Vaccination is an extremely controversial topic these days. Whatever side of the aisle you may fall with regard to your opinion about vaccination, one thing is for certain. The choice to vaccinate or not to vaccinate is a decision that has the potential to greatly impact the health of you and most importantly, your children for the rest of their lives.
As a result, this decision should not be taken lightly and it should not be made in a vacuum. In other words, don’t just take your pediatrician’s word that shots are safe. It is possible for doctors to be wrong. They are human, after all. In reality, your doctor is simply parroting the standard line about vaccination from the American Medical Association (AMA) playbook. If you think you are getting their honest assessment, think again.
You should neither assume shots are dangerous just because your friend down the street doesn’t vaccinate her kids.
The key here is education; making an informed decision by investigating the facts with an open mind and knowing exactly what you are getting yourself into before you commit to do anything.
With that in mind, the list below will briefly detail to you the reasons why I did not vaccinate my own children and will never consider a shot for them for any reason even in the event of a so called “pandemic.” Please remember that I come from a medical family. My own Father (retired) is a MD as is my brother and my cousin (who was a pediatrician, now deceased). My husband’s mother is a nurse. There is no shortage of opinions on this subject in my family, I can assure you.
So, don’t use family pressure as an excuse to do what you need to do once you investigate the facts for yourself and make an informed decision. There is no more foolish choice than to do something because it is someone else’s wishes and not your own. It is your body, after all and these are your children. There is no one on earth who knows what is best for them except you and your spouse – not even and most especially not your doctor! Make your decisions feeling confident in this knowledge.
#1: Pharmaceutical Companies Can’t Be Trusted
Let’s just list a couple of the (many) times over the past 10 years where a drug or drug regimen has been deemed unsafe and downright dangerous and yet the pharmaceutical companies covered it up FOR YEARS in order to continue raking in the profits for as long as possible. This should be an easy task.
How about hormone replacement therapy for women? The standard of care for a menopausal woman for over 40 years was HRT. Even women with no complaints were advised that this treatment was helpful as it reduced chances for a heart attack and cancer and even helped them feel younger. Were any, I repeat ANY of these claims true? Not a whit. Breast cancer risk is doubled for women on HRT, 41% increased risk for stroke, 29% increased risk of heart attack, and the list goes on and on.
How about Vioxx? Before this dangerous drug that caused thousands of deaths from heart attack and stroke was finally removed from the market, evidence surfaced that Merck had withheld information and even doctored reports on its dangers years before. As of November 2007, Merck had agreed to pay $4.85 billion to settle approximately 27,000 cases from victims claiming injury or death of a family member using Vioxx. While this is a huge sum of money, in reality it represents less than one year’s profits for Merck. Does it pay for a drug company to lie about a drug’s safety and efficacy? You betcha. The risk of payouts to victims from getting sued is lower than the lure of huge and long lasting profits while a drug’s patent protection remains in effect.
I could cite other examples, but I’m trying to keep this post as pithy as possible. Please comment if you have other examples of pharmaceutical company deceit. It will help others reading this blog who might still be on the fence about this issue.
Remember the old proverb, “Fool me once, shame on you; Fool me twice, shame on me”? These corporate behemoths have proven themselves to be completely untrustworthy based on past behavior. In a court of law, if such a company were an actual witness, an attorney would never put them on the stand due to a serious lack of credibility. Are you really going to take these companies at their word that these shots are safe when money and profits are impacted by their answer?
#2: ALL Vaccines are Loaded with Chemicals and other Poisons
Here is a list of some of the damaging ingredients in the vaccines on the market today:
MSG, antifreeze, phenol (used as a disinfectant), formaldehyde (cancer causing and used to embalm), aluminum (associated with alzheimer’s disease and seizures), glycerin (toxic to the kidney, liver, can cause lung damage, gastrointestinal damage and death), lead, cadmium, sulfates, yeast proteins, antibiotics, acetone (used in nail polish remover), neomycin and streptomycin. And the ingredient making the press is thimerosol (more toxic than mercury, a preservative still used in many vaccines, not easily eliminated, can cause severe neurological damage as well as other life threatening autoimmune disease). These vaccines are grown and strained through animal or human tissue, like monkey and dog kidney tissue, chick embryo, calf serum, human diploid cells (the dissected organs of aborted fetuses), pig blood, horse blood and rabbit brain.
Can you imagine injecting this stuff directly into your child’s blood? At least if you ate these ingredients, your body would have a chance to detoxify and eliminate them before any permanent damage could be done. But, to inject them right into the blood is the most damaging and lethal approach imaginable. How could anyone possibly think injection of such a cocktail of poison could in any way help preserve and enhance your child’s health?
It sure didn’t make any sense to me. And, here I am 12 years later, still very happy with my decision NOT to vaccinate my children.
Sadly, I know many Moms with 20/20 hindsight who greatly regret their decision to vaccinate. I don’t know ANYONE who has not vaccinated and regrets their decision, however. Which group do you want to be a part of in 10 years?
#3: Fully Vaccinated Children are the Unhealthiest, Most Chronically Ill Children I Know
One thing that completely confounds me is that there are no studies comparing the health of unvaccinated children to the health of vaccinated children. This seems like such an obvious study and it should have been conducted decades ago. Why hasn’t it been done yet? My guess is because the health of the nonvaccinated children would so totally blow away the health of the vaccinated children that the discussion about the dangers of vaccines could finally be put to bed and the case would be closed emphatically in favor of those that accuse shots of causing chronic illness and auto immune disease.
Take an informal poll of the folks in your circle and see for yourself. Observation is a powerful tool, so put it to use. The kids with the most problems – allergies, asthma, ADHD, autism, coordination and other gross motor issues, etc sure seem to be the ones that are right on track with their vaccination schedule, don’t you think?
Even more powerful, ask Moms with several children, some of whom are vaccinated and some who are not. In my own circle, the Moms I know who have one or two older kids who are fully vaccinated and the younger kids who did not get any shots tell me that, hands down, that the unvaccinated children are healthier and have less problems.
Someday there will be a study that shows that unvaccinated children have many less health problems than their vaccinated peers. Don’t wait until this study is finally done because it will be too late for your child.
#4: Other Countries Are Waking Up to the Dangers of Vaccines
In 1975, Japan raised its minimum vaccination age to 2 years old, The country’s infant mortality subsequently plummeted to such low levels that Japan now enjoys one of the lowest level in the Western world (#3 at last look). In comparison, the United States’ infant mortality rate is #33.
In Australia, the flu vaccine was recently suspended (April 2010) for children under 5 because an alarming number of children were showing up in the emergency rooms with febrile convulsions or other vaccine reactions within hours of getting this shot.
Need I say more?
#5: A Number of Vaccines Have Already Had Problems/Been Removed from the Market
Here is a brief list of some of the vaccines that have caused serious injury in recent years. Please comment with others that you know of if they are not on this list:
- In Feb 2002, GlaxoSmithKline removed the Lyme Disease vaccine from the market citing poor sales when in fact a number of folks who received the vaccine reported symptoms worse than the disease itself such as incurable arthritis or neurological impairment.
- The Rotavirus vaccine (Rotashield) was removed from the market in 1999 due to an association between the vaccine and life threatening bowel obstruction or twisting of the bowl! Interestingly, my pediatrician at the time (who was a lifelong friend of our family) had highly recommended that this vaccine be given to my newborn baby at the time. I trusted my instincts and said no to the shot – am I glad I did! My pediatrician (remember, lifelong family friend) subsequently dropped me as a patient. Guess he wasn’t such a friend after all!
- A warning was issued concerning the second Rotavirus vaccine (Rotateq) in 2007 as it caused the same twisting of the bowel problem in 28 infants (16 of which required intestinal surgery). This second vaccine has not yet been removed from the market as far as I know.
- Another vaccine that has had a lot of problems but is not yet withdrawn is the Gardasil vaccine for adolescent girls. Fainting, paralysis, slurred speech are just a few of the reactions reported and yet this vaccine continues to stay on the market. At least 1600 adverse events have been reported since its approval in 2006, yet doctors are continuing to recommend this shot to their patients. Why this vaccine hasn’t already been removed from the market is astonishing.
If the vaccines above have had serious problems, the others probably do too as vaccine manufacturers follow the same basic formula when coming up with each new shot.
#6 You Can Always Get Vaccinated, But You Can Never Undo a Vaccination
Procrastination is usually considered a character flaw, but in the case of vaccination, delaying the decision for as long as possible plays to your advantage. The longer you wait to vaccinate your child, the better. A child’s immune system continues to develop for years after birth. The blood/brain barrier does not fully develop until adolescence. The longer you wait, the more likely your child’s immune system will be able to handle the onslaught with minimal damage.
If you don’t know what to do, don’t do anything!
Conversely, you can never undo a vaccination. There are holistic therapies that can detox a child from the vaccine’s poison, but the damage that is done can never be 100% repaired. And, I have NEVER met a fully vaccinated child that is healthier and more robust than a well nourished, unvaccinated child. Period.
While I would like to convince you to never vaccinate your child, if I can simply convince you to delay it for a few years that is certainly better than vaccinating a baby. If you can simply commit to waiting until your child is school age to vaccinate, so much the better than if you vaccinate as a toddler and so on. Time is on your side and waiting is the best policy when it comes to shots.
By the time your child is older, more research will have been done, you will have an opportunity to learn more and become more comfortable with your decision to wait. Who knows? Your attitude of wait and see may turn out to be permanent.
Sarah, TheHealthyHomeEconomist.com
|
|
{ 313 comments… read them below or add one }
What's your view on vaccines for things you know you may be at risk for? Specifically, my husband was pecked in the eye by one of our chickens a couple of months ago. It scratched his cornea pretty badly, and the doctor at the emergency room recommended a tetanus vaccine. When we were dubious, he basically ridiculed us "Adults can't get autism you know" stressed what a nasty disease tetanus is, and stressed that tetanus lives in the ground, chickens are dirty, peck in the dirt, etc. and that this injury was a prime risk for tetanus.
In the end, I was still dubious but told my husband it was his decision since he's an adult, and he decided to get the shot. He wouldn't have just gotten a random shot because he was due for it, but because he had possibly been exposed, he decided to do it.
I wish we'd been better informed beforehand about things like how likely it is to get tetanus at all from a dirty puncture wound these days, what the treatment is if you do get it, side effects, long term effects, etc. Luckily it wasn't a small child that I had to make a decision for.
Also, any thoughts on how to be informed ahead of times in situations like this? Are there certain situations where vaccines will be recommended other than the "standard" vaccination schedule for children? Are there certain illnesses or injuries where vaccines are standard treatment for, that we can read up on ahead of time in case we ever find ourselves in that type of situation again?
One other note, while we were there the doctor also tried to talk my husband into a vaccine for whooping cough, which he said they now recommend for adults as that is apparently (according to him) making a comeback. We declined, of course, but people may be interested to know that they could face some pressure to be vaccinated even if they visit a doctor (or emergency room) for something totally unrelated.
Hey Audry,
My dad is a medical reporter and has researched vaccines for years. The only vaccines I have had are the ones the doctors give you as a baby (before we knew the harm of vaccines) and my tetanus shot before I went on a trip to Mexico. The tetanus shot is literally the only shot I have had in the last 20 years. This was the only one my dad allowed me to have (because of where I was going.) So just be encouraged that of all the vaccines this one is probably the least to harm your husband.
I have refused a tetanus shot for my eldest child when he fell down the stairs and ended up with a cut above his eye. The doctor in the ED had it all ready to go and was just looking over my sons notes, when he questioned my decision to not vaccinate. I was about to tell him where he could shove that needle (rather than in my child) so I am glad that he stopped and did the right thing (unlike the nurses who whisked away the same child at birth and gave vit k and hep b shots without my consent, and after already telling them I was refusing to vaccinate!)
I have been ridiculed by many health professionals for my INFORMED decision, but I stand strong in my beliefs and my decisions.
Giving a tetanus shot after the fact is a waste of time and $. You should know also that getting the tetanus shot includes the D and aP portions, so you are getting three in one.
You should know that if you are to get any vaccine for a cut, that the proper shot in that case is the gamma globulin shot which would give you the immunities now when you need them. The tetanus shot will not make immunities for another two weeks.
Furthermore, the best treatment for a cut that could make you at risk for tetanus is scrupulous cleaning and hydrogen peroxide. Tetanus is anaerobic and cannot live in the presence of oxygen.
@Cindy: you are lucky to have had a doctor wait and ask you a question. I have had doctors in the ER ready to call CPS and take custody of my children for not vaxing. At least he stopped and asked. Your doctor also had your records at hand. Lucky.
actually, you can get both the tetanus and diptheria vaccine separate, just not the pertussis vax. and, actually the shot can prevent tetanus from occurring, if you’ve gotten a cut. it just doesn’t do anything if you already have tetanus. but antibiotics can take care of that.
but anyway, a tetanus shot for an indoor fall? i understand one for a deep cut that may have gotten feces in it, but one for an indoor cut that is properly washed out and taken care of seems a little overkill. my son got bit by an indoor dog above the eye, and when i took him to a clinic i wrote down that i am delaying vaccines, but still asked the doctor his opinion. i was VERY surprised when he said, if delaying vaccines is your personal choice, then that’s your personal choice. of course, i recommend getting the tetanus shot, but i think he’ll be fine.”
Actually I have been told that you are no longer able to just get a tetanus vaccine, they are all 3-in-1 now.
Alzheimers disease is autism for adults .. vaccines are loaded with aluminum and aluminum toxicity is linked with dementia risk. So, no I don't do tetanus shots either.
What is that about? First of all, they are NOT the same. My main line of work is assessing individuals with cognitive issues – some of the Autistic individuals are more intelligent than you and I. Alzheimer’s is a genetic condition with some environmental factors that DO NOT include exposure aluminum. That has been “debunked.” On the same note, the link between Autism and aluminum has also been proved as a fraud- it looks like someone else with a financial motive joined the dark side.
Sounds like you are reading all the “research” put out by the vaccine industry. Why don’t you read the other side? Alzheimers and aluminum buildup in the body are most definitely linked. We will have a lot of young people getting alzheimer’s in the coming decades that was previously unheard of. Very scary scenario. Not just exposure from vaccines which is a big enough source of heavy metals but also from soda cans etc.
I agree. The flu shot and other vaccines are poison to the neurological system.
Actually they said the other day that 1 out of 8 Americans has Alzheimers. That is astounding.
Shanon\’s last post: No Bib- No Socks- No Problem
One of the main features in an autistic person is high heavy metal content believed to be caused by an inability to rid the body of these metals properly. Alzheimers patients also have a build up of heavy metal in their system, specifically the brain, which causes it to deteriorate and the lobes to spread from each other which inhibits proper communication between areas of the brain. It is the very much the same thing, just a little different in its manifestation. Just like measles and chicken pox and allergies and all diseases that cause rashes are the same – they may not be the same VIRUS but the body’s response is the same. The virus goes to the areas of the body that white blood cells can’t go to – the micro capillaries, specifically of the skin. Your body responds to things in basically the same way to similar types of things. The response ability and protocol may be hereditary but the triggers are purely from life.
Just a note – I know that allergies are not a virus but it is the body over responding to foreign antigens. Contact rashes are those antigens in the body in areas where the immune system can not get rid of them. All this information is easy to find and understand.
Alzheimer’s disease is NOT “autism for adults.” I take great offense at this statement, as it is clearly wrong and uneducated. I am a speech pathologist who currently works with both children with autism, as well as geriatric patients, including many with Alzheimer’s disease. Let me assure you, these two conditions do not have the same neurological base in the brain, they do not present in the same manor, their genetic component is not identical. There are many exercises adults can do during their lifetime, both physical and cognitive, to reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s. The same cannot be said for Autism.
I encourage you not to spread these false statements with parents and individuals who may not know the difference. I have a Master’s degree in this subject, what are your qualifications, Sarah, the Healthy Economist, to make this blanket statment?
I will not even begin to discuss your views on vaccinations. While I support every parent’s right to choose individually for their children, I think it is highly irresponsible of you, as a non medical professional, to state, “Doctors can be wrong,” and “Pharmaceutical companies can’t be trusted.” Yes, doctors certainly can be wrong, but they have been to medical school, and you have not, and therefore I will give my doctor’s recommendations more weight than a blog online that is heavily weighted with personal preferences and not medicine and science.
Keep on worshiping those white coats, Rachel!
Why don’t you take a look at a post I put out today that shows how much money doctors are making from prescribing you drugs? Drug kickbacks – now THERE’S a concept that I’m sure they were taught in medical school. How to best make money from the sheeple.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist\’s last post: The Weekly Comment Spotlight
Sarah, why are you so condescending and rude to people who oppose you? Haven’t you ever heard the expression “You catch more flies with honey”? If this was truly important to you then I would think you would be more humble and sympathetic to those who don’t agree. Instead you come off arrogant and cold and it almost seems as if you delight in upsetting someone. Truth will withstand any form of scrutiny but your response sends people away with their fingers plugged in their ears. I found your entire article abrasive and haughty. With all the exclamation points and CAPITAL LETTERS it was hard not to view it as an aggressive scare tactic. If there was any truth to it, I’m afraid it passed me by as I can’t respect the manner in which you addressed the issue. One more note, my child has been vaccinated, and I breastfed the first year ensuring the benefits of my immune system being passed to him. He is healthy and vibrant. Never has he had an ear infection, the flu or any other such maladies that seem to plague so many young children. The worst he’s had is a diaper rash. I do believe that much of the reason is his diet. We are very careful about what he eats and he takes an all natural vitamin every day. I am a careful, perceptive, protective and loving mom. I wish you would not portray those of us who have made informed decisions to vaccinate as anything contrary to that. I did my reading; I did my research, I hassled many doctors, RN’s, homeopathic specialists, alternative medicine doctors, etc. and I found the risks of not vaccinating far more terrifying. I vaccinated my son and I don’t regret it. If there is a resurgence of polio, german measles, etc. then I will rest assured that my sweet son will not be at risk. I am always reading, reading to learn. I don’t want to win, I want to do what is best for my child.
I think it’s ironic that Sarah replied to almost every comment, except for this one, which is so well written and expressed.
Betty\’s last post: From November
As the mother of a child with Autism I do believe there is A DEFINITE LINK BETWEEN VACCINATIONS AND AUTISM. I do not know about Alzheimer’s as I never done any research on the subject.
During labor I had an infection and when my son was born they did a spinal tap and pumped him full of antibiotics AND gave him his Hep B shot. I continued to vaccinate him per my doctor’s instructions. He was crawling, walking and talking early. My son was a vibrant little boy who responded to his name, understood when I asked him a question, laughed and said words. At 18 months BOOM! It was like he lost his words, he started lining up toys, walking on tip toes. THERE ARE MILLIONS OF PARENTS OUT THERE WHO BELIEVE THE MMR SHOT CAUSED AN ADVERSE REACTION IN THEIR CHILDREN AND THOSE CHILDREN NOW HAVE AUTISM. I believe there is a genetic component that may make you more susceptible to autism, just like certain types of cancer or even Alzheimer’s. But something has to trigger it.
How do we know all children can handle the “junk” put in these shots? Maybe it’s not a one size fits all type of deal. And the pediatricians “the research says, the research says” What about all the parents that witnessed with their own eyes what these shots did to their children?
Am I worried something will happen to my son now that he is not getting his vaccines. NO. I’m more worried that if I do choose to vaccinate him, he will again lose the few words he has started to say. That he will end up WORSE than before. That all the effort and time and tears that have been put into trying to help him, trying to make him better will be for nothing.
Like sara said, you can choose to vaccinate at any time but you can’t choose to say wait I changed my mind, take it out. Or it’s hurting him, take it out.
It’s a personal choice. May not be right for everyone but Sara is entitled to her opinion as everyone else is and this is her blog so I guess if we don’t like what she is saying we have the choice to not read it.
