Hepatitis B Vaccine and my Newborn

Does my Newborn need the Hep. B vaccine, vitamin K shot, and silver nitrate shortly after birth?

If you are like me with my first child I had no idea these items were being administered to my precious newborn within the first 48 hours of life. It was never discussed before or during our stay at the hospital. It was given to my child without any of my knowledge. Pretty scarey! With my second child I am faced with the decision to choose to have this given to them. As I share my findings I want to use this blog to help other parents become educated in case you are unaware as I was. I highly encourage each parent(s) to make an educated decision as you do have the right to choose. In this post I am going to discuss the Hep. B Vaccine. I will discuss Vitamin K and silver nitrate in the next post.

What is Hep. B?
Hepatitis B is a viral infection which can cause chronic inflammation of the liver leading to cirrhosis, liver cancer, and possibly death.

When you read about Hepatitis B it doesn't sound good and you most certainly don't want your child to contact it, but you cannot let that alone scare you into going ahead without knowing all of the background. You must find the facts about the actual chance of your infant/child contacting the disease vs. the risks of recieving the vaccine.

Before we move on read this article which goes into great detail about the real risks of the disease vs. the vaccine: Facts About Hepatitis B -- The Disease and the Vaccine After you have read this I do not think I need to go into much more detail about the risks vs. benefits. Here are two quotes from Vaccination Liberation that I found to help paint a clear picture for me.

"Although young children are in the lowest risk category for contracting hepatitis, they are given three doses of hepatitis B vaccine by the age of 18 months, and then a fourth booster shot around 11-12 years of age. Birthing hospitals routinely inject all newborns with their first hepatitis B vaccination before they leave the hospital. The only way a newborn is at risk for hepatitis is if it is born to a mother with an active hepatitis B infection."

"The liver in a newborn baby does not begin to function until after the first 48 to 72 hours of life. The enzymes in mother's milk assist the liver in beginning to function. Receiving a hepatitis B vaccine within the first few hours of life does nothing to protect the newborn. Rather, the opposite is true, since the vaccine may compromise proper development of the immune system."

Why is this given to infants?
Please read this article by Sherry Tenpenny. She has spent her life researching vaccinations and great information on this topic.


What are the Ingredients in the Hep. B Vaccine (Recombivax)?You will have to check with the company your hospital or doctor uses, but here is an example:
recombinant hepatitis B Merck & Co., Inc.
800.672.6372 genetic sequence of the hepatitis B virus that codes for the surface antigen (HbSAg), cloned into GMO yeast, aluminum hydroxide, and thimerosal (mercury)

This article discusses each of the ingredients that are in vaccines to help you understand the risks of the vaccine.

Just because you vaccinate it does not mean your child will not get it. I know of a few people in my circle of friends that have had their child vaccinated, but still gotten some of the illnesses.

I want to add another link that discusses vaccinations as "big money." This is a very big issue in the vaccine industry that I wanted to pass along as it hidden to most people. http://www.healingdaily.com/conditions/vaccination.htm

There is so much more I could go into, but for tonight this is all I am going to put together. I hope this is helpful.

My Journey Through Childhood Vaccinations

Over the last few months I have had several people ask me to write about childhood vaccinations. This is a topic that many of you know I am very passionate about. I knew when I decided to start sharing my thoughts and research about such a controversial topic that it would take a lot of time and I kept putting it off. Since I am pregnant and due with my second child in a few months I am starting to research and get up to date again. I decided this would be a great time to share my journey and thoughts as I seek to make my decisions regarding vaccinating my second child.

My next post will be about the first decision a parent is faced with when their newborn is in the hospital, but right now I want take the time to share a little bit about my background with vaccinations and my first son. When my son was born I had thought about vaccinations, but had not done thorough research until he was a few months old. I encourage anyone that is expecting to do all of your research before your baby is born. When you have a newborn it isn't the easiest to be motivated to research and make such a big decision. Also, you have to be ready from the beginning as I learned the hard way. For example while we were in the hospital when my son had just been born I had no idea they had taken him to get a Hep. B vaccination! I thought I had time to decide and was later very disappointed that he had already had a vaccination and I didn't even know about it! So, obviously my son had his first shot in the hospital and then a select few at the first appointment it was offered at the Pediatricians office. From that point on because of much thought and research my husband and I made a decision to decline the rest of the vaccinations and revisit the idea when he was older. Our son is currently almost 2 years old and we are still not interested in giving him any vaccinations anytime soon. Why have we made this decision? I will begin sharing my thoughts and research in the next post.