Depending on whom you ask vaccines for your baby and toddler can be considered safe or unsafe. Rest assured that the vaccines that your children receive are recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Centers for Disease Control. Despite these recommendations, some parents choose not to give their children the vaccines. Some parents who choose not to vaccinate their children do so because of religious reasons, others choose not to give their children vaccines because they strongly oppose the vaccines, and some parents simply do not give their children vaccines because they lack the education about vaccines to make an informed decision.

To make the best decision in regards to vaccinating your child or not you need to know a lot more about vaccines than just the myths and facts. Numerous articles available can tell you about all of these negative factors of vaccines, such as they cause autism or other scary facts. These articles even cite some statistics and research studies to prove their point. However, what they do not do is give you the entire story about vaccines.

Here are some other facts about vaccines that you should know so you can make an educated decision in regards to vaccinating your child or not.

Fact one:
Vaccines will not cause your child's immune system to be weaker. Some parents think that because your child's body is relying on a vaccine that their natural immune system will be weakened. All that your child's body is doing is making antibodies against the germ to help their body fight the disease. This is done whether they are given the vaccine or if they get the disease naturally.

Fact two:
Vaccines are given to create the antibodies that are needed to fight the disease. Once your child receives the vaccine their body is going to start practicing fighting the disease because they will begin making the antibodies needed to fight off the disease. This works because if your child is ever exposed to a disease that they have been vaccinated against the antibodies are already in place to fight off the disease. This means that the child is not going to get sick because the body knows how to combat it already, hence the name immunity.

Fact three:
Parents are concerned that their children will get the disease from the immunization. This is impossible. The reason for that is that the vaccines are created from dead bacteria or viruses, or they are made from just part of the bacteria or viruses. Some vaccines are made from weakened live viruses, such as the chickenpox or MMR vaccine. These types of vaccines could give your child a very mild case of the disease. Moreover, a weakened version of the disease is always a better choice than the actual disease. However, children who have a weakened immune system might see some problems from these types of vaccines.

Fact four:
The chances of your child getting one of these diseases are extremely low because of all the other people who are immunized. However, if one parent is thinking about not getting their child immunized or does not get their child immunized more parents are going to do the same thing. Even if their friends are immunized if you do not immunize your child, you are running the risk of them getting the disease. For example, in 1989 and 1991 measles broke out in the United States due to a decline in the number of children who were immunized. Most of the children who contracted the disease had not received their immunizations.

Fact five:
The shot for the vaccines can be painful, but luckily, most kids get over it rather quickly. Even though the vaccine is not 100% effective, over 95% of the people who have been vaccinated for a disease are considered immune. This goes to show that in most cases the vaccine itself is a very effective weapon against the diseases themselves.

Fact six:
Even if your child is currently healthy, they still should be vaccinated. The reason for this is that vaccines are intended to help keep your kids healthy. They do this by protecting your child's body before the disease strikes. If you wait until your child has, the disease before you decide to vaccinate them it will be too late for the vaccine to work. The idea of the vaccine is to create immunity to the disease. The best time to get your child vaccinated is when they are healthy; in fact, some immunizations cannot be given if the child is running a fever or has a simple cold.

Fact seven:
Most children only have minor reactions to the vaccines. The most common reactions include redness and swelling where the shot was given, fever, and soreness at the injection site. In rare cases, vaccines can cause a severe reaction, such as seizures or even allergic reaction. Every year millions of children are vaccinated in the United States and most of them experience no significant side effects. If your child has a history of allergies to food or medication, or if they have had a bad reaction to a vaccine before be sure to inform the doctor before any vaccines are given.

Fact eight:
Research is ongoing to help improve the safety of immunizations. For example, the American Academy of pediatrics now recommends that doctors should use a diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis vaccine that only include a specific part of the pertussis cell rather than the entire killed cell. This has been shown to cause fewer side effects in children.

Fact nine:
A great concern of parents is that vaccines and thimerosal, which is an organic mercury compound that is used as a preservative in vaccines and has been used since the 1930s, causes autism. Numerous medical studies have been done on this claim and nothing has been found to link vaccines or thimerosal to autism. The rise in autism in recent years is due to a broader definition of autism, this means that it is being applied to more children who because they simply present various symptoms. It is also because there is more awareness among health professionals so it has led to more diagnoses.

Fact ten:
The diseases that your child is vaccinated against do still exist, but because of the effective use of the immunizations, the number of cases of these diseases has been greatly reduced. In fact immunizing your child against the disease is the best way to ensure that they won't get sick. These diseases are rare in the United States, but they still do exist in other parts of the world, which means you can still be exposed to them when you travel or your child can be exposed to the diseases by coming into contact with somebody who has traveled. For example, in 1994 polio was brought to Canada from India. The only reason it did not spread was that most of the people were already immunized against it. The only time you can safely stop immunizing against a certain disease is if the disease has been eradicated from the world, such as smallpox.

Fact eleven:
Before vaccines are given to any child, they are tested in a lab to ensure their safety. After they pass those tests they are given to, a select group of people to determine what types of side effects can occur. In most cases, the side effects that are associated with vaccines are minor. In fact, new vaccines are licensed only after they have gone through a very thorough laboratory studies and clinical trials. Even after they have been licensed, the safety monitoring continues because you never know what will happen. For example, in 1999, a rotavirus vaccine was taken off the market because it was linked to an increased risk of a bowel obstruction on young infants. In 2006, a new type of rotavirus became available and it has not been found to have this increased risk.

Fact twelve:
While some vaccines make you immune from the disease for life after you have received the series of shots, others require you to get a booster shot every so often for continued protection. For example, whooping cough vaccine does not give you immunity for life, which is part of the reason that there are still cases of it today. Doctors now recommend that adults and adolescents receive a booster shot along with the tetanus and diphtheria booster. Other vaccines like the flu vaccine must be given every year because it doesn't prevent infection from all of the viruses that can cause flu-like symptoms.

In order to ensure that your child is up to date on all of their immunizations you will need to keep track of when they received their shots and what shots they received. To help keep track of this information an immunization card can be given to you at your doctor's office.