Mary your comment truly touched my heart. I too have vaccinated my little one and came upon this blog merely by accident. Sarah, while I applaud your efforts to give mothers and fathers a different point of view – you failed at accomplishing your goal. Your blog was riddled with emotional outbursts, clouded conclusions. As a reader, I want you to tell me HOW you came to your conclusion. Quote other activists and physicians on this side and give me the FACTS. I’m a big girl I can draw my own conclusions, but I can’t do so when you do not give me a clear avenue that there is true cause and effect here. Your leaving out some very pertinent factors such as diet and environment. My daughter will be 1 in a few weeks and she has not had an ear infection and ANY illness since I brought her home from the hospital. I breast fed for 6 months passing on my immunity and I only feed her organic food which I puree and make for her. I also stay home with her, keeping her environment clean – since germs get passed around in daycare’s (not all, but some so I decided not to take the chance in her first year of life).
I think you do a disservice to your arguments when you cloud them with emotional rancor and not clear evidence-based reporting. Should I trust you, a person with no medical background and fails to support her conclusions with facts over my own physician? What would you do in my shoes? If I told you to feed your child a jar of (fill in the blank – and my argument is filled with adjectives – it makes you strong, beautiful, smart) and your doctor told you not to – would you trust me?
New medical research has linked Alzheimer’s with plaque billed up in the brain – the same kind of plaque that builds up in the heart. There is a deep correlation between those who have heart disease/high cholesterol and Alzheimer’s. Heavy metals? Autism? Not sure you drew a strong correlations between the two for me to consider it credible.
Mary, with all due respect, the commenters were aggressively rude to Sarah and pretty much called her article, “deception”. It is very disheartening to have people come to a blog and make a judgment based on so little information as “Fry” and Rachel seem to have done. I would highly recommend that if someone disagrees with the article, to wait and fully research the subject and THEN make a comment, if needed, and be polite about it. It is like being in someone’s home; you just don’t treat the host with disrespect, even when you disagree. I have known many highly educated people that did NOT have all the facts, Master’s or not. Make your case in a way that helps others see what you see. Most people are really nervous about going against mainstream ideas. We DO have to make the best decision we can, and it takes all of us pulling together to get the information that we need. Please don’t shoot the messenger. I have visited with several parents who told me unequivocally that they KNEW their child was vaccine injured. No way would I ever try to dismiss their experience because someone else disagreed. We really have to understand that everyone’s experience is different and we all understand life’s many complex issues at DIFFERENT times in our lives. In the end, you are responsible. Not the government, not CPS, not your family, friends, etc, just the parents. That is who must have room to decide and then go forward. Buyer Beware; not everyone has you or your child’s best interest at heart. Thanks Sarah, for a place to come and discuss these IMPORTANT issues for everyone.
Just because someone is vaccinated does not mean that they will not contract the disease. If there is a pandemic of some sort (polio, etc) vaccinated folks can contract the diseases as well. In fact, there was recently a whooping cough outbreak in my state and the 13 children hospitalized were all up-to-date on their vaccinations.
Rachel, doctors have gone to medical school but they do not learn ANYTHING of the drugs they administer or prescribe. It is just not a part of their job.
Source: How to Raise a Healthy Child in Spite of Your Doctor, written by a pediatrician, Robert S. Mendelsohn. “Although American medical schools teach their students very little about pharmacology, they do teach them to exploit all the new drugs and medical technologies that are available. New drugs and equipment appear almost daily, spawned by the laboratories of the pharmaceutical industry and the medical equipment manufacturers. More often than not, they are unproven and potentially unsafe. ” He goes on in that chapter on how little the FDA regulates these drugs, and how doctors almost never investigate them themselves before giving them out to patients, EVEN WHEN concerns have been raised.
So I will not trust a medical degree just because it’s that. I will trust the facts, the research, and the doctor who knows them. (I haven’t found one yet!)
I am a pharmacist and let me say that while doctor’s are not well versed in pharmacology (I do agree with that), we as pharmacists are. We have read the research (new and old drugs) and we (in general) have good, un-biased opinions. The biggest “kick-backs” we get are free pens, and those (kick-backs in general, to any & all medical personnel) were outlawed in 2009.
Do pharmacists prescribe medicine? And do they question why a doctor prescribes something? I think not.
The woman with Alzheimer’s at the nursing home last week was acting just like my autistic son.
Laura’s Last Ditch–Vintage Kitchenwares\’s last post: Antique Picnic Basket Wood Woven vintage photo prop
Vaccinations aside…. Alzheimers is NOTHING like Autism, at all, at any age or stage. At all. In fact, that comment alone is enough to show me your limited medical understanding, or for that matter, common sense. Clearly, you are unfamiliar with Autism and/or Alzheimers, or you would not draw that conclusion, even roughly…in fact, save for the uncommon learning loss that rare cases of Autism have, there is no similarities to the lists of symptoms or brain locations attacked, ect . . .
I know some unvaccinated kids who get sick all the time. My oldest, has only been sick once in his 5 years of vaccinated on the doctor schedule life. If your entire argument is based on the limited pool of people you encounter, then I could write a counter argument based solely on my pool and it would state the opposite.
What you choose to do and believe is wonderful, and I’m sure you believe your child’s best interests are at heart, but don’t pretend for a second that everyone here who doesn’t agree with you is just feeding into a government scam, and you might suspect that a few people are more likely to believe a medical doctor than a mom who makes excessively incorrect assumptions such as “Alzheimers disease is Autism for adults.”
But a third of the American population wiped out in the early 1900s from the influenza might regret their lack of vaccinations….more than a little.
The whooping cough vaccine is being peddled on everyone right now. Dr.s / pharmaceutical companies are encouraging parents and siblings, and anyone else who leaves their house to get it because you should "protect the little ones." Of course, that makes you a bad person if you won't get one little shot to protect babies.
I have a very close friend who’s 8 week old baby caught “whooping cough” (pertussis) and almost died from it. And cases like this are rising all over the country. So yes, it is very important for the pregnant mother and people surrounding the baby to have this vaccine.
Betty,
My siblings ,who are both vaccinated, caught whooping cough at school and passed it to my 6 month old. It’s good to remember that just because a person is vaccinated does not mean they have immunity. It’s also important to remember that when a 2 month old gets vaccinated, they are not immune to any of those diseases right away. It’s not until the vaccine series is complete(around 6-12 months) that immunity “should” be attained. Even vaccines are not a GUARANTEE.
I do NOT recommend the Pertussis vaccine AT ALL! I was given this vaccine as a “standard” when I was just a tiny baby and had a SEVERE reaction to it! My mom had to bring me to the ER to find out I was reacting to the vaccine (the pertussis part of it). I was lucky I got there in time. I was unresponsive and lethargic. As if I was already dead. And I WOULD have DIED if I wasn’t brought to the ER in time. I would have DIED from this vaccine!! That is incredibly scary!
Well, my son had the pertussis vaccine and had a severe reaction to it and the Dr. said he won’t ever have that vaccine again. My other children have also had reactions to vaccines. I wish I knew then what I know now. I would not have vaccinated any of my five children.
actually, the reason why PERTUSSIS vaccines are being so widely advertised right now, is because whooping cough was basically eradicated, but is now back in full force thanks to all the anti-vaccine propaganda.
If that’s true why are most of the people getting whooping cough vaccinated?
Sarah, TheHealthyHomeEconomist\’s last post: GM Bananas Currently Under Development
Hello,
I just came across your post as I was researching pertussis. As of today, my six year old, my husband and myself are suffering with pertussis. We all have been vaccinated and I am an EMT and a nursing student who had my booster just 3 years ago as it is required. Our case came as one of our girl scout moms doesn’t believe in vacinnating her children. Her six month old was hospitalized with pertussis and almost died. His sister came down with it, followed by another one of our girl scouts (who was vacinnated), another of our
girls suffered with pneumonia because, at that time, we were unaware of the pertussis and her doctors did not even think to check for something very rare nowadays. So normally I would fully support vaccinations; however, this has me very aware of how much I need to learn about vaccinations. Had I researched when my child was born, I dare say I may have chosen to wait. The mom who doesn’t vaccinate said even though her son was severely ill that it does not change her option because those who have the vaccine still got pertussis. Her view is that if it doesnt work anyhow, why risk injecting other chemicals in her child? This has made me think and thats why i am learning all i can about what I have potentially exposed my daughter to. I went by what her doctors advised me and now I am questioning everything.
Thanks for everyones input. I just felt that my experience may help both sides look at how much we don’t truly know. (Sorry if my words double, for some reason my keyboard is sticking!q ahhho )
can about what i put in my daughter when she got her shots, per her peds doctor, whom i trusted.her son was severely sick
and her doctors never thought to test for it.
Hi April, thanks for the excellent comment. All 3 of my kids have had pertussis (whooping cough). My daughter was only 15 months old when she had it. I am SO glad I never vaccinated for it and they now have natural immunity which is far better than vaccine immunity which lasts for only a few years and then you need to be injected with a cocktail of poison once again. By the way, the DPT vaccine has been linked to Type 1 Diabetes in children and frequently makes its shocking and out of nowhere appearance at adolescence. Vaccine damage is not only immediate, it can continue to cause issues years later. Not worth it by a long shot.
Hi Sarah. Just some interesting thoughts on DTaP, DTP – whatever. Kidney damage/diabetes are hand in hand. Diptheria can cause no symptoms yet fester in the body, causing long term damage such as nerve damage, KIDNEY DAMAGE and an enlarged heart. I highlight kidney damage because of your mention of diabetes. But nerve damage is obviously an enormous issue with vaccinated people. Enlarged hearts for “no apparently reason” with our youth is also on the rise. A well published case of a boy in Holland, Michigan, that happened recently is only one of a staggering amount of mounting cases. Ironically, when that happened is when I decided to find out the symptoms of diptheria.
My daughter, after a severe reaction to her one year shots (with minor issues from previous vaccines – minor in what was SEEN anyhow) she was addicted to drinking water ALL the time and she also suffered from several kidney/bladder infections in a short period of time. These effects have finally fallen away after a couple years and I had her kidneys checked, at least with a blood and urine test. Also, HSP is a common side effect of vaccines – something my daughter had but only minor and the doctors refused to dx (it in spite of the symptom of petechia all over her body for almost a year with no fall in platelet count) – which causes kidney problems. It is obvious of the link here and that people are GETTING the diseases (body reaction/symptoms) in some warped way but not in a way to cause the proper long term antibodies. Anyhow – just check out the symptoms of diptheria. I found it fairly obvious.
Sarah, is it possible to have an annotation for the study? I am very interested, for several reasons I won’t bore you all with. Thanks so much! Please email me directly (as I may not get the response here), thank you! (redphoenix.business@gmail.com)
Sarah, thank you for this post. It is by far one of the most concise, clear articles I have read in a long time, and it makes the best, most reasonable arguments for non-vaccination. It also gives parents who hesitate to go against Dr.'s orders an alternative, "wait a while." It may not prevent all damage, but it certainly can make a difference. I am one of those moms who has 4 children. The oldest was right on track with her vaccines, the second was until age 4 baby number 3 didn't get any until age 2 (and won't get any more) and the youngest hasn't had any. My first child was in the hospital 5 times before her second birthday, and it was never an injury, every single time it was some sort of infection either directly or eventually resulting from an altered immune system. She had high fevers and would vomit until her skin would turn yellow, and we would have her in the hospital for days trying to re-hydrate her. Every time I would say, "she just had the — vaccine" and they would say "Oh that doesn't cause this." So I believed them and went on poisoning my daughter. Then my son was born and he had strange illnesses. He had fifth disease (a common virus, but kids are only supposed to get it one time like chicken pox) 5 times before he was 1 and a half. Then thirty days after his Chicken pox vaccine, he got shingles. The dermatologist we saw said "he was more likely to get struck by lightening after being bitten by a shark than have that result {to his skin biopsy}." He still wears the scar on his arm from that biopsy, a constant reminder of the damage I have done in my ignorance. Not to mention the horrible pain he suffered for days and days with the shingles themselves. My third child had no vaccines at all until his second birthday. At that point he had just become a new big brother, and his two older siblings were in school. I wasn't willing to vaccinate the baby, so I consented to 2 non-combined vaccines for him. It was whooping cough and HiB. I was told that those were the two things most likely to affect the baby soon. Two weeks later, my 2 year old was diagnosed with RSV. Moat children in any kind of school environment get and get rid of RSV before they are two years old, but my son (and my nephew who still gets sicker than he should) really struggled to get rid of it. We had to do 3 rounds of steroids to clear his lungs. I hated putting further medicines in his body, but we couldn't get the inflammation to go down, and he couldn't breath. Less than a week after the shots he also developed erythema multiformi which is an autoimmune reaction that is often classified as idiopathic meaning "I don't know what caused it." Well it was a reaction to the shots. (Search the internet for images of it. You will be horrified. Luckily it isn't painful, but it certainly looks like it is.) My baby, who is now 1 year old has never had a vaccine, she has never had a rash, exczema (the rest have), a cold, a runny nose, an ear infection (the rest have). I know that eventually she will get sick, but I firmly believe she won't get as sick as the rest of them do. Luckily we have found a real food diet, and live in the country away from normal city pollution, and are exposed to things that naturally make our immune systems stronger. My older children are getting better out here, but I will never recommend a vaccine, and I will always regret that I didn't know more then.
I try to be as holistic as possible but I have to say tetanus is the single vaccine I am in favor of. I witnessed someone in the emergency room with tetanus (she got it from a rose thorn) and believe me, it's a nasty, nasty bug. Modern medicine is not all bad; this is one area I say get the vaccination.
Thanks so much for commenting, Anne. I am wondering about this lady you saw in the ER with tetanus from a rose thorn. I'm thinking the lady did not treat it properly at the time .. keeping it very clean etc. and it got infected. My son had a thorn go 3 or 4 inches into his foot once. I kept it extremely clean and watched it carefully. We never got a tetanus shot for it. My recommendation is to make sure things get taken care of properly to start with then a tetanus shot is rarely necessary.
I think you are exactly right here. I mean I am thrilled that we have all this life saving technology now days.. but I think that people are to willing to take XYZ drug or treatment just because it is available. I am always shocked by this willingness (which is really just that they have been taught/marketed to wrongly), what do they think our ancestor’s did – they did not have a CVS to pick up pepto or a doctor to give them a shot. No, they just ate well and used what nature provided.
I am not a fan of taking something that was created in a lab with a person having to wear safety glasses and safety gloves.
FANTASTIC info, Jack! I've been wanting to find a study with this info for years. Now I know where to point Moms and Dads who want to know the truth that unvaccinated kids are far healthier than their vaccinated peers. Thank you for taking the time to share this valuable information.
Sarah, thank you so much for this post. I just got done printing off all the links and plan on reading them over the next few days. I want to be educated on this issue so I can make a decision I feel good about. It is intimidating when your doctor makes you feel like a bad mom for not vaccinating and not "doing what is right for your child". After reading the literature I am hoping to be better prepared for comments like that. Thanks again!
Jamie, the only ammo the docs have is fear and guilt to get parents to vaccinate anymore. The facts are definitely not on their side and they know it. They will do anything to get you to do the shots – make you feel like a bad Mom or whatever. My suggestion is to dump your Pediatrician (the most useless specialty in Medicine, my Dad was fond of saying) and get yourself an open minded family doc who respects your concerns.
Unfortunately, fear and guilt are not the only weapons that pediatricians use.
My daughter was born 9 weeks premature, with pneumonia (caused by an E-coli infection in her lungs – the E-coli infection was caused by an idiot doctor who insisted on doing a speculum exam, against my will, after they knew my water had broken…two weeks before my daughter was born…but that’s a much longer story).
The NICU doctors and nurses did not expect my daughter to survive, but she is a stubborn little fighter, and she went home about 7 weeks after she was born. I refused all shots while she was in the NICU, much to the dismay of the doctors and nurses. I did not have a pediatrician lined up prior to her birth; I had been hospitalized for 7 weeks before she was born. I was given a list of recommended pediatricians by a case worker in the NICU, so I chose the one closest to where I lived, who was covered by my insurance.
My daughter went home on a Friday night, and I took her to the pediatrician first thing Monday morning, as I was advised. My mom went with me (my husband had to work), and I am so glad she was there. The doctor took one look at my daughters medical information and lit into me. I was a horrible person for not having her vaccinated, and for not giving her formula…my breast milk wasn’t giving her enough calories, according to the doctor. I pointed out that she had gained weight since she had been discharged, so she seemed to be doing fine on the breast milk. The doctor’s reply was that her scale wasn’t calibrated the same as the NICU’s scales, so I couldn’t trust that it was an actual increase….okay, that’s her problem, not mine.
She actually yelled at me for about 20 or 30 minutes. I was in so much shock, I couldn’t even speak…I was glad my mom was there to witness the episode…I had no idea what to do when I left. Since I was still in such shock, I made another appointment for the next week on my way out. The staff in that clinic was just as rude as the doctor, and I was in tears by the time we got home. As soon as we arrived at home, my mom told me to call the office back, cancel the appointment and never go back. And I did. I told them why I wasn’t coming back; I had been treated incredibly rudely and I wasn’t interested in going back for more.
The next morning two CPS case workers showed up at my door, following up on a report that I was neglecting my child. The only possible person who could have made that report was the doctor…she was the only person outside of family who had seen me and my daughter since I had taken her home 4 days earlier. I was in the process of finding another pediatrician well before CPS arrived, but they made it clear that I HAD to take my daughter to another doctor, or else.
I found another doctor, explained everything that had happened, and hoped for a better experience. The second doctor was nice, but she still strongly pushed vaccinations. I eventually gave in, because I was still on CPS’ radar for “child neglect”. I foolishly allowed them to give my daughter her first full set of shots when she was about 4 months old.
During this time, I was also required to take her to regular check ups with a pulmonologist. The “nutritionist” in his office hated me…because I wasn’t giving my daughter the formula that she “needed”, and because she wasn’t up-to-date on shots. My daughter got her shots the day after a monthly visit with the pulmonologist. A month later when I took her back, her head had not grown at all…the only difference between that visit and the one prior (when the nutritionist told me to “keep doing what I was doing”, believing that I had started giving my daughter the formula because she was growing so well) was the fact that she had received her shots. Nothing else had changed. The nutritionist hit the ceiling when she discovered that I hadn’t been giving her the formula after all, and blamed the lack of growth on the milk I was feeding her. She claimed there was no possible way the shots would have stopped her growth. And then she reported me to CPS…the second report in as many months. She did give me a heads up that they were going to (very generous of them), so I beat them to the punch and called my original CPS case worker to let her know she should expect another report that afternoon. She insisted that I had to have my daughter admitted to the hospital that night…the “or else” was implied.
After that, the second pediatrician’s practice partner took over my daughter’s care (without my consent) and told me in no uncertain terms that I had to do absolutely everything he said, otherwise CPS would take my daughter away. I had to show up to every appointment he set, and I had to continue giving my daughter shots. I also had to enroll her in a head-start program, whether I wanted to or not (I did not want).
You cannot imagine the hellish nightmare my husband and I went through during this time. I wish I were making all of this up, but I’m not. The way we escaped all of this was by moving across the city, to be closer to my husband’s job…that was the official reason we gave the doctor’s office when we told them we were moving. We didn’t tell them where we were going, we just asked for her medical records (they hated that; they didn’t want to let me have them) so that we could “give them to her new doctor”. They said they typically just forward the records to the new doctor, so there was no reason for me to have them. There was no new doctor, but we weren’t about to tell them that. About six months later we moved to a new state, thousands of miles away.
Less than a year later, our second preemie was born, but he was 12 weeks early. We had found a good pediatrician that we trusted before our son was born, but we still have never taken our daughter back to another well check up since she was six months old. We stopped taking our son to well check ups when he was about a year and a half old…the doctor’s staff wouldn’t stop pushing vaccines. We only take our kids to the doctor when they are truly sick, and that is pretty rare these days. My son used to have lung infections (due to being 12 weeks early) about every 3 to 6 months for the first 2 years of his life, but he seems to have outgrown his issues…it has been more than a year since I’ve had to take him to the doctor because of a lung infection, or for any other reason. My daughter hasn’t been to the doctor in about 3 years. My son will be 4 next month and my daughter will be 6 in November. They are both reasonably healthy kids (I wish I hadn’t caved on the vaccines when they were babies…I was just too afraid to lose them to the state). We are in the process of switching to a Nourishing Traditions lifestyle, so I’m sure their health will continue to improve. They LOVE Green Pasture Chocolate Cream FCLO, and Kerry Gold butter…they will eat those two things all day long if I let them.
