for modern medicine when necessary.
for knowledge.
for natural remedies.
for a mind to study.
for a will to choose.
UPDATE: 2/1/2015, One more reason why no one can judge anyone else on their decisions. I may have discovered the reason I had the nagging feeling to not vaccinate. Recently I was diagnosed with a genetic "defect." A gift from BOTH of my parents. It is called a MTHFR defect. See www.mthfr.net. This defect makes it extremely difficult for the body to detox and it creates a very over responsive immune system, which may be why I suffered from systemic yeast for years and chronic fatigue. Here is a discussion question (answered by Dr Lynch who is THE expert on this topic) about why someone with this defect should consider NOT immunizing. You will find his comment about 4 down from the question. EVERY SINGLE ONE of my children has this mutation. We do not know if they are homozygous like me, having the defect from both parents or heterozygous only getting it from me. But that test should be done for the benefit of our grandchildren I believe. DR Lynch says 75% of his patients are heterozygous and 40% are homozygous. It could be possible that up to 40% of the population have this defect that I do. That might explain at least some of the severe vaccine reactions in the population. Just one more thing to consider.
Here's my short immunization story. I had doubts with my first born. But how do you argue with a Dr? And we DIDN'T have the internet. He was fully immunized up till school entrance. Second born, I still had my doubts, only they were stronger. Someone loaned me A Shot in the Dark. I worried. He went up through his first MMR. Third child was born. I waited until he was 9 months for his first set of shots. He came down with explosive diarrhea and broke out in a rash all over. I put my foot down and decided not to do it after that. The only thing I can say, is the Spirit seemed to be screaming at me DO NOT VACCINATE. Over the next few years I read a few more books. I continued feeling like I should not vaccinate. One of the contraindications to a shot is family history of neurological problems (among other things). My children have an uncle with epilepsy. I have long felt that the reason I was not to immunize was because of boy #2. I'll never be able to prove that cutting short his shots, saved him from anything, but that is my motherly thought.
I met a friend whose daughter actually collapsed after her shots. We kind of studied and decided together and it helped to have someone who did not question or ridicule my decision. From the 4th child on we did not vaccinate, until he was 10 and stepped on a rusty nail. They all got one round of DT at that point. The oldest ones have chosen to get immunized against the major childhood illnesses as they have decided to serve missions. I have things that I do to help strengthen their immune system in hopes that there will not be a reaction.
In time, the internet started, and wow. Research everywhere. I started at The National Vaccine Information Center, because the founder wrote one of the books I read. I have to say it is one of the best sites. It is not as emotional as some and more grounded in science.
From memory, here are a list of reasons why we chose not to vaccinate.
First, it never sat right with me, that the approach was to scare me into vaccinating. I am a firm believer in 2 Tim 1: 7. I'm not into the spirit of fear thing.
I know that my own experience does not translate to world experience, but I had whooping cough and survived. My dad and brother had measles, no issue. I did not get the measles when they had it so I wonder if I had already had it, and was immune. We all had chicken pox, and my cousins had mumps, which I also did not catch being around them. (And my Granny was a Christian Scientist and I grew up with no mom, so I can count on one hand how many times I saw a Dr growing up.)
I've had an interest in natural health as long as I have been studying vaccinations. Most of that knowledge has influenced the vaccination decision. Including:
Nutrition is critical to wellness. The better nutrition, the better health, the less fear, the easier to recover, and so forth. So,
Sugar wipes out your immune system. If you drink tons of soda and eat tons of candy and packaged food, you might want to pray hard for your immune system. Actually don't. Stop sugar. Praying seems dumb now that you know you are intentionally hurting yourself. This may be why our children have never been sickly overall. They get a sore throat now and then, colds, stomach aches and headaches, but that's about it. They bounce back quick and I usually use home remedies for all of it.
We don't drink milk! I can hear the collective gasp. What about calcium? Um, hogwash! If you really want to read more than you ever thought possible about how harmful dairy products are (seriously don't go there if you don't want your dairy consumption ruined), then read the Not Milk site. Milk causes congestion and mucus in the body. Yuck! Yes we use cheese, sour cream, and other dairy on occasion, but no milk drinking here. Only on cold cereal about once a week. I'm not sure anyone in our house has EVER had a sinus infection. Probably because of this one thing.
Bring on the heat! I like fevers. Say what??? This chick is whack! I know, right? Early on I read this cool little book written by Dr. Mendehlson. How to Raise a Healthy Child In Spite of Your Dr. I learned that fevers are support for the immune system. It was rare for me to give my feverish children anything for their fever. I knew it was helping their little bodies get stronger. There were exceptions. If the fever went a very long time, say more than a day, I would give them Tylenol. Or if it was very high. Now see, very high to me is VERY HIGH. So when little Jefferson was extremely ill on Christmas one year and his fever was.....I don't think I should tell you.....ok, I'll tell you. When I saw it was 106 (no his brain did not fry, wait, haha) I was alarmed. Called the Dr, gave him Tylenol, and kept him in a tepid tub a good part of the day. He lived! As I knew he would.
