Carrie and Daniel Shafer of Palmerton have decided to not vaccinate their two sons, Daniel, 3, and Joseph, 2, after their older son was born and received the hepatitis B vaccine in the hospital.

"We couldn't understand why, because where would he pick up Hepatitis B from, just being born. We talked about, and decided he didn't need that. It's a blood-borne virus," Carrie Shafer says.That started the Shafers doing research.They asked their pediatrician for information but were disappointed that he gave them only American Pediatric Association materials, which recommend vaccines.When the practice refused to accept their boys as patients unless they were inoculated, the Shafers took them to Woodlands Healing Research Center in Quakertown.Woodlands gave the Shafers "both sides, to vax or not to vax. It gave us the idea that hey, this isn't something that has to be done, and we can research it," Shafer says."We just didn't feel comfortable at their ages to be putting chemicals in their bodies," Shafer says.In Pennsylvania, children starting school are required to have certain inoculations. But they can be exempted on religious, medical or moral/philosophical grounds. The Shafers claim the moral exemption for Daniel to attend preschool without having been vaccinated, Shafer says.Does she worry her children might infect infants too young to be vaccinated or those with immune disorders which prevent them from being vaccinated?"They can pick up anything from the flu to ... anything," she says. "You just have to do what's right and not live in fear. Babies and the elderly can pick up anything if they have a lowered immune system. It doesn't necessarily have to be the measles."She also cites the number of vaccines children get."In the 1950s, children were getting seven vaccines. Now they are getting 36 vaccines by the age of 6. That's a lot to be pumping into our kids. We are the only country that gives 36 vaccines," Shafer says."In the U.S., there hasn't been a case of anybody dying from measles, because we're healthy. We're not malnourished. The studies that we're seeing, that it's the deadliest childhood disease, are from Third World countries. We're healthier here. Kids have great immune systems," she says.Shafer says she and her husband haven't gotten much criticism for their decision."Everyone has to do their own thing, and parent in their own way," she says.