I’m sorry about the length of this comment. I tried to shorten the story as much as possible. I hope nobody else goes through the sort of nightmare we lived through, but I suspect it probably happens more often than anyone knows. I had a hard time talking about it for years. It is humiliating to admit that you have been reported to CPS – twice – for “neglecting” your child, when you’re only trying to do what’s best her. I didn’t have a lot of support outside my family during that time, so I would like to offer support to anyone else going through something similar.
Wow. Reading your story…my heart breaks for you. The time after you have a baby is suppose to be full of special memories and JOY–and yet you had fear and guilt. I can’t think of many things more awful than that. What you were robbed of. I’m so sorry. I am a RN- and what you are saying does not sound far from many other stories I have seen and heard. You would never believe that a medical professional could act like that until you experience it yourself. It still boggles my mind though the CPS actually gets involved in the very personal, philosophy-based decisions of parenting. Why don’t CPS workers show up on the door-steps of those parents who REFUSE to breastfed (althought the medical literature is full of good—and NO bad effects), smoke around there children, feed them McDonalds everyday and let them watch 5 hours of TV a day??? Where are the CPS workers for those “negligent” parents?
My pediatrician told me that “we weren’t a good fit” for each other and dismissed me from the practice because I hadn’t “kept up with well-visits” like I should to KEEP my child healthy…even though I told her from the beginning I wanted her expertise when some thing was truly wrong with my child…not when they were well.
Thanks for being bold enough to share your story. I think that what happened should not be wasted, but rather redeemed through your attempts to help other parents!!
Please share your story on Dr. Tenpenny’s site about “Pediatrician Bullies”. It needs to be heard. Any other readers who have been “bullied” by their pediatrician should also share. We need to speak up!! http://drtenpenny.com/pediatrician_bullies.aspx
What a WONDERFUL mother you are to not cave into the system. What wretched medical personel……haven’t they a CLUE to the harm vaccines can do?
I have a new grand-nephew and my niece is doing the vaccines. No way to present any alternative view: my sister (her mother) and family get VERY upset with me. It always concludes with: how you YOU know more than a doctor?
And the Bible, for those who believe it says, “Their much learning has made them mad.” Even if you follow or believe otherwise then the Bible, don’t you find this interesting? Maybe it’s even in other religions books as even the flood is in others. I believe that med science is just another way for the devil to put the focus of the people on anything but God the healer. Been studying healing in my religion for at lest a year now and no where does it say cutting out parts, giving drugs, or putting in computer parts is healing. A whole body the way it was made and working right, is healed. this comes by natural foods herbs and natural meds (like arnica) and the hand of God.
I think it's funny that doctors are recommending parents and siblings to get vaccinated for Pertussis…the vaccine doesn't protect against transmission.
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/art…i?artid=529164
So the majority of the people in the study were no more likely to be protected from infection than they were before the vaccine, and some of them were less likely to be protected – the vaccine made them more susceptible to infection. They were somewhat protected from severe disease because the vaccine contains a toxoid, but breastmilk contains antibodies to the toxins, so it would function in the same way. This proves that the vaccine doesn't reduce carriage of the bacteria, so no one should feel bullied into accepting it for themselves or their older children as a means of protecting infants, because it won't do that. Since the vaccine can't stop you from being infected, it also can't stop you from spreading the bacteria to infants or the unvaccinated or the immunocompromised or whoever.
I wonder how much money pharmaceutical companies are making off of this new recommendation???
Hey Sarah- great post! Mt wife and I have been researching this topic at great length as we are about to have our first child, I came across a new book that is tremendous that I'd like to recommend to anyone interest in this topic by Dr. Mayer Eisenstein called "Make an Informed Vacine Decision, A Parent's Guide to Childhood Shots." He actually does have a study of vaccinated vs unvaccinated children through their practice over the past 35 years…the results are staggering! Take a look at his vaccine page and there is also a short video posted there of a talk he did for some parents- it's very much worth the 30 mins:
When comparing the vaccinated vs unvaccinated kids hey have virtually no asthma, allergies, ADHD, ADD or Autism in their more then 35,000 un-vaccinated children.
The choice is clear to us, why would we even consider such a thing! Thanks for sharing the health!
jack plating
I loved the article. I tell friends who ask me (which they do because of my attitudes towards natural eating, etc.) that they have to make the choice, and I guide them to informative articles and books. This post will be among those I have them look at in the future. The only argument I wish you would be careful of is the, "I don't know anybody who…" argument. You state in this post, "I have NEVER met a fully vaccinated child that is healthier and more robust than a well nourished, unvaccinated child. Period." I wish you could meet some of the people I know. None of my children are fully vaccinated, but all of them are what I would call "mostly vaccinated." I know many families whose children are unvaccinated and who are trying to feed them in the same healthy, traditional way I am. My kids are some of the most robust and healthy kids in town. We are rarely ill. We have only had 1 child in the ER, for a bladder infection I was unaware of (I thought she might have an appendix issue.) My vaccinated kids are indeed healthier than some of their unvaccianted couterparts, and I feel the choices I made about which vaccinations to give and when to give them were sound. I think my kids are healthy because of their diet and because their lifestyle.
Again, I will be happy to direct friends towards this interesting post when they ask about vaccinations, because aside from the "All the people I know…" type of reasoning, it presents some good arguments and some great information. Thanks.
I understand your point about the wording of that argument. I am sure that some vaccinated kids are quite healthy if the parents take great care to nourish them properly. However, if you compare a nonvax child who eats well to a vax child who eats well, there is no comparison. The unvax child is more robust every time (notice my argument includes the words "well nourished"). Perhaps there are some exceptions, I just haven't come across any myself.
You have not met my boys.
where is your research to back these theories, what a load of crap you write. “the unvax child is more robust every time” again where is your research, or is this just your observations which are clearly one sided.
At this link is a most revealing 2 minute video of what a vaccine can do to a healthy young adult.
To me, it would be like playing Russian Roulette to take a chance on any vaccine!
I am sorry, I very much disagree with you about your use of the so-called "pandemic". The H1N1 in one year killed over 10,000 healthy people. The majority of them being pregnant women, and healthy young adults and children. The average flu year kills 1,250 people, according to the stats listed by the CDC. They are mostly the very young and the very old.
This novel flu virus, no one has immunity to it. The oddity of this flu, was that no one knew who it was going to put in the hospital and who it wasn't. There were some cases of it hitting people with asthma, down's sydrome, and pregnancy very hard. In fact, the rate of mortality in pregnant woman was the same as 1918, spanish flu. It is still out there, people are still dying from it.
While you have the choice to not vaccinate, you are also benefitting from those that do. It is called herd immunity.
It is not only the flu, but measles, mumps and whooping cough are coming back. Last year there where serious outbreaks of measles and mumps. For the first time there was a mutation found in measles. They found it was infecting adults that have already had it, or had been vaccinated.
I will continue to get my son vaccinated. I feel it is a good way to protect him from diseases which are coming back.
It would be interesting to know how many of these people who have died as a result of H1N1 flu were never vaccinated. Any vaccination, in my opinion, weakens the immune system and I really believe causes new strains of diseases to mutate, which in turn causes pharma companies to create new vaccines to further weaken natural immunity.
Just my opinion, that’s all.
Then you clearly have absolutely no idea how vaccines work. Please do not post your opinion on scientific matters in public where people may read and consider it as fact.
Agreed.
Do these same non vaccination people oppose antibiotics, penicillin etc and every other advance in medicine ?
I am shocked by the ignorance displayed by some of the comments supporting nonvac.
I’m against vaccinations for babies, though I’ve received several myself (including smallpox and 7 doses of anthrax) – as an adult and lived through each. I didn’t have a choice in receiving them, and didn’t care too much anyway – but in no way do I believe babies should receive vaccines. Ever.
BUT, I do believe in a good round of antibiotics when necessary and am not much of an advocate of homeopathy, even though my family is full of staunch believers. (Although those Hyland’s Teething Tablets are pretty remarkable, that’s about where I draw the line.) I’m all for medical advances, too, like the end of RIC in the U.S. and quadruple bypasses and neurosurgery and all the other good things advanced medical knowledge brings us.
So no, non-vax people don’t all oppose antibiotics and advances in medicine.
Sean, I do not oppose medical advances and I am totally non-vax. I had a round of antibiotics a couple of years ago for a knee infection. Antibiotics used in the right situations is a fantastic tool. Non-vax people aren’t a bunch of wackos who think advanced medicine is all bad. Generalizations in this area are plain ridiculous.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist\’s last post: New Study- More Vaccines Increase Infant Mortality Rates
Sean, do you know how ridiculous you sound? Do some more research. You may be absolutely brilliant, but “Condemnation without investigation is the HEIGHTH of ignorance.” -Albert Einstein I have been investigating this subject for YEARS. How about if I respect your opinion and NOT call you ignorant and you can respect mine and NOT call me ignorant.
There are some strange politics regarding the H1N1 business. Isn’t it interesting that our vaccine manufacturers were able to patent a vaccine for an new illness… two years before any one came down with it. The vaccine manufacturer in Europe that produced the vaccine only a number of months previously had produced a vaccine that would have killed people had it been used. It was only because of a lab tech who injected a few animals that died, that the “error” was found. There was no investigation or consequences for that company. The H1N1 was marketed heavily for pregnant women many of whom miscarried within a couple days of getting the vaccine. And the Spanish flu of 1918 could have been spread by the vaccine that was used at that time.
There also was a study done comparing the risk of childhood illnesses between vaccinated and unvaccinated. It used mathematics. It compared a population gets lifetime immunity from an illness to a population getting temporary immunity from vaccines. The vaccines because they only gave temporary immunity put the population more at risk.
Measles, mumps, and whooping cough are not fatal illnesses.
There are other factors about vaccines that the manufacturers have purposely keep secret. It’s called “Protected Trade Secrets”. The pharmaceutical companies are allowed to have ingredients in all pharmaceuticals that are not disclosed to the public and do not appear on the package insert. If you read the definition of “Generally Recognized as Safe” as it applies to the pharmaceuticals, you will read that they can “self-affirm” ingredients. What this means is if they want to use an ingredient, all they need is a good reason why they think it should be GRAS, pay a company to a study, then they use that ingredient as much as they want. Nothing ever gets submitted to the government. Nothing appears on the package insert. So you and your doctor have no idea what else might be in that needle that they are injecting into your child. But if you read patents on line for vaccine adjuvants and culture mediums, you will find that every food known to man is used in the production of vaccines.
It is only the final culture medium that is listed on the package insert. Up until that point, food waste is used. And every food oil known to man can be mixed together and added to the vaccine adjuvant. So that baby who got the vitamin K shot or vaccinated at birth, can develop a serious food allergy without ever having been knowing exposed to a particular food because a trace amount of food protein remained in the vaccine. When protein is injected along with an adjuvant, the result is a food allergy. That is how it has been produced in lab animals. Wild animals do not have food allergies unless they have been vaccinated.
Parents are buying peanut sniffing service dogs for their children because these children can die just from smelling peanut butter cookies baking. They can’t safely go to the mall or the park or a friend’s house. And it is not just peanut allergies. Fish allergies, shellfish allergies, and other foods have become big problems. In Australia, it just made the news “An Australian study involving 5,000 infants has found one in 10 has a food allergy, with the highest rates found among children in Melbourne.”
Food allergies were rare when I was a child. The incidence has climbed with the increased number of childhood vaccinations. The leading “theory” about the cause of the food allergy epidemic suggests that it is because we are so clean. The reasoning being that third world countries have no problems with food allergies. They also have a very low vaccination rate.
I don’t wish to get into a disagreement on a blog, but I do want to clarify one statement that you made: “Measles, mumps, and whooping cough are not fatal illnesses.”
Measles is associated with a 0.3% mortality rate in the general population. This may not seem high, but when the infected individual is malnourished or unhealthy to begin with, that death rate jumps to 28%. And in the case of AIDS, the mortality rate of measles in 30%.
Mumps causes miscarriage in 27% of pregnant women infected.
Pertussis (whooping cough) is associated with a 0.1% mortality rate which has increased substantially over the past decade.
I am a family physician (thanks for the shout out above!) and I generally leave my patients and their families to make their own decisions about vaccinating. However, as stated many times above, it is about having all of the information. Think what you may about the safety of vaccines for your child, but a large incentive for creating vaccines in the first place is to protect those individuals that are most at risk of complications from an illness (premature, ill, pregnant, HIV-infected). It is not just about protected your healthy baby who would likely survive the original illness, but also about preventing the spread to those most at risk and benefiting society as a whole.
I would also just like to point out, Sarah, that you stated above: “Generalizations in this area are plain ridiculous.” And yet you made a very broad generalization when you stated that when compared head-to-head, unvaccinated children are more robust than vaccinated children. That is quite the generalization.
I would suggest you go to Dr. Eisenstein MD’s site which is in the post which contains information about thousands of children who are not vaccinated and have virtually none of the auto immune diseases that vaccinated children suffer from. This is not a broad generalization at all.
Look, you are really gambling if you don’t vaccinate…I lived in a country where people could choose whether or not to vaccinate, there were two horrible cases of measles — one in a child from an educated family, visiting a local island; another, in a welfare inner-city family….the measles infected the bloodstream and the first child had multiple amputations, arms and legs, in order to survive; the second endured tip of nose amputation (or was going to) and he died. Measles is terrible and vaccinations were invented to save people from the effects of that and other diseases (eg polio)…there are arguments both ways but really you want to be well-informed about what could happen
The thing to remember with the H1N1 reporting and “pandemic” qualifier, is that they had to change the meaning of pandemic. The H1N1, when properly diagnosed, accounted for so very few deaths, they (WHO) changed the meaning of pandemic which used to refer to diseases and illness that produced a certain number of deaths, to include merely being diagnosed due to symptoms. In addition, the reporting guidelines were loosened. If a person came into the ER and had certain symptoms, then the dr’s were to report, to the CDC, the episode as H1N1, without further testing. The medical community was instructed, by the CDC, to forgo lab testing and report and treat as if H1N1 based on symptoms alone. However, H1N1 can be detected accurately with lab testing.
The numbers for the “deaths” attributed to H1N1 are skewed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUFIH3TI114
(I can not find my other two links right now, I am sorry. I was hoping to have the info for you to research yourself.)
Serioulsy??
“The MAJORITY of them being pregnant women and healthy young adults and children”.
The ONLY reason you think that is because of the media blowing up those minority stories. Please look long and hard, I don’t think you will find your statement to be true.
LAUREN\’s last post: Broken Philosophy
Phenomenon #3 is precisely what I've observed now that my kids are a little older. All the kids I know get sick and stay sick for weeks at a time with coughs, chronic cold, etc. Not mine.
I don't necessarily disagree that many of the vaccinated kids I've encountered are less healthy compared to their unvaccinated friends, however, I would never make a decision to vaccinate or not based on anecdotal evidence such as this. The argument could easily be made that the reason those children who are unvaccinated are healthier is also because their parents are more education and informed on other issues of health and nutrition which the average vaccinating parent is not interested in. For example, most of the vaccinated children I know do not have parents nursing them beyond a year, giving them raw milk, cod liver oil, letting them play in the dirt etc. I don't think we can attribute the overall perceived better health of unvaccinated kids solely on the fact that they are unvaccinated. Just thought I would point this out. I have some other thoughts and while we are not vaccinating for some things (we travel and do not feel comfortable not vaccinating for other things) I think we must think very critically about this topic and the information as its presented.
“The argument could easily be made that the reason those children who are unvaccinated are healthier is also because their parents are more educated and informed on other issues of health and nutrition which the average vaccinating parent is not interested in.”
Excellent point Jenny….well said. My vaccinated children are all adults now, and while I would certainly lean against vaccinations knowing what we know today, they were VERY healthy children growing up….. rarely sick and when they did fall ill, recovered quickly. Stick to the facts, they are scary enough without embellishment.
Maureen\’s last post: No Sweetie- we Cannot get ANOTHER dog
Maureen you are CLUELESS. Your adult children got what, 3 vaccines? The kids now get upwards of 60 last I checked. WAKE UP! Your ignorance and closed mindedness is embarrassing you.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist\’s last post: The Health Hazards of Cast Iron Pans
Sarah, why be so rude in your reply to Maureen? What is gained?
I’m digging through your posts on vaccinations, trying to learn more, and the name-calling and disrespect I’m finding in comment threads from your blog readers (and yourself, it seems, too) is really off-putting.
Why do that?
It is her blog…she can respond as she wishes. If you don’t like her responses, then don’t read her blog and don’t comment on her posts. Seriously, I am getting tired of reading people make comments about the way she responds sometimes. To me, it is refreshing.
While I agree with your point Sarah, I also agree with the person below that the point could have been made in a much nicer tone.
When I had my first son I had no clue about vaccinations. I was a sheeple. When I got pregnant with my 2nd son we started researching things like circumcision and vaccinations. I had a gut feeling that I should absolutely NOT vaccinate my 2nd son. So I stopped vaccinating my first son and have never vaccinated my 2nd son. And I have not vaccinated my 3rd son or my daughter. I look at the research, I look at the fact that the highest rate of sids is 2 mo and 4 mo and that’s when babies are getting their vaccinations. And while we only intended to not delay vaccination long term the more my husband and I learn the more we know that we will never vaccinate again. My oldest is probably my healthiest. He so RARELY gets sick. My 2nd gets sick more often and all of my babies have suffered from chronic runny noses the first year or two. So while I’m anti-vaccination and I agree with the point that when we were children we received FAR fewer vaccinations, I do think that a broad generalization that vaccinated kids can’t be as healthy as unvaccinated kids makes me really turned off here as does your rude response to people who don’t completely agree with you 100%. I had hoped that I’d found another place to send people to read some great arguments against vaccinating but if there’s any risk that they’ll read the comments and be turned off by your rudeness I won’t send them this way.
Sarah’s just getting irritated, like me! As I said above in another posting – no matter how I point out that vaccines CAN be dangerous (I don’t even say ‘ARE’ dangerous), my family treats me like a kook. No evidence is good enough to convince them otherwise. They’ll say, “How would you know more than a doctor?”
Can someone please tell me WHY very few doctors are questioning vaccine safety?
This is what I feel puts up a red flag. Could it be that the ones that do have concerns
about vaccines can’t express them for fear of being sidelined from their profession?
If this is the case and critical thought is not allowed, how can you put your trust in the medical profession then???
Ok, so you won’t make a decision based on anecdotes that you CAN OBSERVE FOR YOURSELF AS TRUE, but you will believe propaganda that masquerades as science or legitimate studies put out and covertly supported by pharmaceutical companies? Smart, move! I’ve got a piece of real estate to sell you too.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist\’s last post: The Health Hazards of Cast Iron Pans
It amazes me how many folks are still drinking the Kool Aid put out by Big Pharma. How gullible and easily mislead can you be. You should be embarrassed by how totally snookered you are.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist\’s last post: The Health Hazards of Cast Iron Pans
Hi Debbie, "herd immunity" is completely and totally false. It is a favorite argument of the pro-vaccination lobby but it holds no water upon analysis. I blogged about this a few months back:
http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/if-you-are-in-support-of-vaccinations
Great post!
all great information. Problem with the H1Ni stats is they are skewed. The clumped deaths in the stats that were confirmed to definitely not be H1N1. My friend was reported to be the first in our county to die from H1N1 problem was they confirmed on two occasions that she did not have it and that she had pneumonia. Never trust what you are told. Go to the CDC website read what the vaccines are designed to prevent. See if the bacteria can be treated with antibiotics, is it a virus that is self limiting (last 5-7 days), does breast feeding protect against it??? For anyone that cares if you need well baby visits and are waiting on vaccines go to a good pediatric chiropractor icpa4kids.com to find one in your area. Oh yeah, fevers are the way your body fights disease if you keep giving children motrine or tylenol as soon as they get a fever they can't fight the disease—let the fever hang out for a while, it is not abnormal for children to run 104 fever (ask your parents)
I bet your OB never told you that the flu shot is actually not supposed to be given to pregnant women yet in most offices it is highly recommended. The flu shot is one vaccine that still contains measurable amounts of thimerisol which passes the placental barrier and settles into nuerological tissue at the earliest stages of your babies brain developement. This insult is then perpetuated at birth by giving the Hep B vaccine. Did you know that pharmacuetical companies are protected from lawsuits due to vaccine injury. Did you also know that vaccines have never undergone double blind studies which is the standard before releasing any drug to market. Our tax dollars fund the Vaccine Injury fund and drug companies aren't held responsible for hot batches. Vaccine injury is severely under reported because doctors will not acknowledge the injury could be related and parents don't report because they have enough to handle just dealing with their child who was injured
Whoa, slow down – they typically do NOT give the thimerisol vaccine to OB patients. During the H1N1 “epidemic”, OB patients (pregnant women) were given thimerisol-free H1N1 vaccines. Please be careful of what you are informing people.