Our family has been very healthy. We did experience whooping cough in our house when my youngest was two. The three youngest children had it, along with my fully immunized husband, mother-in-law, and best friend. You can't really blame outbreaks on un-immunized CHILDREN because there are so many adults whose vaccines have worn off! During the day, they were COMPLETELY normal and asymptomatic. But at night, Katie bar the door! The first few weeks I slept with baby in the bed and husband. There were also 2 children on the floor in our room, so I could make sure they did not choke on their coughing. I must admit I was nervous, but we treated with the natural remedies we knew and I was ever so thankful she was two and not two months. But, if you happen to get whooping cough, you might want to know this. Wish I did. After a few weeks, it was just a whole lot of coughing for nearly four months.
I won't be giving my opinion about the recent measles snafu, but let me say this, I REALLY don't appreciate the vitriolic, accusatory, assumptions about "non-vaccinators." People talk about them like they are ignorant, knuckle dragging, idiots living in the Appalachians, which are beautiful by the way. I could have a degree in public health for the amount of hours I have put in studying about this issue. I don't take lightly that I have chosen to possibly take on childhood diseases mano a mano. That is WHY I have spent thousands?, at least hundreds of hours studying it. From this point forward, we really don't have children for childhood diseases anymore. They are mostly grown up, but I know what to do and am confident with the choices we have made. I cannot and will not put my children's lives into the hands of those who have an agenda. You think drug companies have some kind of altruistic interest in your children? I can believe most doctors do, but I do not believe a drug company does. We are talking about BILLIONS of dollars of profit. I'm not against profit, but the bigger the profit, the bigger the incentive to protect it. I call it "conspiring men."
And the negatives.
There's the ingredients. Do you know what's in them? Stuff like mercury, aluminum, formaldehyde. And other stuff like aborted fetal tissue, chick embryo stuff, sheep, calf, and monkey stuff, guinea pig stuff. All stuff I know I want to inject into my children's blood stream. Just saying. I'll take my veggies and supplements thank you.
There's the sheer number of shots! I remember getting my "shots" in a gun in my arm at school before it started. That's it! Maybe I was supposed to have more. And my baby book says I did, but there were like what? FOUR? Now there are THIRTY TWO vaccines to be given by the time a child is ready to enter school. Does this not seem excessive to even the average person? Thirty nine challenges to the immune system in a few years! And remember those ingredients in the previous paragraph? In any other circumstance, if a total stranger came up and said, "hey, I'm just going to inject this disease in your kid, and don't worry it'll help him because we also have aborted fetus cells, monkey cells, mercury, and formaldehyde"....would you seriously consider saying yes to that kind of crazy?
Most of them are not proven to do what they claim.
Protect my baby from WHAT??? Ok, I can concede that it might make sense to protect children from polio, measles, pertussis, diptheria, but hepatitis B, IN THE HOSPITAL? A baby? Who doesn't even have an immune system yet. Who we don't even know what they might react to yet. Seriously? Hep B is contracted from risky sex and drugs. Why does my baby need that? Yeah. And DON'T even get me started on Gardasil, one of the most dangerous vaccines there is! I'm not going to inject my daughters to protect them from being sexually permissive! I'm going to educate them/teach them what's right and encourage them to live it. But that's just me. And chicken pox. Really? I thought that was so ridiculous that when my bff's kids got chickenpox, I ran over and brought my kids to share suckers. The most benign of all childhood diseases and they are now trying to convince us that all children will die without it.
So, those are the main points. I'd have to go looking up stuff to give more reasons that don't matter anymore. Long ago a friend and I disagreed about immunizations. I was right she, was wrong. I know she thought she was right and I was wrong. Then we both kind of realized. She was right and I was right. We were both doing the best we knew for our families. She took her risks, I took mine. It didn't mean we loved our children any less because we had come to different conclusions. I decided then, it's hard to vaccinate, and it's hard not to. I think it's harder when you choose not to, because every Dr, every friend, every teacher questions you and looks at you like you are careless with the lives of your children. It's just not so. I love my children every bit as much as anyone who chooses to inject their children and protect them. I just choose to protect them in another way.
I am so very glad that when I began my research so many years ago, that there was no internet. There was just me and a book and a rare other parent here and there seeking the truth as well, to encourage me. There was not heated public debates and the turning of friends on each other and well funded publications stoking it all.
As a final note, it is very disconcerting to me how members of my own faith are treating each other. I know the articles that are being quoted from years gone by to justify attacking one another, but it's not justified. Perhaps you should listen to the news conference that was held this week. It applies to more than gender issues. Even though I would have proofed this article a bit more, I like this gal's response to those of our faith who are using old information as doctrinal as opposed to policy suggestion. http://wholejourneymama.com/a-case-for-mormons-who-dont-vaccinate/
I've spent a good part of my parenting years hiding in the no-vaccine shadows. I hid it from doctors, most friends, and filled out the proper exemption forms for school. I guess that's the end of that. :-) The four oldest were updated by their own choice preparing to serve missions. I always tried to load them up with greens and megadoses of Vitamin C to decrease their odds of any reactions. We've been lucky. I suppose we'll have to discuss rubella for our daughters as they graduate because they haven't had it. Other than that, no more vaccines in our house. That's my story.
Final thought. Logic anyone? Thank you Matt.
See my mad crazy blood shooting from my eyes posts on my rant page.
