2 months and 6-18 months for a total of 3 shots.

Is your child at risk for Hepatitis B?  It shouldn’t be the shot that shapes your opinion.  The risk of Hepatitis B should be what shapes your opinion.

According to the CDC’s Hepatitis B Vaccine Information Sheet, you be the judge.

Who is at risk for Hepatitis B?

• A baby whose mother is infected can be infected at birth;

• Children, adolescents, and adults can become infected by:

– contact with blood and body fluids through breaks in the skin such as bites, cuts, or sores;

– contact with objects that have blood or body fluids on them such as toothbrushes, razors, or monitoring and treatment devices for diabetes;

– having unprotected sex with an infected person;

– sharing needles when injecting drugs;

– being stuck with a used needle. (Does anyone else see the irony here?)

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