????? Flu shots and H1N1 vaccines are not thimerosal free and are recommended for all pregnant women.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist\’s last post: The Weekly Comment Spotlight
Hi Sarah,
I'd like to see some scholarly evidence in support of the points you just made. Do you have access to an epidemiological study conducted that showed vaccinated children are unhealthier than unvaccinated children? I've clicked on a few of the links you've shared in your article, and I'm finding a difficult time finding a peer-reviewed citation anywhere in support of those claims.
A parent's decision to vaccinate a child should be based on trust between the doctor and parent, and published/peer-reviewed evidence. In case you're at a loss as to where to find such articles, I recommend the Lancet, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and British Medical Journal to name a few.
Hi Eereena, if you look at one of the comments above, a book by Dr. Mayer Eisenstein called "Make an Informed Vacine Decision, A Parent's Guide to Childhood Shots" has a study in it comparing vaccinated to unvaccinated children. As clearly stated in my blog, I haven't seen such a study but one reader pointed this out in the comments section which was great. I don't cite studies such as you suggested as studies in these types of journals are controlled and manipulated by the pharmaceutical companies and are useless as points of reference. Anyone with 2 eyes who can see can easily observe the health of vaccinated versus unvaccinated children. I am assuming you do not have young children and as such, do not see what I see everyday around me. I don't need a study to state the obvious. I simply ask Mothers and Fathers to open their eyes and not rely on the advice of their physicians who most likely have their opinions recited to them directly from the AMA or APA.
Sarah, you are correct, I do not have children. However, I am currently studying infectious disease control on a graduate level, and the institution I attend is by no means at the mercy of pharmaceutical companies, nor are the journal articles published there.
In fact, journals such as AMA, BMJ, and the Lancet are peer-reviews, by which means they go through a process of evaluation involving qualified individuals (PhDs, MDs). Peer-reviewing exists to maintain standards, improve performance, and provide credibility.
To be frank, I'm really not sure what other sources are trust-worthy. Are you?
Hi Eereena, I think you are a bit naive if you are studying infectious disease at a graduate level and think that the drug companies don't have a hand in every single grant that is given at your institution. The drug companies own the curriculum in medical schools, for example. They want newly minted doctors to walk to the beat of their drum.
If you had children I think you would be more open minded about the other side of the issue. Children seem to have this effect on most mothers especially when their friends are having babies with nothing but problems and the question arises again and again – could vaccination have caused the problems?
As to whether or not I am trustworthy, that is up to you to decide. I have no desire to convince you of anything. This blog is for those who seek knowledge outside the mainstream, not for those stuck in convention and towing the party line.
Hi, Sarah. I have to disagree with you when you say that drug companies own the curriculum in medical schools. As a pediatrician who obviously went through medical school, I can say with certainty that is not true. Big pharma is definitely present in some practices, and medical students are exposed to it during their schooling, but it is not the overriding feature or guiding light of either.
In addition, as a pediatrician and as a mother, I believe I have very broad exposure to a variety of different children/parenting styles and choices, etc. My own children have been fully vaccinated and are very healthy. Frankly, I would not have it any other way. Many of the diseases/conditions that we vaccinate against are not terribly common (in part because of of effective vaccination programs through the years), but I could not live with myself if *my* child were to be the one who developed meningitis secondary to a Hib infection. . . if *my* child developed debilitating consequences after contracting polio. But I digress.
My children are healthy. Many of my patients who are fully vaccinated are very healthy children as well (ie do not experience recurrent cough/cold, do not have chronic diseases or chronic issues with allergies). Some obviously have these conditions. On the flip side, some of my patients who are NOT vaccinated have chronic conditions as well. Some have even developed the conditions that the vaccines would likely have prevented. But, like the group that's vaccinated, most are very healthy.
A patient's mother asked me about some of the things that she's read on your site, which is how I came to find your blog. As I read several sections, it seems to me that many of your opinions are based on your experiences with your children. While I respect that, your children (and their friends) are a relatively small population.
I couldn’t live with myself if any of my children became ill, disabled or died as a result of an artificial lowering of their natural immunity. My children are healthier than many of their friends, and even moreso because we homeschool … but I digress also.
If any of my children became ill from a “vaccine preventable” disease, at least their immunity is strong enough to give it a good fight, and if perchance, it was fatal, at least I know that I gave my children the absolute best fighting chance they could have had!
I have had parents say to me that they would never let their (vaccinated) children play with unvaxed kids, and as they never openly asked me whether or not mine were (they just assumed they were vaxed) I never volunteered information that would end friendships. And for two years, while their kids caught everything they were vaccinated against, my kids remained healthy, and I was considered “lucky” that mine didn’t “catch it”. BUT I also made a conscious decision to avoid meetings when I knew their kids were due for shots.
In response to the anonymous pediatrician .. with all due respect – Big Pharma OWNS the medical schools. Big Pharma gives the majority of money, grants etc to medical schools in exchange for dominating the curriculum and research. Medicine as practiced by conventional MDs is no longer independent. A doctor is not free to practice medicine in the manner my Father did because of fear of retribution from the AMA that his actions didn't follow "guidelines."
Just think what would happen if you decided not to vaccinate children tomorrow. You know that you would be ostracized and probably censured or worse from the American Academy of Pediatrics. You are controlled by Big Pharma everyday you walk into your office and this manipulation started the very first day you started medical school.
You say that you couldn't live with yourself if one child got Hib, but what about all the other children that are DOOMED to a lifetime of autoimmune, chronic disease from getting vaccinations that you recommend?
It simply makes no sense to trade the very small risk of infectious disease for the huge risk of lifelong autoimmune disease by choosing to get vaccinated. An increasing number of parents are waking up to this fact which is why you are getting more and more resistance to shots in your office.
How in one breath can you say that Dr’s know nothing about the drugs/vaccines they are giving, then in another claim that the pharm. companies own every single medical school? It can’t be both ways.
I'm 38 years old and have never had a vaccine. None of my 5 siblings, my dad, his two sisters, and their children ever did either.
I remember my mom saying numerous times after parent teacher conferences that teachers told her she had such good looking children. We were so healthy and vibrant, and probably the only unvaccinated children in the school district at that time (70's and 80's). In sports, 5 of us went to state 16 times!! And we had several more near misses. We were never sick.
My grand father was drafted in WWII and was used as a guinea pig, as are all veterans (Gulf War disabilities from the anthrax vaccine as a recent example)so would not allow his children to be vaccinated. He died at 56 years old from cancer, which he swore was from the vaccines. A LOT of other vets in our area died at young ages from cancer, too.
We know hundreds of non vaccinated children. No ADD, autism, sickness, etc. There is a difference, as you point out.
Vaccines have caused so much suffering and death. How can the pediatrician live with her self with that???
keep up the great work Sarah, children's lives depend on it.
That's an excellent point and thank you for posting that point. Nonvaccinated children are frequently star athletes as vaccines are known to interfere with gross motor coordination and balance. I can't remember where I read this (probably Dr. Sherri Tenpenny's website). Hence, unvaccinated children definitely have an advantage on the sporting pitch.
I have to say your comment is hilarious. So you’re saying that most of the professional and collegiate athletes today owe their talent to being un-vaccinated? Definitely not to their God-given talent, genetics, diligence, and practice. Again, your replies to comments turns me away from ANYTHING you would have to say.
Betty\’s last post: From November
yet here you are……… betty
My children aren't vaccinated. In their first year, they tend to get a lot of little colds but recover fairly quickly. Then they don't get sick (recently, EVERYONE in our house got a minor cold — except my 2.5 YO daughter). We also eat NT, practice extended breastfeeding (both kids are still breastfeeding) etc. which of course helps.
But knowing everything I do about vaccines…NEVER EVER EVER.
My kids even suffered, for awhile, from some eczema and allergies, but we cured it through GAPS and NT. They can eat almost anything now with no problems.
When my daughter was about 18 months, we had some blood work done. Her ped, who specializes in kids with autism and allergies, said that her blood work came back looking like a child on the spectrum — low in B12, glutathione, etc. Dangerously low. This was despite eating plenty of grass-fed beef and other healthy foods and not taking any medication or vaccines. We spent months and months, eventually on our own, working with her diet and nutrition to help her. She is pretty much normal now, finally. And I know, in my heart of hearts, had I vaccinated her, that she would have had autism now….
Thankfully, I'm one of the "lucky" ones. I did my research before it was too late and I saved my daughter.
Can you explain the science here in which you somehow prevented autism ? The rest of the world would love to know what causes autism. As you seem to know can you share with us ?
What would you say to someone who is about to start a career in the health care community and as such will be required to be fully vaccinated? I'm about to start on my LVN and will soon need an update on my list of vaccinations. I received most of my vaccinations as a child and now suffer from chronic psoriasis, staph infections, and some sort of digestive disorder that stemmed from the array of antibiotic prescriptions i was given for the staph 2 yrs ago.
I found this article to be helpful in illustrating the link between big pharma and published medical research and med school curriculum. It is written by a former editor of a popular journal that most will recognize.
http://bostonreview.net/BR35.3/angell.php
I am also one of the lucky ones who never vaxxed and 2 ppl I know who spend a lot of time with me and my kids swear that I would have had an autistic child on my hands had I vaxxed my 2nd son. He displays some characteristics but isnt too bad, we know he would have had a bad reaction.
Sarah, your responses to the naysayers were gold, scholarly evidence is worth naught in my opinion, as they can make conclusions slanted to whichever way they want, scientists seem to have become big pharmas puppets these days.
I also guarantee that the paediatrician doesnt see as wide a variety of parents as she would like to think as usually ppl who lead an alternative lifestyle and dont vaccinate, would generally not go anywhere near a paed. I certainly havent seen a dr for a good 5 yrs and my kids have maybe seen a dr a couple of times in their whole lives!
Thank you for this post, I will be recommending it to my friends x
To Josiah – as a former manager, I recommend that you research your rights and be in contact with your doctor and the HR dept where you work. HR depts are not usually able to argue against a doctor's word, so if you can get it on file that vaccines would aggravate or complicate your existing conditions, you may be able to get out of some vaccinations. Make sure you know what your rights are – you almost always have more than your managers and HR people will admit to – but if they know that you know them, the game changes fast! Unfortunately, however, there are still currently professions in which people have no choice but to put their health on the line and by getting vaccinated – my husband is in the Air Force and an act of God wouldn't stop them from shooting him full of every vaccine that comes out. We continue to search for a way to counter that, focusing in the meantime on a real food diet and all around very healthy and clean living.
This is one of our hot buttons right now … our 22yo daughter is leaving in January for a 5 month mission trip to India, Cambodia and Thailand. The list of vaccines is staggering. We have already spent a couple of days poring over the CDC website of what the "at risk" areas are for the various diseases (all 3 countries are high risk for everything!). When my first 2 were little I vaccinated out of ignorance (and the fact that my mom is a public health nurse and I had no idea that you didn't vaccinate) – so she had the full round of everything until she was a teen.
This is unbelievably hard because she will be so far away, in rural areas with little to no health care available if she should contract something. If it were here in the States and we were faced with this decision it wouldn't be an issue – I have access to medical care IF I needed it, I have access to herbs and drugs, if necessary. I would appreciate any input! Thanks~
Elaine, this is a very difficult decision for your daughter I am sure. It is obviously something she will have to decide for herself. All I can tell you is that if I were going, I wouldn't get any of the shots. I would take a plentiful supply of fermented cod liver oil and butter oil with me and use them liberally everyday to keep immunity high. One thing is for certain, if she gets that long list of shots, her health will very likely never be the same again.
Sarah – I so appreciate you taking the time to respond to the (many!) comments I post on the various topics. One of the things we have to consider is that she is basically backpacking with *very* little space and this is for 5 months. I would love to send her off with a 5 month supply of CLO/butter oil and a couple of our favorite herbs but I'm not even sure she could travel with them. This is not a pleasure trip but a mission trip to some pretty remote areas. We've talked about the possibility of sending packages ahead of her but found out that it isn't feasible. You are so smart and seem to think outside of the box – any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks!!
me again- my mind is still working on this
Also – what do you suggest (besides prayer) we do if she contracts one of these horrific diseases (aforementioned lack of medical care, lack of space for herbs, etc). I don't even know who to believe anymore – are the stats that the CDC website publishes about the mortality rate accurate? Yellow fever, typhoid, malaria, Hep A & B, tetnus to name a few. We were trying to just weed out the absolutely non-essential ones but it's hard to know which ones those are. In the end are you of the mindset that statistically her chances of contracting any of these are smaller than the chances of the vaccines causing health problems? And, if she should contract something – what? is her immune system strong enough to fight it off?? She's relatively healthy but she did get a nasty bug (we assume bad water/parasite) in Peru in June so she's obviously susceptible to things. Sorry to bother you with this but you seem very knowledgeable about this and I'm still wading through so much information : /
Hi Elaine, what about homeopathic vaccinations? This may be an excellent alternative for her. I do not know how accurate the CDC information on its website is for these third world diseases. You would need to find a well versed homeopath in your area. Health must be sustained via good nutrition and when the nutrition is not there, health declines very rapidly so if she can't take any FLCO/BO with her and the food is not of great quality, then she will be susceptible even if she is in great health when she leaves which is why I suggest the homeopathic route.
what is a homeopathic vaccine? Is there any literature you can link me to? I am very interested, thanks.
I've never heard of homeopathic vaccinations – thanks for mentioning them. I'll go look into that right now. I live in the greater metro Atlanta area and it is (sadly) appalling how few "natural" type doctors/dentists there are in this entire area! Hopefully we can find one in Georgia! (not joking) Thanks so much for your help with this.
Try this office: http://www.longevityhealthcenter.com/index.php in Roswell-I have had great success there in the past.
Elaine, here is a comment from Sally Fallon, President of the WAPF .. I posed your question to our WAPFChapterLeader Forum:
"I remember meeting a lady who developed Gilliam Barre and severe chronic
fatigue after taking a bunch of vaccinations for a trip–she was never right
afterwards. We have a chapter leader who had the same experience. Don't do
it! Don't do it! Don't do it!" Sally
I have recently become educated on this and other health issues like this. I am in the infant stages of research and am trying to find a pediatrician I can go to that is not afraid to step outside the "medically required" boundaries of treatment and/or vaccinations. I found a Dr. Berger right by me in North Tampa, but the costs are more than I can afford. Do you know of anyone else? Also, if you do not stay on the "recommended vaccination schedule" what do you do with the forms you are required to turn in for schools? Thank you! I look forward to learning a lot from you and others.
Hi Stephanie, please email me directly with these local and state questions and I will be happy to answer them. Thanks!
I am a mother of four children. (Ages 15 months to 8 years). I chose to Homebirth my children and only allowed the three month shots to be given to our eldest son, before realizing that I not only hated the way they were given (baby on table held down and forced, screaming all the way! I had even tried to do it while nursing him, I had read that babies dealt better with blood draws while being nursed, I was denied that ability), but then researched and found only a small amount about the possible problems and decided NOT to do any more vaccines.
I have to say that I do notice that my children, overall, seem to be sick less often (especially when it comes to ear infections! I have seen many friends with children who were vaccinated with double ear infections that were a constant problem! We have had maybe 2 ear infections in our home in 8 years)
We get hit, MAYBE once or twice a year with a more than bothersome infection…and the occasional cold about as often. All my children are healthy and I agree, if there is some reason to vaccinate later, maybe we will, but later is better. Thank you Sarah for your article.
What about parents, like myself, who are on government assistance and have doctors who threaten to not treat the child (as has been the trend) because they pose a "risk" to other patients due to not vaccinating them? It seems to me that being an informed parent who takes control is something reserved for those who are a bit more well-off, while those of us who have fallen on hard times, but still want to maintain a healthy lifestyle have virtually no choice. Government assisted medical insurance comes with lots of rules about primary dr's and the like. We are unable to ONLY buy organic or stock our home with essential oils, which can be QUITE expensive. What do you recommend in situations such as these? I've done research and I know that children born and/or raised under these conditions are FAR more prone to things like asthma, ADD, diabetes and so on.
My children are also on state assisted healthcare. I have never vaccincated any of them, we have four, and another on the way
My children are very healthy, rarely sick, I think my 6 year old has only had the flu twice in his life. I also do not take my children to regular check-ups, as I don’t want to have to deal with the guilt they will try to put on me for our decisions. If they get any sickness, we use natural cures. We have a wonderful health store in our town that always has great advice and her products are wonderful. If there was ever a time my children were extremely sick, and it was necessary that they be taken to the hospital, the medical professionals there cannot refuse to see them due to them not being vaccinated.
I guess what I am saying is, if there is a doc that is refusing to see your children, then he/she is not worth seeing either. As far as eating habits, we struggle with that too. We by no means have a perfect eating lifestyle, and I really have no idea how to help there. Organic is ridiculously expensive! If you discover a good alternative to that one, I’d love to hear it!
I have been in the same boat too. What you do is the best you can (this topic is my passion) starting with only go the MD when you HAVE to, not necessarily when they tell you to. Our pediatrician asked why she hadn’t seen us in a couple of years and I told her, 1-my son doesn’t get sick that often (he wasn’t in day care or school) and 2-if he does get a cold, I check his ears (an otoscope cost about $10); if they aren’t red it is a virus and antibiotics don’t help viruses. Her reply “Smart Woman”. I don’t need to pay a ten dollar co-pay to be told wait it out. You can still shop around for a doctor; it may take time but you can find one. You may have to flat out say, “Even if you don’t agree with my decision will you at least agree that it is MY decision not yours?”
One thing inexpensive I did was feed him yogurt everyday with a couple of supplements mixed in. also google Dr. Parcells oxygen soak for meat and produce you get that aren’t organic; it won’t make them organic, but it will get rid of pesticides. Take the money from the packaged process foods and use it for as much whole food as you can. In our area, children that are in the WIC program get vouchers for the Farmers’ Market in the summer – ask around. Some community centers have group gardens where if you work you share the harvest. You can grow fresh sprouts in your kitchen for under a dollar; if they don’t like eating them you can blend them in a smoothie. Look up the Clean 15 and the Dirty Dozen; just eat the clean 15 if you can’t get organic – and do Dr. Parcell’s soak. Try to soak your grains, like brown rice or oats, a few hours or overnight. Longer is better, but even a few hours increases the nutrition. (should clarify – grains are soaked in water and lemon juice or other acid, NOT the Dr. Parcell soak)
Drink water and decaf green or herbal teas and skip the other beverages. (Save for a good water filter, not a Brita or Pur, and use it for drinking and cooking.) Get books from the library and read blogs that feature traditional foods and add what you can.
I wish you health and success
DavetteB\’s last post: Welcome to My Home on the Web!
Thanks so much for this post. I have learned much from the comments. In the process of reading the Boston Review article now- so illuminating. As a healthcare professional myself, I have seen firsthand in my own education and work that drugs, vaccines, and products are just accepted without question by most of the staff and patients. I have yet to meet a doctor or nurse who has a deep understanding of the pros and cons to vaccines and can effectively talk clients through their risks and potential benefits. Most aren't even aware of the ingredients or potential side effects or how to strengthen the immune system so people can ward off disease or recover from it without serious comlications.
