Parents Talk: To Give or Not to Give the Gardasil Vaccine?

Parents Talk is a weekly feature on Patch where we reach out to those moms, dads, grandparents, etc. looking for a resources and information (or maybe just a sounding board) to talk about parenting. We invite and encourage you to tell your friends about Parents Talk, too. After all, we can’t build a community without your help. We hope that you will contribute your ideas, questions, anecdotes and advice to other parents in your hometown.

In the coming months, we will also be organizing a Parents Council that will help answer some of your questions and offer practical, real world solutions. The council will consist of experts (i.e. other parents) who can speak firsthand about everything from potty training to the best pediatricians to surviving driver’s education with a teenager.

We hope you’ll use Parents Talk as one of the many resources you can find for raising happy, healthy children.

Please take a moment to weigh in with your comments below.

This week's discussion topic:

During a Florida Tea Party/CNN debate back in September, Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann blasted Governor Rick Perry after he mandated that sixth grade girls in Texas be vaccinated against HPV, or the human papilloma virus, a sexually transmitted disease that has been linked to some forms of cervical cancer.

Bachmann went on to say that the HPV vaccine had the potential to cause dangerous side effects like mental retardation (a claim she insisted came from the mother of an actual child who received the vaccine) yet both the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say the vaccine is safe.

My daughter isn't quite old enough yet to get the vaccine (it's recommended for ages 9-26) but it's not far off. What do you think? Has your daughter gotten the vaccine? Were there any strange side effects? Would you do it again and why?