As Susan Gregory Thomas documents in Buy Buy Baby: How Consumer Culture Manipulates Parents and Harms Young Minds, this generation of parents is anxious not to be taken for dupes, yet our skepticism can be superficial and capriciously directed. We are often, as Arthur Allen points out in his new book Vaccine, more willing to believe a random article on the internet than scientists who have spent their lives studying vaccines. Many of us have been oddly credulous about the anti-vaccine activists, some of whom are charlatans who make Merck look like the Boys & Girls Club. In addition to serving the worthy purpose of reminding us that every medical intervention has risks, many of these characters have terrified parents with vaccine fears that are simply ridiculous, in one case evoking the possibility of "brain-eating bugs." Some anti-vaccinators have even made a career of providing expert-witness testimony to defend defendants in "shaken baby" cases, claiming that the children's injuries come not from abuse but from shots.

Several parents interviewed for this article were particularly disturbed by the number of vaccines given to today's newborns. Indeed, babies do get more shots now than we did when we were kids. Several new vaccines were added in the 1990s, and that's clearly part of the reason so many people are up in arms. Some parents, while committed to the concept of vaccination, are now worried enough about potential side effects — or bad interaction between vaccines — that they are asking to have the shots spaced out. Many follow some version of the schedule devised by Stephanie Cave, vaccine skeptic and author of What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Vaccinations — often giving children just one shot at a time. Plenty of pediatricians are willing to accommodate patients who do this — though few willThe state of the health-care system may be contributing to the anti-vaccine revolt. present the option up front. Other parents staking out a middle ground on the issue have rejec