I also agree about not using anecdotal evidence to make decisions with or to convince others, but I have also seen it in my own children. The first was fully vaccinated until age 3 and had every illness in the book and was constantly sick. His whole baby and toddlerhood is basically a blur of one horrible illness after another, no sleep, miserable child. When we stopped vacinating at age 3 and began a more whole foods/WAP style of eating he became a different child. My second has only had 3 shots, was also breastfed well into toddlerhood and is the healthiest kid I know. He almost never gets sick, and when he does, he gets a fever, sleeps it off, and wakes up fine. I am doing minimal vaccines for my third as well, plus nursing for as long as possible and eating the best possible diet.
I am not anti-vaccine, but very pro being educated on vaccines and drugs, and being able to choose the scenario that best fits your individual children, whether it's none, some, or all shots. And sadly, this rarely happens and parents who deviate at all from the standard schedule are kicked out of practices, threatened with scare tactics, and overal villified and treated like they wish to harm their children for making an informed choice. AGain, it's anecdotal, but every non or selectively vaccinating parent I have met has spent many hours doing serious research, and I have yet to meet a fully vaccinating parent who has done exhaustive research and can tell you about the diseases and what ingredients are in the shots and what research has been done (or not) to prove thier safety.
I am very anti-vaccination. My DS had one set and DD never had any. DD is the healthiest of the two. DS has lots of allergies, has many of the symptoms of aspergers and is more prone to get sick (he was hospitalized with H1N1 during the epidemic last year; I held him almost the whole time he was sick and I didn't get it while everyone else had to suit up to even enter the room). I nursed them both until they were 4.5 years old, which I feel helped boost their health. We are in the process of changing our diet because I know that is key in optimal health.
After doing tons of research, the final deciding factor was when DS was about a year old, I had an ear infection. I was given a tetanus booster pretty much against my will and I had a bad reaction. It took about 5 years for me to be able to normally use my arm and nearly 7 years later, I still have pain at the injection site. This was the final deciding factor in my kids not getting vax's. If it does that to me, what would it do to the precious little bodies of my sweet innocent children? No thank you!
Hi Carla, I also had a reaction to a tetanus booster when I was 19 years old. I got it because I "had to" get it in order to compete in college sports. Within a day or two, I couldn't breathe deeply without terrible pain. My arm where the shot was injected couldn't even be lifted for a week or two. My Father (MD) told me that I had a virus in the nerve that runs though my lung cavity. It took months for this pain to subside and for me to be able to breathe normally again. Giving this poison to a child? Absolutely nuts.
I haven't read all the comments, but this is an excellent post!! I stopped vaccinating my son after 6 months due to a bad site-reaction. I did my research after that (previously, I just did it because I thought "the doctors wouldn't do anything to harm my child, would they?") and was blown away at the sh*t they were so eager to shoot into my son's veins! A pharmaceutical Meth, if you will.
One point you brought up that I never thought of though, is the fact that unvaxed children are always healthier than vaxed children. I've just sat here for about 5 minutes thinking of all my friends children, and my own, and they've all had 3x the sicknesses of my children. Very good point, a study should definitely be done!
One thing that hit home shortly after we made the decision to not vaccinate, was a recalled vaccine (I can't think of it now…). I just thought "How can you recall a vaccine?? It's already causing damage, it's already injected into the fragile bodies, you can't just return it to the store for a refund…"
I am sharing this with everyone I know!! This is excellent!
I'm a mom to 2 boys (3 1/2 and 9 months). My 3 1/2 yo is vaccinated. I regret it! He has been through a gambit of illnesses. None of which has seen him to the hospital. Thank God! Ever time he was vaccinated, from infant hood on, he would go into a deep sleep right after and then run fevers that would range from 102 to 104. I was appalled! After his last vaccination at 11 months he contracted pneumonia. Its been a respiratory fight, since. On the other hand, my 9 month old baby has never been touched by a needle and has only had a slight cold, so far.
I based my second child's lack of vaccines off of instinct first. I've been educating myself since. I don't feel that I need a better reason but I have to "fight off" the rest of the mainstreamers like my mother! Gah!
When I was a little girl, just hitting puberty, I started to break out in a head to toe rash. A toxic reaction, said the Dr's but could never diagnose it. It was a horrible teenage-hood. It would start with being generally sick so I would take something for it. Tylenol, Ibuprofen, ect. Within 12 hours, I would be very serverly sick and break out in a sunburn type rash head to toe. It burned to where I couldn't move without agony and my whole body, inside and out, ached something fierce. I would have a high grade fever with it, at first. After a couple of days, the rash would start to itch. I can't explain the severity of the itch except I would writhe and squirm in agony. If I scratched it, it would increase the itch 10 fold. Then, after a few days of that all the affected skin would peel off. The whole ordeal would last a month or so.
I broke out about 15 times from age 13-20. The docs never could help. I was seen primarily at Children's Hospital. No medicine could counter the rash, once it began. My best medicine was no medicine. When I was about 18, I realized that when I got a sinus infection or cold, if I didn't take any medicine, I wouldn't break out. Its worked ever since.
I don't know what I had/have. I don't know that it matters anymore. I do blame it on medicine, in general. Vaccines too. I got my teenage round of vaccines right before breaking out for the first time, I do know that. The worst part was when the doctors started looking at my "mental state" for answers. Thinking that I must be doing it to myself, somehow! Can you believe that?! To say the least, and over the years, I've come to realize that that is why doc's offices are called "practices"! They don't know all and the definetly don't know ME better than I do.
I haven't taken as much as a tylenol for over 12 years. Its an amazing freedom to realize that humans DON'T need medicine to counter everyday aches and pains. There are a TON of better ways.
So that is what leads me down this road of natural living. I can't have medicine. Now that I'm a mom, I can't risk another break-out. I don't have the liberty of being in bed, invalid, for a solid week or more to go along with the mental hit that I would take.
I had natural births with both my sons. No vitamin K injections, no vaccines, no eye goop. I eat with out/very little perservatives, additives, or colors in my food. I don't put chemicals in my body, on my body, or around our bodies. I have a deep faith that you shouldn't mess with nature to try to make it "better".
Sorry for the ramble. I love all the responses to this. A great read, for sure!
~Maryn (Firefifghter/EMT/Mom)
Maryn, thank you for sharing this story. I have to say that while I was reading it, I teared up. You are a very brave person.
Back on May 25th, you made this comment: "My son had a thorn go 3 or 4 inches into his foot once." What kind of thorn is that long and did it go in sideways or up through the heel? 3 or 4 inches sounds like an exaggeration to me. Makes me wonder what else is exaggerated here.
I meant to say the THORN was 3-4 inches long and we have huge thorns on vines and other vegetation here in FL. It penetrated very deeply into his foot and definitely qualified as a puncture wound. I hope your day gets better!!
Great post!
As an expectant mother I have spent many hours researching this topic, and many hours defending my stance on this. Recently I came across a fantastic source of information at vaccineriskawareness.com. There are many articles, and tons of research put nicely together in one place. I read the comments on your post, and I have also found that the `herd immunity` argument comes up a lot in my own discussions with people. Here is a wonderful article pointing out why the herd immunity theory is extremely flawed.
http://vaccineriskawareness.com/The-Herd-Immunity-Theory-Treating-Our-Children-Like-Cattle
Health and happiness to all!!
I saw as a child what devastation polio can do. I didn't have many vaccinations when I was a baby. Neither did my sister who suffered encephelitis after a bout of chickenpox. She almost died and has had some difficulty all of her life as a result. There are some exceptions to your rule that I would like you to consider. I know that we don't have it in this country anymore. In third world countries where disease is rampant, vaccination is necessary. These people don't have the nutritional advantage that we do. Their immune system is alrealdy compromised. Do you think that if someone has been bitten by a rabid animal should not get the vaccine? It is 100% fatal.
There are homeopathic vaccines available in cases where a person has been bitten by a rabid animal. Rabies is not 100% fatal either .. I recently read an article about this very thing. There are other options available but most doctors do not talk about them as they want everyone to take the injection approach as this makes more money for Big Pharma and Big Pharma dictates medical school curriculum. Research and education is key for people who seek nontoxic alternatives to vaccines.
Wow, where to start. I have one, 7 month old child. I chose to not vaccinate in the beginning while I was still researching. I got alot of bad energy/comments from people all around me, but my Mom always sided with me. I am so glad that I continued to research and feel GREAT about my decision not to vaccinate. I have a husband that never researched this topic and always thought I would vaccinate our children. With the whooping Cough outbreak in California he started to feel uneasy about my decision. I heard from many of my friends that I was making the wrong decision. I do not care what others think, I only feel so SAD for those children that have to suffer! I am so glad that I stumbled upon your blog. This is what I needed to read to feel better about my decision and know that others feel the same as I do. What is weird- is that before I got pregnant, I always thought I would vaccinate. I never thought a second about it. As soon as I had the baby- I just knew that It was a bad thing for him and I never got the first shot in the hospital. I am so glad that I had the intuition/spiritual experience and that I listened to it. Please continue to blog about vaccinations as you find new info.. Thanks Lindsey
Everyone should check out http://www.drmercola.com
He has great articles on reasons why to NOT vaccinate. Everyone read this article:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/11/14/Expert-Pediatrician-Exposes-Vaccine-Myths.aspx
He has many more articles to read as well. This was one of my favorites.
I wrote to you yesterday about having to be vaccinated due to my Father being in the military and living in Africa as a child. My husband was also in the military and we have 3 children who are now grown. They were all vaccinated on schedule are are perfectly healthy and happy. My oldest daughter now has 2 children of her own they are 2 1/2 and 6 months old. They have been vaccinated according to schedule and are healthy too. My daughter’s husband is also in the military and if you do not vaccinate your children they will not accept them as patients at military medical clinics.
Do you think that people living in foreign countries such as Ethiopia, where I spent a great majority of my childhood should not be vaccinated? Diseases such as yellow fever, cholera, hepatitis and malaria are rampant there. We took pills for the malaria like our servicemen serving overseas now do. They also have to get all their childhood shots over again to serve in Afghanistan and Iraq.
I have never seen a list of the substances you claim are in vaccinations now. Where did you find this? Where do you get your information? Also as I stated yesterday, just think how things might be a little bit better for the people living in Haiti right now had they been vaccinated for cholera.
I know many OLD veterans and they don’t suffer from Alzheimer’s Disease like you claim is the “Autism of Adults”, yet they took those immunizations to fight for our country. Yet my Grandmother who was never immunized died of it.
What does your Father think about you not immunizing your children? Also were you immunized as a child? I’m guessing you were if your Father is a physician. Did you feel it negatively impacted your health. I know this is long but I really would like to know. Thanks
“My daughter’s husband is also in the military and if you do not vaccinate your children they will not accept them as patients at military medical clinics.”
This is not true. I do not vaccinate my children, my husband is currently active duty, and our children ARE seen at the military hospitals/clinics.
@Darc My daughter and her husband are stationed at Little Rock AFB and they will not see your children at the medical clinic there if you do not vaccinate them. It must vary from service to service or something. I don’t know where you are stationed.
@Cindy
You’re wrong. We just PCS’d from Little Rock to Ohio with unvaxed kids. Little Rock AFB clinic treated my children just fine. Does not vary service to service. Tricare is Tricare is Tricare. We get dirty looks from time to time, and have requested a different doctor due to our assigned one being SO rude about it…but they’ve never refused to treat my children.
Glad your children are healthy but know that the children of today are getting many many more vaccines than yours ever did and most are not faring well with it. I was vaccinated as a child but not until I was 8 years old. I do feel it has negatively impacted my health. I got a Tetanus booster to compete in college sports and had severe neuralgia pain for months as a result of it. Would never do it again and this was from one little shot and I was 19 years old. Vaccines are a barbaric way to address the problem of infectious disease. They will be gone within 2 decades (maybe less) and we will wonder as a society what in the world we were thinking injecting such poisons into babies.
Thanks for the reply!
Sarah.. love your name, first of all.
I am so happy to have found your site. I have been through the gammut of “health trends” to heal myself and my children. I did raw, vegetarian, vegan, and the latest has been GFCF. Reading through Sally Fallon’s book.. I understand why my gut won’t tolerate wheat (or any grains for that matter) I am embarking on GAPS to heal and seal.. Yes!
I was fully vaccinated as a child, but that was 25 years ago, so it wasn’t as harmful as the schedule of vaccines is now. My poor son was vaccinated until the age of 5.. he has asthma, eczema, migraines.. and my daughter was vaccinated later in life because we didn’t have insurance to pay for it. A blessing in disguise? She had a horrible reaction to a flu shot at 4 and I swore I would never give her another vaccine again. So we have been vaccine free for 6 years.. still hate that I didn’t know more back then. Both my kids are plagued with health problems because of vaccines.. I just went to the doc yesterday to get my son’s blood work done (for my own research) and I was so talked down to by the pedicatrician about how out of date he was on shots. She even tried the whole “he won’t get into 7th grade if you don’t vaccinate”.. Sickening…
I’m praying a nourishing diet, with lots of CLO/BO and fermented foods will help heal the damage from vaccines? GAPS first of course. I also almost died after my daughter’s birth from a massive blood clot.. I was injected with massive doses of antibiotics, blood thinners (which they kept me on for 8 plus years before I finally had the courage to get off of them!!) and the like. It is a wonder I’m still here. God wants me here for a reason for sure.
I am glad to know there are sites like yours that help explain all the lies our country has been believing for years. Any other advice for someone just starting the journey and a little bit overwhelmed?? 
Thanks so much for all that you do!!
Hi Sarah, you have such a great story to tell .. make sure you tell other Moms to help them avoid the pitfalls you have experienced and don’t ever look back, only forward. What you didn’t know you didn’t know and you can’t beat yourself up about it. Just make decisions as best you can with the information you have available and keep your mind open to paradigm shifts along the way. This seems exactly what you are already doing!
Thanks for the encouragement.
And the reply!
Sarah T\’s last post: Steele Canyon Bridge – San Diego Family Portraits
This article and the comments have made an interesting read for me.
My wife and I have done extensive research into the whole Vaccination system in place in the US and compared it to other countries worldwide aswell as looking into the pharmaceuticle companies research into their own product (obviously their results are in favor of their products!). We have looked at great detail into all the known and listed ingredients in just about every childhood shot and have come to a very clear and definitive conclusion, which is merely affirmed by your article here…Vacinations are just a huge money making machine aimed primarily, at the only group of people who are unable to say no for themselves, our children.
The research we have done have shown more than simply casual links (in our view) between the huge number of shots now ‘required’ and an increase in many chronic conditions and an increase, or atleast high number of infant and toddler mortality when compared to countries who have far far fewer shots.
Look at information on countries such as Japan and several Nordic/Scandanavian countries comparing their number of shots against their rates of mortality and chronic disease and there is a very clear sign that 34+ shots is NOT working in the US (some Scandanavian countries have 11 shots total and have not only lower cases of the infectious diseases themselves but also longer life expectancy, some of the lowest infant mortality rates and have some of the highest ratings by independant groups for overal standard of life from birth to death).
Most other countries around the world have looked to the US for ways to improve their society/s and the US has been instrumental in leading the world in many ways, its now time for the US to do the same and stop being so arrogant in their thinking and fanatical belief of Allopathic medicine. Its time now to look at what works in other countries and copy from them for a change before its too late.
We found some interesting results when searching for charts showing the number of deaths from infectious diseases against a timeline (we used the year 1900 onwards as a basic way of including several known epidemics aswell as giving vacinations a fair shake of the dice). Its funny how the CDC also uses a very similar method to ‘prove’ the effectivness of modern vaccination but they only show the graphs from around 5 years before the vaccine was introduced (so if a shot wasstarted in 1980 their chart of mortality wil only start generally from 1975). Looking at a bigger picture shows a VERY different story from the one the CDC tells. across the board pretty much, all infectious disease was dropping at a very constant and controlled level as the whole ’1st world’ developed better hygiene practices, better food/nutritional practices and generally began to better understand how thing effected the human body ad how to correct it themselves either prior during or after infection took place. The introduction of vaccines either did nothing at all dramatic, nothing at all, and in some cases actually increased the nmber of deaths from infectious disease sharply for a period before the rate ocne again fell back to a predictable pattern. (One such graph that is VERY easily ‘googled’ : .
We decided after finding out that it is NOT mandatory to vaccinate in the US that we would stop shooting junk into our little girl (she has recieved a small number of shots only due to our own lack of education on the whole process
).
Even though anecdotal evidence is not supported in the allopathic world our own exeperience is proof enough in the confirming of our research. Litte one here has only once had a cold in 2 years of life, well thats about it, infact that IS it one cold. Her cousin who was born a day before her has already had several ear infections, fevers, colds, snivles etc and is medicated following the mainstream allopathic manner. We breastfed up until lack of production shut the ‘factory’ down around the 18 month mark and have always fed a simple mostly whole food diet which is based around good organic (when we can get our hands on it) foods with very little meat of any type.
Amazing as it may sound we are NOT anti vax. We are, however, pro education and firmly believe in retaining the ability to make decisions based on what we feel is best for our own following learnign everything we can from both pro and con sources.
We have suffered from the forcefull nature of the US medical system just as many continue to suffer due to their close minded arrogance, we have been asked by dctors and nurses if we ‘want our child to die?!!’ simply because we refused the HepB vaccine at birth, we have been innundated by pamhlets and ‘crap’ left in our mail box telling us to get our daughter to the doctors office to get her shots done upto date both from the doctors themselves and the pharmeceuticle corporations.
I’m not telling anyone to not get vaccinated, but to simply thouroughly research before hand loking at both sides of the argument and make an informed ecision based on your findings.
Monkeyboy, congratulations on your ability to handle mental paradigm shifts and your choice to keep your mind open to things that perhaps go “against the grain” of what you’ve been taught for many years. Whenever we think that we have all the answers or that a certain approach is the end all, be all – we are most certainly in BIG trouble as has definitely happened with the barbaric vaccination schedule that the government and conventional medicine is trying to force down our throats.
My husband is a Marine. As far as I can tell, it’s not true that military hospitals will not treat unvaccinated children. We did vaccinate, but neither have had any in over a decade-no teen year vaccines, or boosters-and they never refused to treat them. I also know military parents who do not vaccinate or who haven’t let their kids get the full vaccination course, and the military hospitals have not refused to treat them. The active duty service member is required to get all the shots, but not family members. I’ve never even been asked if I wanted a flu shot, for either myself or the kids. There’s signs in the ob clinic advocating this year’s shot, but it’s on a bulletin board with all sorts of other papers and ads, and no one has asked me or recommended to me that I get one (I’m 5 months pregnant). I’m still not sure about the whole vaccination thing for this one.
I’m in the Army; I don’t have a choice in whether or not I get vaccinated. However, military hospitals won’t refuse to treat unvaccinated children, but the schools at overseas bases won’t let non-vaccinated children attend, and the childcare centers on post won’t let your children in, either.
I already commented on another vaccine-related post, but I’ll say it again: When you don’t vaccinate for at least the basics, you’re a parasite, depending on herd immunity to keep your child’s chance of contracting a potentially fatal or maiming disease low. Nutrition is not the only answer; these vaccines were developed because even before industrial agriculture, these diseases killed. I can perhaps see waiting until 2yo; I can see turning down something like HepB, which is generally sexually transmitted, until the child is older. But a blanket refusal to vaccinate is, I think, foolish.
Regarding the vaccinated kids being less healthy…. well, you might look up the phrase ‘confirmation bias’. When you have a pre-set idea, you tend to notice and remember evidence that supports your theory and ignore/forget that which doesn’t. Which, I suspect, is the case here. I and my siblings were all vaccinated and we were perfectly healthy, thanks. I think you’re skewing the data on this idea, though it may be subconscious on your part.
Kasi, you are completely ignoring the fact that children today are getting 68 vaccinations by by age 12 whereas you and I got THREE. Also, healthy is a matter of definition. I just scratch my head when people tell me they are “healthy” and then go on to describe all the aches, pains, and other problems they suffer from. Most people don’t even know what healthy really is.
