On Sat, 13 Jun 1998 11:49:20 -0400, Gloria Buoncristiano-Thai wrote:

>I don't know about all vaccines, but if a mom has natural immunity to
>measles (from having had the disease not the vaccine), this supposedly
>interferes with the vaccine given the baby.  I think this is the reason
>for moving the vaccine to be given at 15 months.

Gloria,

From what I understand, the MMR vaccine was originally given at 15
months, because the immature immune system couldn't produce as many
antibodies earlier than that.  It was switched to 12 (with 18 mo
booster) because the new generation of mothers who have been
vaccinated don't confer immunity to their babies the way those of us
who've had measles do.  In many places they're switching to 15 mo
again, because of the feeling that the 12 month shot is simply too
ineffective.

It stands to reason that breastfed babies don't need to be (and
probably shouldn't be) vaccinated for diseases to which their mothers
have antibodies as early as non-breastfed babies.  Unfortunately,
health systems tend to target the lowest common denominator, and thus
all our babies get jabbed as early as possible.

It infuriates me that this sort of trial and error, guesswork
approach to mass vaccination is being practised on our children,
considering the really scanty amount of long-term  research on safety
and efficacy that's been done.

Jennifer Landels, BA, CE
Vancouver BC