Okay seriously, to argue that “I think what I think becasue I want to think it and everyone else is lying because they can” is a TERRIBLE argument! And not scientific at all. If you want respect and for things to change from a large number of vaccines to few or none then you have to find actual evidence that supports that it is significantly better for the majority to not be vaccinated. I have read through this article and the majority of replies and I’m sorry Sarah but you routinely belittle and even put down people that have an opinion in favor of vaccines for the same reasons that you do not favor them [ i.e. I have relatives/people I know that have been vaccinated and are healthy, or I have seen children that have suffered severe imparment due to the disease that a vaccine would have esally prevented].
Many of the responders here that have stated that they are not vaccinating their children are also living an altogether different life-style than the average American family. So yes, when you eat grass grown in your own backyard, live a 100 miles away from an average city and rarely socialize with anyone that has a different opinion than you (inlcuding stupid non-parents who pedal the lies of big pharma), then yes your children will not get polio (that has a higher statistical occurance of life-long paralysis than tetanus does of temporary neralgia0, or mumps (that causes extreme pain and frequently leads to sterility), or tetanus (which if it has already entered the blood stream from a puncture wound, which is when a tetanus booster is reccomended, no amount of soap and water can get rid of).
And secondly, rabies is 100% fatal if not treated early. PERIOD. Yes you might try and say that there is this homiopathic blah, blah that can make things all warm and fuzzy, but in the end…rabies is 100% fatal. And it was 100% fatal before big pharma was every around.
Yes there is an increase in occurance of autism, asthema, ADHD, diabetes, auto-immune disorders, mental health problems, developmental delays, etc…in the last few decades.
And yes, the US has one of the worst infant mortality rates of any industrialized nation.
However, most of these increases in diseases/disorders have to do with 1) a better and more in-depth understanding of the condition and more accurate diagnosis for patients that were previously just “strange” or “odd” or “shy” (this most specifically applies to autism as it is a spectrum disorder and Asburgers is the most commonly diagnosised part of the spectrum and many of these children would have just been thought of as “funny” in past decades) 2)some of these diseases are now over diagnosised (such as with ADHD or even auto-immune disorders that disappear after childhood?!?) and used as an excuses or scapgoat for out-of-control or just generally sick kids who need little more then discipline or rest or time to grow out of it! 3) Many of the countries that have better infant mortality rates than the US also do not attempt to save and maintain the life of infants born extremely premature (24, 25, 26 weeks gestation and around 1-1.5 pounds) like is expected in the States. Also many of these contries have socialized medicine [however not an advocate of that either] and have more responsible citizens that take advantage of all that healthcare has to offer both during their pregnancies and day-to-day life. Preventative care is one of the BIGGEST determanents of better health even before vaccines or location of where you live. Also these countries provide financial assistance to mothers after delivery until toddlerhood (most at least the first year some even beyond two years) to allow parents to stay home with their infant and encourages breastfeeding (I’m a huge supporter on this one!). 4) Yes the “heard effect” is real! When 95 out of 100 people get vaccinated against illness X then all 100 are protected against it because it is less likely that the other 5 will get it the disease since it is not being spread amoung the other 95 people. That is just basic math there! Deny it all you want, but just because you say that is it not the truth doesn’t mean that it isnt the truth. The color red is always red even if you try and say that you think it is blue.
Finally, the reason that vaccines were created or even thought up in the first place is because the actual disease suck! People and specifically kids and babies DIED from many of the illness as recently as 50 years ago. The reason small pox doesnt exsist anymore is because of vaccines. The reason that you and your children are safe against diptheria, typhoid, polio, and mengitis is because everyone else’s kid is being vaccinated against them and so are/were all their parents. And even something like Gardisil is helping…HPV is contracted from sexual contact. However there is currently no way to test male partners for this disease. So female partners only find out that their partner had it when they test positive for it on a Pap smear. HPV has a high rate of developing into cervical cancer that can lead to death, hysterectomy and even cervical insufficancy (when a pregnancy can not be maintained beyond approx 22 weeks and a woman spontaniously goes into labor and delivers a baby that is born alive but to young and underdeveloped to survive and so a mother must sit there and hold her child as it dies in her arms attempting to fight to breath when there is not enough lung tissue to allow oxygen exchange and the baby eventually dies, sometimes in minutes sometimes hours!) all because she did not receive a vaccine that might make her feels dizzy or light-headed for a little bit of time but would have protected her against the disease that lead to half her cervix being destroyed and holding a dying child.
And speaking of dying children; what about all the parents that choose not to vaccinate and end up loosing their children to purtusis (whooping cough), measles, or cholera (as previously pointed out thousands are dying from in Haiti currently)??? Is it a fair risk to maybe lose your child or have severe, long-term imparement such as paralysis or an inability to have children an even trade for a small and undefined risk of a few children getting childhood asthema, being ill-tempered or have 3 extra colds a year. I would rather have a child that is sick 4 or 5 more times a year then risk not having my child at all!!!
Did you know one of tha major reasons that the average size of the American family has dropped from 5 children to 2 in the last century is VACCINES! More babies live to childhood and then adulthood partially due to vaccines then they did a century ago…you dont have to worry about only having 2 children and both of them dying from wooping cough or polio!
And your previous arguement that you gave a poster of “well you must not have children, otherwise you would understand…” doesn’t work here. I do have a wonderful and exceptionally healthy daughter and she has received ALL of her vaccines including flu shots as have I including a recent TDaP booster. Now, I am not uneducated and I have had arguments with my pediatrician about the frequency, volume, placement, and components of various vaccines. Whether she should receive 6 shots at one time (NO), get 3 different combo shots at one time (NO), vaccines being placed in a small muscle at a young age [which increases the risk of hitting a nerve or not allwoing all of the medicine to stay in the muscle for proper absorption] ( surprise, NO to this one also). I DO agree with the point that you and several other posters have placed in that you must be informed and speak up for your opinion, ask questions and always make choices in the best interest of your child. However, this can be done reasonably while also protecting against serious and fatal illnesses. I would also add that I DO believe that more research needs to be done to properly identify the cause of the increase in childhood disorder diagnosis and that companies that make vaccines do need to be held more accountable for their products so that the public can feel confidence and security in the product that is being produced!
In the end there is no simple solution as well as no solution that fits every family or every child. Maybe a child whose mother has shown a tendency for severe reactions to medications should be much more cautious with regards to vaccines. Children who are homeschooled and living in remote or rural areas dont necessarily need all the same shots that a child living in the inner city and goes to daycare everyday might need due to different levels of exposure. This is all makes sense, but your previous blanket statement of “vaccines will be gone in 20 years” is false and completely idiotic just because you personally dont know of any unhealthy non-vaccinated children. I also don’t know anybody that has a small dog that doesnt yip and yap all the time. Does that mean that all small dogs must yip and yap therefore we should take drastic measures against it? No, it just means that is my personal experience; it is limited and subjective. That is why it is important to base things on objective, scientific data instead of “he said, she said”. And id you feel so strongly the best thing to do I support research and advocate for change not just bury your head in the sand and say “I’m right because I know that I’m right and that is all I need”. If you truely feel that our children are being posoined by vaccines and they serve no other purpose beyond making money for some big pharma company, that they help in no other way and that a simple diet change, playing in the dirt and some willow root extract is going to make everyone better (which this is exactly what families did a centruy ago!!!) then prove it!!! Otherwise you are simply contributing to big pharam killing everyone else’s kids because we were too stupid to know any better. And how could you live with yourself if you let that happen to everyone else?
[okay that was a bit crude, but you get my point: if you are right then you are simply talking the talk instead of walking the walk while you KNOW that today's kids are being posioned and are suffereing and dying-or-you are wrong and are just trying to make some parents feel badly about choosing to trust current medical practice when there is no sufficently supported counter arguement-or- there is a middle ground somewhere that could benefit both side and keep everyone's kids healthy but you are being too stubborn to compromise and support research and a better understanding because it might be proven that vaccines are helpful]
There is my soap-box…thank you for listening
Hmmm I think some one is a bit hell bent.. MOM and RN.. I think a little research from the cdc web site and From Merk is in order for you.. Also IOM.. Oh and the poor unhealthy mother who never had a pap smear who lost her child that is a terrible thing to witness I’m sure. But hey the gardasill shot is creating That ” one Less” like the ten year old boy and the 89 other deaths from the shot. Right they don’t have to worry about that even though the rate of cervical cancer death rate is less than that number. A mazing. That you would ramble on about how disease ridden we are or even where.. Look here is a video you as a “Nurse” should watch, to see That there is a VERY REAL RESON WHY NOT TO VACCINATE. And if you don’t watch it, then you will just be like what you said about SARAH. your right and everyone else is crazy.
“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdLMeULoujM&NR=1.
So, I watched that video as you recommended (it would have been nice to note that it is 3 hours long when you posted it however!). I did find the information provided by Dr Tenpenny very interesting. As I stated in my previous post, I’m not saying that there are not issues with vaccines, that certain diseases may be more readily diagnosised after the instution of a high vaccine schedule, and that some are over the top (specifically chicken pox). Yet if you pay attention to what the speaker from your video says there are benefits AND risks to vaccines. Many of the vaccines were tested for the safety on older children but now that they are being given at such an early age we are seeing more complications. MMR is one that comes to mind. Yes mumps has a real potential for causing sterility in older children who contract the diease, this fact was confirmed by Dr.Tenpenney in your video. But it does have a low risk of longterm complications in early childhood. So maybe a better solution is to wait to vaccinate not at 6 months but rather 10 years old. The risk is for post-pubecent children. So vaccination at 10 years old would allow a child to develop not only neurologically and reduce the risk of autism as well as other possible auto immune diseases but would protect against possible sterility if contracted in young adolescene. It would also allow the approx 10 year prtection window to continue into young adulthood when a parent might likely be exposed to a young un-vaccinated child who has contracted the disease wile caring for them at home. The other side though is that Dr Tenpenny praised the HiB vaccine for not having preservatives and really working well to solve the major side effects of HiB infections such as long term hearing loss, however it too as been associated with risks…so where do we start and where do we stop? Do we all just dig our heads into the sand and say that “i am rihgt and you cant change my mind” or do we just try and figure out the best plan to keep our kids safe?!?!?! Because you can not seriously believe that the world would be a better place if we all just stopped vaccinating all of our children right now and let all the disease run wild and free…that is just not a realistic point of view. But in the same breath it is not realistic to think that a medicine (which is what a vaccine is) doesnot have some side effects mild or severe for some children; and that those side effects do not need to be addressed is alos rediculous!!!
Excellent comment Mom and RN. As a former academic researcher turned sahm, it is difficult for me to listen to anyone who is opposed to vax based on the types of arguments posted here. Most of the young people in our research bldg that worked in the vaccine research labs were very passionate about finding answers to preventing diseases that truly devastated their home populations. Can you imagine what it would mean globally to have an effective HIV vaccine? Malaria? I feed my family as much ‘real food’ as I can and purchase mostly organic produce/dairy/eggs/meat, make sure they are well rested, send them outside as much as possible – and fully vaccinate them, on schedule because I have faith in my pediatrician and his desire to keep my kids safe. I find it insulting to insinuate that any pediatrician would put his patients at risk for a ‘kickback’. The reason some pediatricians do not want to see your kids if they are not vaccinated is because it would break their heart to lose a patient to a preventable illness due to a parents ill informed decision and narcissistic belief that they know more than their health practitioner. Dangerous childhood disease are making a comeback in under vax areas of the country. Specifically whooping cough in Boulder, CO and in parts of CA, due to undervaccinating. This puts the entire population of those areas at risk, esp the elderly and the babies either unvaccinated or too young to be fully vaccinated. This is not just a lifestyle choice, but a dangerous and selfish decision.
I had vaccination separately for measles and rubella as a child, and then I had mumps in grade school. Twenty years ago, I was told that I had to get the MMR vaccine to attend graduate school because I did not have a mumps vaccine. At the time, I didn’t know the risks of the MMR vaccine and didn’t know I could refuse it on philosophical beliefs. I believe that MMR vaccine screwed up my gut, and I have suffered since. You can see regular bumps on my stomach that look like measles. The measles in the MMR vaccine are not the same as measles you would contract if you got sick. My acupuncturist has made the same observation of his son who was vaccinated with MMR and the son that was not. The son that was vaccinated can’t eat dairy. I have the same problem myself. I don’t think there is a good argument for getting vaccinated as an adult either.
I just have to ask – how old are you that you only received three vaccines? I as a child received far more than that, and I’m not a “young” mom by any means.
This would be worthy searching out, but I read a while back about a study among Amish children (who are not vaccinated) that revealed that the only Amish children who could be found with autism were those who were not born in traditional Amish communities, but were adopted in AFTER receiving infant vaccinations. I quit having my children vaccinated at the time their 12-year old booster shots were due, after finally researching the subject (though I did refuse the chicken pox vaccine when they were little). I wish I would have researched the topic before they were born. Both of them have food allergies and my son has struggled with hyperactivity and attention issues. I always tell my kids to refuse all vaccinations until their children are at least 2 years old, which will give them the time they need to thoroughly research each disease and vaccine for those diseases (before giving in to pressure to go with the flow….and then hope for the best).
Again, there are a lot of other factors here. They don’t have Tylenol, for example, which is showing to contribute to/possibly activate the gene responsible for some types of autism. They don’t have the prepared food that we have. They don’t have the technology that we have. They don’t live in the pollution that others do. There are some VERY different environmental factors between the Amish and the average American – I do not think you can make a blanket statement saying that they don’t have autism because they don’t get vaccinated.
Sorry, but as an ex-Amish, I’ve got to correct this one. There is Tylenol, Advil, Excedrin, on and on and on… There is plenty of processed food as well. Yes, mostly garden produce and home grown meat, but OH the white flour, white sugar, cream cheese in everything, kool-aid all the time, dessert two or three times a day… And, yes, most don’t live in the thick of smog, but pollution is everywhere, air, water, land…
I’m from an Amish area in northern Indiana, and they’re at McDonalds all the time….and Dairy Queen.
If you go to one of their bakesales, things are done with the worst ingredients….Cool Whip, etc.
“Someday there will be a study that shows that unvaccinated children have many less health problems than their vaccinated peers,” you say. This is your hypothesis, why don’t you run the study? Especially since you seem to know so many unvaccinated children?
And please don’t comment on well run studies if you haven’t read them! “How about hormone replacement therapy for women?” How about it? Did you read the study? I wasn’t done on menopausal or even peri-menopausal women. A women had to be age 70 or greater to get in the study! By that time the ravages of Alzheimers and cancer had made their inroads. What was the govenment thinking, giving HRT to 70 yr old women??
Be very careful what you publish about reports if you haven’t read the original studies and conducted your own analysis.
I personally know 2 unvaccinated children in one family, one is blind the other deaf from diptheria (you know the one, it’s in the DPT vaccination, along with whooping cough).
I agree, the drug companies are not innocent, and need more regulation especially for the phase 4 trials which are supposed to log adverse affects after FDA approval. Vioxx would not have remained as long as it did if these studies had been properly conducted and docs had not been “bribed” to prescribe them. The same is true for Neurontin and many other drugs.
Definitely, do your homework, investigate, but not on sites like this! Go to the original studies. And Don’t put our children at harms risk. As the number of unvaccinated children grows, so will the epidemics. Like the polio epidemic when I was a child. I lost playmates and many that didn’t die,now have permanent limb damage and are starting to require joint surgeries.
Those who don’t learn from history must repeat it.
Here you go, Ann. At the time I wrote this post, I didn’t know about this info by Dr. Eisenstein. I wrote about it in a subsequent post which I guess you haven’t read. I don’t expect it to convince you though. You seem quite happy inside the box of conventional thought on health and wellness.
Check out this video and website by Dr. Mayer Eisenstein MD, who since 1973, has observed virtually no asthma, allergies, ADHD, ADD, autism, in over 35,000 cases of unvaccinated children.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist\’s last post: Monday Mania- 1-3-2011
Graph’s show that vaccine are not the reason that the below disease declined!!
http://www.vaccineinitiative.org/?p=290
Sarah,
You seem pretty skilled at finding evidence to counter the mainstream theories about the efficacy of vaccines, so I thought I’d send you the latest article out today to see what you’d say about their attempts to talk about the Myths associated with the anti-vaccinaton movement. http://www.usatoday.com/yourlife/health/medical/2011-01-06-vaccinemyths06_ONLINE_ST06_N.htm?csp=34news
On a related side note–I would like to point out something that I find ironic in your postings about the vaccines. As much as I read your vaccine postings as well thought out and researched, I also find that there is a tone of fear in them that is ironic to me. You say that the Drs and Big Pharm want to scare us into getting vaccinated. Yet you also use the tone of fear- “Someday there will be a study that shows that unvaccinated children have many less health problems than their vaccinated peers. Don’t wait until this study is finally done because it will be too late for your child.” Point is–i’m a social worker, I work hard to build relationships with the families I work with based on trust, optimism, hope. Making them afraid drives them away. Don’t you think you might go a long way to build relationships with people who DON’T agree with you by using other tactics then your own version of fear mongering? I can read your posts and take your research at face value-you have valuable things to say. Where you lose me though is you throwing your hat into the fear ring. Its a tired trick. Our culture has become consumed with fear. We are paralyzed by fear. See: Glenn Beck-King of Fear Mongering. It just all sounds manipulative to me at this point “do that, don’t do this”. Its exhausting. 24/7 media and blogs like this don’t help in our country’s dire need to reduce fear and accusations as our main forms of communication.
Imagine being an R. N. , working in an NICU(neonatal intensive care unit), working with premature(as young as 22-23 wks. gestation) and sick babies, working at a pediatrician’s office. & not vaccinating my kids(or myself). Not something I necessarily advertise:), but if a parent asks me, I tell them the truth- that after much research, we have decided not to vaccinate, but is up to them to ask questions, do their research, and decide for themselves
Good conversation all around, from the blog to all the comments, for & against:):). Just good to be talking about it and not blindly following(as with anything:)
Thank you for this article. The only thing that really bothered me was when you said ” Fully Vaccinated Children are the Unhealthiest, Most Chronically Ill Children I Know” I go to a church with other young couples. Altogether our church has 20-30 young children – children between 2-8. My children have all been vaccinated and are among the healthiest group of the bunch. If they get sick it lasts a day. With they exception of my youngest mind you. he has eczema really bad. However they also rarely have a cold too. My brothers family has never been vaccinated but the have allergies and asthma just like their mom. Anyway i also know that things depend a lot on good diets and stuff which we eat pretty healthy. Thanks again for the informative web site
Hi Digitalangel3, comparisons between individual families may vary as you suggest and have observed. However, in general, if you observe all the children you know who are vaccinated versus the unvaccinated, the differences are huge. And, you are so right. Diet is a big part of sustaining whatever health a child comes into the world with. A nonvaccinated child that eats junk food all the time will obviously have issues. Generally speaking, unvaccinated children comes from families that are more diet conscious than not. Thank you for commenting with your personal story.
My 2nd child has had bouts of asthma, and my 4th suffers with eczema, both which have been controlled by diet and lifestyle … I can only imagine how much more they would have suffered had I relented to healthcare professional’s constant badgering and given into the big V …
What about my friend who’s been a music teacher at a Lutheran school forever? His observation is: why at noon does the school nurse have to hand out so many meds to the children? This according to him never happened 30 years ago. At most you would have ONE kid needing attention……not a dozen.
I just discovered your website! Awesome! Thank you! I have 3 boys 11-15. 2 were home births, the middle a C-Section. He was breach and I tried to deliver him vaginally, but it wasn’t happening. My boys all got vaccines, but at my schedule and not exactly what was populary given at the time. They are healthier than most and when they do get something it last only a day. They are very athletic and active. They eat well. They were nursed for their first 8-12 months as often as they wanted. They nursed until they wanted to stop. Between the 3, they only had a total of 5 jars of baby food, none of which was ever finished. They hated the taste of dead canned food. What they got was whole food, what ever was on my menu was on theirs, mashed according to need with breast milk or water. My middle son who was born at a well respected hospital is the one who has the most “health issues”, sinus issues and dry skin and when there is something that gets us, he seems to get it the worst. He slept in the hospital bed with me the whole time but he did get that dose of the epidural. A friend who’s kids have never been vaccinated, are much more sickly than mine. They eat organic. We do as we can and afford to. But we focus on eating whole foods and rarely have soda or fast food. For us it’s about balance. My sister is Rubella, born during the German Measle epidemic of the mid 60′s. My kids got the MMR vaccine at a later age than the doctor would have liked. The Polio vaccine was spaced out more and they were given the “dead” vaccine instead of the live which was creating the new cases of the disease. It was a huge epidmic and it would be horrible for it to come back. The pertusis vaccine given was one that was given in Japan and later made it to the states. I think there are a multitude of factors that play a role in how vaccines affect our kids. And for sure, they are given way too many, way too soon for their tiny bodies. But beliefs and emotions play a powerful role in our overall health as well.
Health is in our hands, not the hands of anyone else. Only we can know what’s best for ourselves. Thank you for this wonderful forum!
Welcome SLee! Thank you for your comments. This blog is for people who THINK for themselves, not people who blindly follow the crowd or what their doctor/school nurse/nutritionist says. There is no substitute for personal responsibility when it comes to health.
As far as I am concerned, vaccination is an organised criminal enterprise dressed up as disease prevention.
“Belief in immunization is a form of delusional insanity.”
Dr Herbert Shelton, USA
“I was shocked to find that this whole vaccine business was indeed a gigantic hoax.”
Dr A Kalokerinos MD, Australia
“Vaccines contain substances which are so noxious they should not ever be injected into a human body.”
Dr Viera Scheibner PhD, Australia
I have 4 children. The eldest (born 1982) had one dose of DPT which was given late. He then had a persistent and whoop cough which lasted the whole winter. After this we tried to give him just DT for the next vaccine but were stonewalled. So we started to research. Due to this we made the decision for him to have no further shots and the other 3 children had no vaccines at all. They are now 28, 25, 23 and 20. The eldest two had one ear infection after a swimming lesson. None had antibiotics until adulthood. The 23 yr old took a while to breathe when born. At around 2 she suffered croup and was given a homoeopathic remedy and that cured her. Around 9 she had a anaphalactic reaction to an unknown substance. I firmly believe that vaccines would have been dangerous for her. My youngest has some health issues which are yet to be diagnosed. Again I believe that vaccines would have severely affected her immune system. I live in NZ and was involved with a group who supported parents of children who had adverse reactions to vaccines. Many found the medical professionals they encountered would not admit that vaccines were the cause. For some 80 that were accepted as vaccine damage only 3 made it to the official statistics. One was 8 weeks prem and so still 2 weeks prem when given his “6 week” shots. He is now in a wheelchair due to cavvine induced spastic quadraplegia. His reaction caused a health department warning that premmies should not receive shots until 6 weeks after their due date. After divorce I was a single mum with low income. We live in a city and our diet was very average. We did take regular Vitamin C and only used homoeopathic medicines. Do I think the world would be better without vaccines? Yes I do. Any graph (see link above for one) will show how much these diseases had declined prior to the intervention of vaccines. I have to wonder if these diseases would no longer be around without vaccines. Can someone tell me why we no longer have the Black Plague? It disappeared prior to vaccines. Herd immunity? This was effected by the population having come in contact with the illness over generations and everyone having natural immunity which mothers passed on to their babies. Did you know that vaccinated mothers do not pass immunity to their babies? One problem with the herd immunity theory is that fully vaccinated children are still getting these diseases. It is true that the only cases of polio in the last 20 years came from vaccinated children. My children had measles and chickenpox as youngsters with no issues. I accept that there is a risk with the diseases but it was our choice to take that risk rather than the risk of vaccines damaging their immune systems. Some of the people above who have chosen to vaccinate have done so at a timing and in a manner which has lessened the risks to their children. I applaud them for that. Others who have completed research and still decided to vaccinate have made their choice as I did with the willingness to live with the risks. What I find hard is the multitude who have no idea that there are risks from vaccines. And for some of these it will be too late by the time they have a vaccine injured child.
Just wanted to point out that the Black Plague is still around.
Reference to article: http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/829233-overview
“Unlike smallpox, the plague never will be eradicated. It lives in millions of animals and on billions of fleas that reside on them. It is a disease of the desert, the steppes, the mountains, and the forest.”
I believe here in California, there was a reported case of Bubonic plague as recently as 2006. I know that where locally where I live, the US Forest Service has found instances of squirrells being infected with the black plague. I believe it is still easily treated with antibiotics.
To me, the biggest issue we will face is the fact of antibiotics no longer working due to resistance. Sadly, I do not think that in twenty years we will be celebrating the end of all infectious diseases . Instead, I believe that most of our antibiotics will no longer work and we will get the “joy” of watching our children and families die of staph and strep infections, pneumonia and other diseases treated with antibiotics today.
There are natural antibiotics such as tea tree oil, colloidial silver, and vitamin C.
However, “modern” medicine instead of researching alternatives to antibiotics continues to arrogantly overuse antibiotics. Many of these natural alternatives are actually superior to the conventional ones.
You are so right – my sister just found a rememdy for a long term (YEARS even) problem with mucus and sinuses.
She had seen an allergist and wasn’t getting anywhere. Her results came back that she wasn’t even allergic to anything.
She just started gargling twice a day with salt water, and PRESTO – not much time after the mucus wasn’t there……a miracle really! No meds — no side effects.
So that I just read your post. I am a nurse and I just had to complete a “annual training” module. Well I laughed aloud when I read the
QUESTION: “Which is a good step in the fight against antibiotic-resistance”?
I got excited…thinking ohh maybe it will actually address antibiotic over-usage….
ANSWER: “Getting all your vaccinations”.
HUH?!?! I’m. just. plain. confused.
The majority of vaccines (flu, mumps, measles, rubella, polio, HPV, rotavirus, hep B, hep A, chicken pox…..) are for VIRUS’!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How the heck does ensuring that we have those help the COLOSSAL issue of antibiotic-resistance organisms?
And it’s interesting to note the complication what some vaccines have brought to microbe mutation and virulence. The first HIB shot was only for 7 strands, recently they created a whole new vaccine with 13 different strains in it because the old vaccine caused new uncommon strains to become common and virulent. Hmm…
Anyways– I suppose the assumtion on my o-so-informative training module was that if you do get a bacterial vaccine (pneumococcal/menigococcal/Hib) you are “preventing” yourself from getting that specific strain (not for sure) and being one less person who might need an antibiotic for an infection….and one less person to contribute to the antibiotic resistance issue from OVER-USAGE. Hm… that’s kinda a stretch. I think a better answer would have been:
ANSWER: STOP TAKING ANTIBIOTIC FOR NOTHING-NESS….colds, flus, aches, ear-infections, skin infections, sinus infections….t
he list goes on and on. Now that would REALLY help this huge issue…that I completely agree Sarah T….is killing and will be killing more of our family then we could ever imagine. A completely man-made epidemic brought on by the ABUSE of medicine.
LAUREN\’s last post: Broken Philosophy
Yes, another red flag is: you get the vaccine, you get a reaction. But never, NEVER is there a correlation. Oh, really? That’s just some AMAZING coincidence, isn’t it.
That’s another reason to question their good faith…..
Great article. I shared w/ my facebook community
I started off vaccinating with my oldest.. and now my youngest (fourth) has not had any. It’s so important to get people thinking about who they are allowing to make the decisions for the health of their children. It’s sad that our society has succumbed to lies perpetrated by a huge industry and our government puts a big ‘old stamp of approval on it.
I think it would be great if your article also included information regarding the fact that the CDC is run by former pharmaceutical employees. The fox is guarding the hen house!
Just wanted to say thank you for this article, helps to know I’m not alone. Trying to turn a crowd rushing for the door is a very hard thing to do, even if turning will save their lives. I appreciate the time you have taken to put this out and the many other articles you have written. I’m just getting started on the reading and like what I’ve seen so far! God Bless, Katie: Mother of 7
Just wanted to say that I suffer from an autoimmune disease. It started around the time that I started a job at a hospital and had to be vaccinated for HepB. I had my first child just before this and had him fully vaccinated by 12/18 months as well. None of my other 6 children have been vaccinated. The oldest is dyslexic, has attention problems, cannot stay on task. He is otherwise very bright but cannot focus. He also still wets the bed nearly every night at 13 years old. None of the other children have these issues.
Thank you so much for posting this article! It makes me feel less crazy for not vaxing my toddler. We were going to do a delayed and selective schedule at first but then I started reading more and decided to hold off all vaccines until she is school age and we can make better decisions. I want to avoid vaccinating completely while my husband wants her to get a few. Hopefully we can meet a compromise by age 5. I am shocked at how many from the medical profession think I’m a horrible and ignorant mom for not vaxing…I guess they’re brainwashed by the pharmaceutical companies.
I think the most important point is you can’t undo a vaccine! I can ‘undo’ delaying and not vaxing but parents who choose to vaccinate cannot undo their decision and while they argue that they were vaccinated and are ‘normal’ I argue that I wouldn’t know that would be the case with my child until it was too late. I’m a teacher and I see too many kids suffering from ADHD, autism, and other issues that are just a ‘fluke’ according to the medical community but I believe its from our vaccines and things we feed our kids (like the MSG…oh hey wait, they also put that in vaccines)!
I have said it once and I will say it again. You are a nut. The more you post, the more I feel the need to say something.
You are too high and mighty for your own good. You are telling people to not get their kids vaccines. Nice. Why not sign the death certificate for them as well? You are a huge nut. Nothing more.
I wonder if nuts are healthy???
Of course I’m a nut. I don’t go along with the conventional foolishness, now do I?
Interesting though, your comment about how the more I post, the more you feel the need to say something. Why do you even read my blog if I’m such a nut? Something must ring true to you deep down even if you don’t consciously admit it. Can’t tear yourself away from the truth, can you?
You said, “In my own circle, the Moms I know who have one or two older kids who are fully vaccinated and the younger kids who did not get any shots tell me that, hands down, that the unvaccinated children are healthier and have less problems.”
That is what I have experienced with my older two vs. my younger three so far. I wrote about it here: http://www.raisingknights.com/2010/11/raising-healthier-kids-my-experience.html
Christy\’s last post: Hard Lotion Bars
Hi Sarah, just thanking you for a wonderful article. As a new and very happy parent of a healthy – unvaccinated – 1 year old boy, I am so grateful that we had information at our disposal that helped us protect our baby. So far he has NOT been sick even once – not a sniffle, not any problem at all. And this despite the fact that I was sick with flu for a good week , and he was exposed to a houseful of our close family who were all infected. Nothing. Common sense tells the open-minded person that vaccines are (in the vast majority of cases) unnecessary. We humans have lived and thrived for 100′s of thousands of years on this planet and we have never needed vaccines. Clearly its the pharmaceutical companies that need them more than human beings.
Anthony\’s last post: Generation Y- Generation Zero and beyond
Wow. I simply cannot believe the nerve of people who make posts like this. Skepticism is a virtue, but only when well placed. The increase in antivax mentality is the cause of many of the recent preventable disease outbreaks, especially among children. If you don’t want to vaccinate yourself, that’s fine. However, by refusing to vaccinate your children, you are not only putting THEM at risk for diseases which could kill them, you are putting other peoples’ children at risk as well. I will certainly agree that overmedicated children are a problem these days, but preventing them from being vaccinated for potentially deadly diseases is sheer idiocy. There is a REASON life expectancy is so great in this day and age – one such reason is that we are able to prevent childhood mortality from many diseases which used to be huge problems. Some examples are polio, measles, mumps, rubella, and smallpox.
Don’t put your kids at risk. Get them vaccinated. Oh, by the way? Your ignorance shows with this little gem:
“…human diploid cells (the dissected cells of aborted fetuses)…”
That isn’t what diploid means. Diploid cells are cells with 2 of each type of chromosome, or almost any cell that isn’t an egg or sperm cell. Egg and sperm cells are haploid cells, and have only one of each chromosome. Please, for the sake of the wellbeing of your readers, educate yourself on what words mean before you use them.
Allyson, do you work for a pharmaceutical company? Using insults and inciting fear seems to be the main method for promoting vaccines.
By the way, YOUR ignorance shows through in your post. Pharma has widely documented and defended their use of aborted fetuses to develop certain vaccines.
cogforlife.org is an excellent website for information on the use of fetal cells in the development of vaccines. It also lists which vaccines are from fetal cell lines and which ones are from other sources, such as chicken embryo. Our pediatrician was very surprised when I showed her the info – listed in the vacc. insert. More info to use to become educated.
Huh? You actually said the unvaccinated are putting everybody at risk? Why the outrage? You’re protected, aren’t you???? Because…..YOU’RE VACCINATED!!! Yes, what else?!
And the rest of us that aren’t……….you’re putting US in danger. How about researching the virus transfers of recently vaccinated people in the OTHER DIRECTION?
Please quarantine yourself next time you get a vaccine: this way you’ll show respect for those that don’t choose another way. Thank you.
I mean: respect for those who choose another way. And….a big thanks for your understanding.
This article must be balanced with other FACTUAL information. Most of your comments are strictly opinion and have no clinical basis or citation. Such as the fact that the introduction of a pneumococcal vaccine for infants and children that was introduced in 2000 has led to a 96.6% reduction rate of invasive pneumococcal disease in children (Hicks LA, et al. J Infect Dis. 2007;196:1346-1354). Our children are not being vaccinated simply to be vaccinated. Vaccines are crucial for the sustained fight against LIFE-THREATENING diseases like measles and others. My 2-year old son has been vaccinated and is an extremely health and intelligent little boy. I am expecting my second son this summer and he too, will be vaccinated. You are entitled to your opinions, but don’t try to undermine educated parents like myself and our decisions.
Lauren, you need to wake up. I haven’t received one vaccination but I’ve lived a healthy lifestyle and have never gotten any real illness and barely a sniffle. All without these big pharama poisons. Your argument is invalid.
Eustace, you haven’t gotten sick because EVERYONE ELSE is being vaccinated. Thanks to you and all the other sheep believing this moron, you will now have the increased risk of contracting a deadly disease. Good luck with that!
Sally, I’ve written another post which details and shows charts that indicate that these epidemics were on their way out LONG BEFORE vaccines came on the scene. Better hygiene, running water, better distribution of food (fruits and veggies), the car (no more horses pooping in the streets) are the reasons why. NOT some toxic brew injected into the arms of millions of lemmings.
http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/2011/01/why-vaccines-are-scientific-fraud/
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist\’s last post: The Health Hazards of Cast Iron Pans
Oh, and i LOVE being called a Moron. Thanks for that!
Name calling is the tactic folks use when they know they’ve lost an argument. Guess who loses? YOU!
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist\’s last post: The Health Hazards of Cast Iron Pans
Actually, I win. Having read your article, I have come to the zen position of no longer being angry at people who don’t vaccinate their children. This will be the Darwinian weeding out of the lesser members of our species. Having been fully vaccinated myself, and clearly having fully vaccinated my children, my lineage will go on to prosper. I now thank you for your article and hope you continue to write delightfully hilarious articles that will enforce the rise of a more intelligent, vaccinated human race!
Um, really Sarah? Because in a comment above, “Maureen you are CLUELESS. Your adult children got what, 3 vaccines? The kids now get upwards of 60 last I checked. WAKE UP! Your ignorance and closed mindedness is embarrassing you.”, you certainly didn’t hold back.
And what about the time you told a woman not to have children until she agreed with you? Yes, that was an excellent line of argument.
But at least we finally agree on something. You know you’ve lost this argument. I don’t even think you believe the things you say yourself. But you sure like the ad revenue you get from clicks and hits on your site whenever you post about this topic.
Grace I am very intrigued why you are hop scotching around every single one of my anti vax posts and leaving these ridiculous comments. Why are you even bothering to read them when you are clearly not in the slightest interested in the information they contain? I never told a woman not to have children until she agreed with me?? I have no idea what you are even talking about!
Oh and I just refreshed myself on this info .. children get 68 vaccines by age 12 and the CDC vaccination schedule recommends 141 for adults! Can you in good conscience really support this insane overmedication of the population? What number will cause you concern? 100, 250, 500? Where will you draw the line or will you just keep accepting these new shots like a good little sheeple?
Sarah, TheHealthyHomeEconomist\’s last post: The Weekly Comment Spotlight
Sarah, it’s hardly intriguing. I have read each one of your posts on this topic and others (not just anti-vax) and am continually stunned by what you write. You are such a hypocrite that it is amazing.
#1: You quote studies that are founded by anti-vaccine camps as if they are gospel from God himself and yet you discount every. single. study put forth by other groups that don’t bring the results you want. Bias can work both ways and the sad part is that you fail to recognize your own.
#2: You continually yell and scream at the “big pharma” companies for trying to make a profit. Well, NO one I know is in the business of helping people be more healthy for free. Chiropractors, DOs, naturopaths, massage therapists, nurse midwives, etc., all charge for their services. So do pediatricians and pharmaceutical companies. You yourself make money from this blog and say that you “see nothing wrong with that.” Well, guess what, I agree with you on this point. There IS nothing wrong in having a service to offer and profiting from it, but it is the height of hypocrisy to say that it is wrong for pharmaceutical companies to profit from producing medications and yet make money for the BlogHer hits you get from people reading that article.
#3: You always say how negative pro-vax people are and how they call names and are mean. Well. . . Sarah, I have seen you belittle people right and left. You call them names/condescending terms when they disagree with you (“Sheeple”/moron are just two examples), completely dismiss any good points that the opposition might make (and surely, there must be a few good points to be made in there somewhere – just as anit-vax people do make good points, too), and you make broad, sweeping generalizations (pediatrics is a waste of time as a subspecialty – really? There aren’t any good pediatricians or reasons to see someone who specializes in children’s medicine. Have you ever met a child with a pediatric form of cancer? Those children need specialized treatment and their parents would probably be very surprised by your opinion.), yet you are derisive and quick to point out when anyone else (but you) does the same.
I “hop around to all of these posts” because I wanted to see what your “over-all” tone was. And what I left with was a bad taste in my mouth. I could even understand your bitterness and contempt if one of your children had been injured by a vaccine, but what I find instead is that it just seems to be in your nature to look down on people that don’t “agree” with you. I read your bio and it is just such a shame that your talents are being put to better use.
Oh, and for the record, I actually came to this site because I had some concerns about continuing to vaccinate my daughter since a bad site reaction at her 6 month visit. A friend recommended your site, so that’s how I ended up there. I still have concerns about vaccinations, but the way that you shame people, provide incorrect data, lie to your readers, and fail to produce one single credible source for all of your claims, has me looking elsewhere for answers. If you are truly trying to educate people, do that. Don’t make them feel bad or “stupid” or wrong or a “sheeple”. If you truly believe people are being misled, then try compassion, not being condescending. Create a safe place to come for information and not for judgment. Anytime someone tells me that they have the “only” truth, I immediately become suspicious, because truth isn’t like that. It tends to lie somewhere in the gray, somewhere in between the “two sides.” There are good and bad parts to modern medicine, good and bad parts to alternative medicine – both have their place and just need to be used responsibly. Healthy living is obviously far more about what goes on outside the doctor’s office than in. There are bad doctors out there, who are motivated only by profit and would put that above the needs of their patients, but there are many wonderful MDs who are quite the opposite and care very much about the well-being of your family and children (and some of them just happen to be pediatricians). But dismissing them would be like me saying that all anti-vaccine people are quacks, nuts, off-their-rockers, etc. I don’t believe that. I believe most are just parents trying their very best to do the very best for their families – especially their kids. That’s what I came here hoping to find, and left, very disappointed.
I won’t be back, because this is your page and of course, you have the freedom to post what you would like. And I have the freedom not to read it and find the information I am seeking elsewhere. I just hope that some of my responses to other comments make people think a little about what they have read here.
If you are no longer angry, why are you calling people morons?
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist\’s last post: The Health Hazards of Cast Iron Pans
Oh, and I assume you are ignoring some of the more recent research (on the Swine Flu vaccine) that is potentially rendering people infertile? I guess that will help a lot in the preservation of your lineage.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist\’s last post: The Health Hazards of Cast Iron Pans
Grace- I think it’s strange that you are quick to jump on Sarah for being aggresive, when you have been nothing short of aggressive yourself? Is it WRONG- or is it a bloggers prerogative?? I think I personally would be hesitant to be as firm as Sarah —but after so many angry, defensive and slanderous posts on MY blog– i think the tone in my voice would change
)
Knowing how passionate people are from “both sides”, I think it would be prudent to quit pointing fingers and be willing to do more research than you’ve ever done. It took me 2 years of intense research to be confident in what we were going to do for our family.
“Ms. Healthy Home Economist, what you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.”
And I assume that your comments are so brilliant that you’re not even confident enough to put your name by your comment? Anonymous insulting is of no value and bringing God into this argument is even lamer still. Pathetic.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist\’s last post: The Health Hazards of Cast Iron Pans
That was a quote from a movie. But movies are probably some sort of conspiracy devised by the American Film Institute, right?
Look, here are the facts, which I can actually cite to a valid source (as opposed to your moronic “vaccinated children always seem sicker to me” argument):
Morbidity from smallpox has decreased 100% since the introduction of the vaccine
Morbidity from diphtheria has decreased 100% since the introduction of the vaccine
Morbidity from poliomyelitis has decreased 100% since the introduction of the vaccine
Morbidity from measles has decreased 100% since the introduction of the vaccine
Rubella, mumps, tetanus, and pertussis all have reductions in the 95%-99% range…all since their respective vaccines were introduced. (CDC. MMWR. 1999;48:243-247.)
And there are literally hundreds of other sources citing similar data. Give me one study–other than the one that was revealed to be falsified by ignorant whackos who share your point of view–that supports your point. Just one, from peer-reviewed literature please. (FYI: “The Healthy Home Economist” who knows a couple doctors doesn’t count.) Can you do it?
Why don’t you look at my charts on this post:
http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/2011/01/why-vaccines-are-scientific-fraud/
This will show you that epidemics were on their way out long before vaccines and the REAL reasons for their decline.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist\’s last post: The Health Hazards of Cast Iron Pans
Billy Madison…classy. You comment completely discredits anything remotely intelligent that you had to say
grace I tip my hat off to you.
Her name is not really “Grace”. This same person is hopping around to anti-vax blogs and posting the same silliness.
Normal people don’t post like you. Surely you’re a ‘Pharma’ guy. Upgrade your posting style if you want to be effective. Sheez……..
I’m refering to Voice of Reason’s comments……..the moniker didn’t fool any of us…..
I just want to add to your list of medical mishaps or common practices that modern medicine without any scientific support that have been done in my lifetime only to be proven wrong in the final analysis.
Routine Repeat Caesarean Sections – based on one doctor’s opinion in 1916.
Routine manual probes of the uterus after delivery in a woman who has a previous caesarean section.
Routine ultrasound scans prenatally.
Routine X-ray pelvimetry on all pregnant women and their babies.
Routine administration of DES as a vitamin to all pregnant women to prevent miscarriage
Routine administration of DES to girls who are at risk of being too tall.
Routine administration of DES as a postcoital birth control pill
Routine use of DES as a cattle fattening agent
Routine Radium boxes on thymus glands.
Removal of thymus glands during heart surgery
Removal of the thyroid gland because of cancer caused by the radium box in childhood.
Routine episiotomies
Routine enemas to laboring women upon admission to L&D.
Routine IVs
Routine silver nitrate drops to all new mothers.
Routine tonsillectomies
Routine antibiotics for all infections.
Routine vitamin K shots or drops.
Routine circumcision for all male babies
Routine shaving of the pubic hair for all women admitted to L&D
Routine ear tubes for chronic earaches
Routine separation of family members at crucial points in illness and life.
Routine use of pitocin for the management of third stage of labor.
Routine use of ADHD medication to children who are bored in class.
Routine early cutting of the umbilical cord
Routine manual removal of the placenta.
Routine amniotonomy.
All of these routine procedures are/were carried out without any scientific studies to support them, just the convenience of the staff and the medical personnel.
Wow! Thank you for this eye opening list! My mother was pressured to have xrays of her pelvis when pregnant in the 50′s and 60′s and always refused knowing that commonsense-wise, what a foolish thing it would be to expose the baby to that radiation while in utero. Of course, this was proven correct and the foolishness of vaccines will also will one day be recognized by the majority as complete idiocy, but for now, only the out of the box thinkers are able to grasp this.
Let me add another one to that list .. routine HRT for menopausal women which was touted for over 40 years to reduce heart disease risk and cancer risk but now has overwhelmingly been proven to INCREASE a woman’s chances of both heart disease and cancer.
Well, this is an old post, but I’d still like to make a quick comment.
First, that is amazing list, mo garcia! It shows once again that so-called “modern” medicine is really just a profiteering racket designed to keep people ill. Almost all those useless procedures lead to further problems alter on.
Most diseases we see today are man-made thanks to enviromental toxins, chronic stress, and nutritional deficiencies. But in conventional medicine’s ignorance they only ever look at germs and genes. Vaccines are actually part of a much larger problem that refuses to aknowledge the underlying cause. Thats why vaccines aren’t the only way to prevent viruses. It proves just how much “modern” medicine is a hoax. Why are kids getting cancers, autoimmune disease, and viruses so frequently? Horrible diets, of course. And their completely overloaded with toxins such as pesticides, phlates (found in plastic), flouride, and the myriad of crap most parents use to clean their house. The EWG even said that pesticides are one of the worst cancer-causing chemicals ever. Even in countries with good regulation (such as most European countries) people aren’t entirely protected from these toxins.
Wow, you’re all putting the population at risk by not vaccinating your children. Autism and vaccination correlations were false the doctor who first published the paper that started it all was found to have several conflicts of interest the paper was removed and he basically lost his ability to practice and his research was declared fraudulent. Look at infant mortality rates before and after the major vaccinations were made mandatory. Even look at the flu vaccine for swine flu that came out last year. The outbreak could have been much worse. I loath people who are quick to shun modern medical treatments and science based on fringe opinions. Yeah sometimes doctors and pharmacists make mistakes but I’d still put my life in the hands of the people who have dedicated their lives to researching whats best for us and who have large agencies regulating them so they can identify mistakes quickly and try to fix them before I refuse treatment based on the opinion of some reporter who read an article about some erin brockovich type who uncovered a vast conspiracy and decided to scare a million people by casting pharmaceutical companies as evil corporations out to destroy humanity.
I had never heard of anyone not vaccinating their children until I found out my friend wasn’t 3 years ago. I agree with you 100% that people are putting others at risk by not vaccinating their children. The sad part is it will be the children that will suffer if they were to get a disease like polio(which is unheard of now, but not completely gone)!
I have 2 kids and both of them are fully vaccinated. They are healthy, very happy, and very very smart kids! I have a friend who has 2 kids as well who are not vaccinated. Her kids are constantly sick(one who had an ear infection so bad the ear was bleeding)! All of my family members kids’ are vaccinated and are rarely sick. And no one has austism! I am very happy with my decision to vaccinate my kids. It is my job to protect them, and that includes illnesses. Everyone is going to have opinions about vaccinations, but until I see 100% proof that a vaccination is the cause of autism, cancer or whatever other aliment, I won’t give a second thought about vaccinating my kids. And when I say proof I mean proof. Not linked.
Oh, and let me add that my youngest was 2 months premature and he’s had only been sick twice in 2 years!
Thank you so much for this fantastic article. Is there any research/anecdotal evidence about whether vaccinations in adulthood also cause allergy, ADHD etc. ADHD for example manifests at a particular age, what if you vaccinate after that developmental stage?
anecdotal:
My grandmother never had chicken pox.
My mother never got chicken pox.
I was exposed to chicken pox as a child more than 5 times (as in my mom placing me strategically in a room so that I would get them over with with the other kids from school) and never got chicken pox.
at 18 years old, 2 weeks before my high school graduation, my doctor pushes the chicken pox vaccine and I agree.
Guess who graduated with chicken pox and 102 degree temperature?
Also, since then I have had bouts of shingles.
I consider myself lucky, and am very grateful for my wellbeing because I have seen the videos and know that things could have been a lot worse.
I am not a parent but I would not vaccinate my children. This is based on experiential evidence (not just the story above but a couple more very direct incidences of vax reactions), which seems to be the best evidence for me and my life in most cases.
But I do not judge others for the choices they make. And I think that it really depends on a lot of factors, including health history of parents/lineage.
I like this article and read all the comments. There are a lot of good points. But Sarah, the way you treat people whose opinion is different than yours is very unprofessional. If it is true that vaccines cause harm, then there is no reason for you to be nasty toward others. Present more evidence: real, hard evidence. Then let the intelligent people who read your material decide for themselves. After all, isn’t that what this article is supposed to be about?
Sorry, but I don’t take being called a moron lightly. Some of the comments are quite nasty and require a very strong, “in your face” type of response. Such is my personality and I do not apologize for it.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist\’s last post: Seeds of Change “Sowing Millions” Project
I just want remember the thalidomide’s tragedy…and i will leave Sylvia Plath’s poetry to you think about it.
My little girl has 1 month and i don’t want to give that poison to her,but her father(my husband) desagree…so i know how it can be hard.
Thalidomide
“O half moon—
Half-brain, luminosity—
Negro, masked like a white,
Your dark
Amputations crawl and appall—
Spidery, unsafe.
What glove
What leatheriness
Has protected
Me from that shadow—
The indelible buds.
Knuckles at shoulder-blades, the
Faces that
Shove into being, dragging
The lopped
Blood-caul of absences.
All night I carpenter
A space for the thing I am given,
A love
Of two wet eyes and a screech.
White spit
Of indifference!
The dark fruits revolve and fall.
The glass cracks across,
The image
Flees and aborts like dropped mercury.”
Just one comment i want to say bout this. the part where she makes a mention about kids getting vaccines being alot less healthier than those not vaccinated. how they are very ill children or however she worded it. well i dont think this is true in all cases. my sister and i were vaccinated right on schedule and we are very healthy. very rarely get the flu and when we get a cold its gone within days. never been hospitalized except when i had my daughter. then i have a friend who does not vaccinate her kids and they are sick all the time with the flu or colds. i personally will not get the flu or h1n1 shot. even though it was pushed on me when i was pregnant.
I’m not seeing much middle ground here. I’m seeing a lot of harsh words and judgment on both sides.
My two oldest children were fully vaccinated. My youngest two were not because our beliefs evolved and we became more educated about vaccines. We eat healthy (home cooked, organic, well balanced, a lot of home grown, raw, etc etc) and are active. I haven’t really noticed any significant health differences in my kids.
Imagine my guilt when my next to youngest child developed a strain of strep pneumonia that spread so fast and so quickly that she became septic and had other organs shut down. I know there are over 90 strains of strep pneumonia and not all are vaccinated against; yes, this was a strain that may have been prevented by a vaccine.
I know whether to vaccinate or not is not a risk versus no risk choice. Given our beliefs but also having been faced with almost losing our child, we aren’t sure what to do. I don’t know if we will choose to selectively vaccinate now or not, and I’m not rushing to decide (I completely agree that vaccinating can be done at anytime, but it can’t be undone), but it’s a decision my family is now faced with again. It’s not as simple as vaccinating=good or vaccinating=bad.
I know plenty of people personally who vaccinated their children and noticed reactions or regret their decision. Because I’m of the minority in my area regarding not vaccinating, I don’t know anyone else who has not vaccinated and also been faced with a life-threatening vaccine-preventable illness, but I know from first hand experience it is possible. It’s a heavy weight to carry. Has anyone else here been faced with a similar situation?
Not vaccinating is not a guarantee of not getting illness. Neither is getting vaccinated a guarantee of no illness. Your daughter had a better chance to survive the strep by not being vaccinated than by being vaccinated. You have no reason to feel guilty. There are no guarantees in life but you have a much better shot at a healthy life with no shots poisoning your system and depressing your immune system. That being said my 3 kids all had pertussis – my daughter was only 15 months at the time. I don’t regret my decision not to vaccinate and would skip the shots again if given the choice.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist\’s last post: New Study- More Vaccines Increase Infant Mortality Rates
Hi there. I have a beautiful, nearly 5-month old daughter and vaccinations have always been a concern of mine. I am in the military community and am surrounded by many folks who just do what they’re told. So, when I declined newborn eye ointment, Hep-B vacc and Vit K shot at birth, I was looked down upon and made to feel like a terrible, uncaring mother. For some reason which I cannot explain, I have gone ahead and subjected my daughter to two rounds of “mandatory” vaccinations. My question to you is this: can I just stop having her vaccinated at this point? It seems such a silly question because I know it’s my child, my choice, but I feel like I’ll be scoffed and scolded, especially by military docs. Any advice would be much much appreciated as I’m clearly bothered by the subject. Thanks in advance! ~Jamie
We are military as well. My son was vaccinated up to six months and then we just stopped, my daughter was never vaccinated. We have just told the doctors we don’t believe the benefits out weigh the risks and have never had a problem. We have been overseas for almost 10 years and haven’t had an issue with it. Hope this helps.
Sarah,
So you DO NOT recommend any vaccines at all? My baby is 2 months old and I’m still devating on what vaccines I should and should not give him. He has only been given one vaccine since he was born (Hepatitis B). What would happen if he is exposed to other children, what about chicken pox? ect…
~HHE Follower~
Hi Aileen, that’s correct. None of my 3 children have ever had a shot. If my kids got chicken pox, I would be fine with that. I had it at 2 years old and I survived just fine. My kids have also all had pertussis. No big deal. Folks trying to avoid illness with all these gazillion shots (26 by age one! Is that not INSANE?) just results in chronic illness. Replace one demon with another. Brief acute illness that strengthens the body and develops natural immunity is infinitely preferable to chronic illness for one’s entire life as a result of being injected with toxins and poisons from vaccines (and then still possibly getting the acute illness anyway as vaccines work for only a few years!).
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist\’s last post: Seedling Garden in 95F Heat!
Hello. My son is now 10 yrs. old. He is partially vaccinated. His last shot was when he was about 2 1/2 yrs. old. I started researching pros and cons about vaccinations keeping an open mind and decided to no longer vaccinate my child for a lot of reasons and the fact that the doctor kept on telling me to give my baby Tylenol afterwards which I don’t agree with. It really woke me up when I got a letter asking me if I would like my child to try the new vaccination for chicken pox that just came out. Chicken pox…I had chicken pox when I was a child and I dealt with it just fine and about a year later my son got chicken pox and turned out just fine. I was just thinking that our immune system needs to be able to fight something on its own in order to make it stronger. I had no problems with our family doctor or with the public school that he attends. I just needed to fill out a form and mail it in to the health department. Now my only concern is the tetanus shot? I don’t know enough information about it or if it’s really necessary.
I stopped vaccinating my children when they were four and five years old. My youngest daughte,r now 29, is very pro-vaccine. Her feeling is that if you don’t vaccinate you are depending on others to do so to protect your child.
How long does artificial immunity really last? I received all the scheduled MMR shots as a child. In my mid-twenties, as part of routine pregnancy blood work, it was discovered that I was NOT immune to these illnesses. Not immune to measles, mumps, or rubella in early adulthood after having had all my shots!
It was recommended that I get a booster shot after my baby was born since contracting one of these during a subsequent pregnancy would be disastrous for the unborn child. I consented to have the MMR booster. Eighteen months later, newly pregnant, another round of routine blood work… STILL NOT IMMUNE.
There is no way to tell as everyone is probably different. Dr. Blaylock MD is suggesting only about 2 years. I would assume that it doesn’t last long if at all for you since you are getting titered with no immunity showing up.
Sarah, TheHealthyHomeEconomist\’s last post: The Weekly Comment Spotlight
This was just one reason (of many) why my three children have never been vaccinated. Thanks for the post, Sarah! I’m enjoying you’re blog; keep up the good work.
I vaccinated my children…so sue me. I researched, read articles and studies, talked to many, many doctors, friends, family, and spent hours honestly weighing the options. And I still decided to do the full course of vaccinations. The only shot my 3 children don’t get is the flu shot. My kids are all very healthy. I get compliments on their health from doctors and dentists. We get colds (sniffles) that last 1-2 days. We had one round of the stomach flu last year. Between the three of them, they’ve had 2 ear infections (my oldest and my youngest). That’s it. No asthma, no chronic illnesses.
My kids attend three different schools (one for daycare, one for preschool, one for Kindergarten). In each pool of children, I find the little one in the corner looking sickly 4 out of 5 days of the week is usually the unvaccinated one. The majority if kids I see are vaccinated and healthy!
In my daughter’s daycare, one little girl whose mother proudly declared to be unvaccinated, was asked to leave the daycare for a month after coming in with one illness after another for months on end.
Personal experiences change for each person. That’s why they are personal. I find your articles overall demeaning to anyone who doesn’t agree with you. I think a lot of parents might be more open to research and your “facts” if they felt they had the right to disagree with you.
I did my research and I still disagree. So what does that make me? Stupid? Gullible? I read the wrong articles? I talked to the wrong people? Or just a flat-out bad parent?
I did my research as well when making the decision not to continue vaccinating my son. I kept a very open mind. My son doesn’t become sick the way I see other children do (I don’t know if the other children are vaccinated or not) and he doesn’t miss school. He’s very healthy as well. However there are many different factors to keeping a healthy child, whether your child is vaccinated or not, there is also nutrition, their environment, and so forth. I don’t think its right to judge that oh this child is sick cause he’s not vaccinated or this child is sick cause he is vaccinated. It’s an individual choice. To each their own. To me in this day and age I don’t feel that it is necessary for my child to be injected with the vaccines.
I have mixed feelings, and even though I have an opinion, my comment is very neutral! (read the whole thing to understand what I mean) – Sorry I don’t have any of my sources at the time, but please be understanding.
I “want” to be “for” them… I work with young children everyday and have access to their medical information. I know there are MANY other facotrs to a child’s (or any person’s) health, but from my studies, the unvaccinated children ARE always much sicker than the vaccinated kids. We (or should I say “I”) keep track, and my personal records are that 73% of the time, the unvaccinated chilren (in my daycare) are more likely to get sick! That’s a HUGE number! I’m not sure (so don’t quote me on this) but I guess it’s because their little, and fragile bodies are too busy becoming naturally immune (sick) to the diseases. (Btw, parents at my daycare signed consent form so that I could do this study through out the past 2 years for my Senior Project in high school). Yet, even dispite these “staggering” statistics, I am still against them….
My wonderfully-amazing boyfriend, just so happens to be Deaf (not that it is a bad thing, like most hearing people think – he is very proud of his Deafness, the Deaf culture, his language, the amazing community he is apart of, and so fourth)… but he became Deaf through a vaccination as a child at 18 months old (which got me thinking more about the immediate side effects of vaccines – and lead me to my research)… If that doesn’t get you thinking, read on… my sister lost her son (my first and only nephew) at just 4 months old to the pertusis vaccine (DTaP) almost 2 years ago. This was the most devastating thing my sister and our family has ever expirenced and I don’t think anyone else should ever have to feel that way (RIP Baby Ryan – Forever in our hearts).
So while your kid might get sick a little more, are the risks of vaccines worth it?… Especially when you know it is still not 100% effective? Then again, these two random incidents that I just mentioned seem a little too coincidental to both be in my life… most people don’t ever encounter these happenings. I do know that it is a true fact that since the vaccines have been put out, many devastating diseases have slowed significantly or even stopped significantly, and someone else commented earlier, it probably IS the fact that everyone around the unvaccinated peaople are vaccinated, which keeps them from getting sick too. And unless everyone gives in, who is entitled to be the “special one” who just stays healthy because everyone else around them took the risk and they didn’t (even though my senior project statistics don’t prove that). How do we choose?
While I could go on all day about the bennefits and risks of both options, I think everyone is entitled to their opinion and it is a VERY personal choice, there is no “right” or “wrong” decision in my book. Parents make TONS of tough decisions for their children, which could go in either direction. We all just want what’s best, no one is perfect and no one is God. However personally I will not be vaccinating my children (when I have them one day) because of my personal expirences (which to you is just a story, but for me is real life). Maybe one day I will change my decision, maybe science will advance by the time I have children and there will be more, and better information out there. Maybe there will be more options than just yes or no. But as for now I stand firm on my decision. We all must pray for our children!
Good luck to all of you out there struggling with this tough decision!
@Beth — No non-vaxer is trying to pass laws that make vaccinations illegal. You’ve made your choice and we can live with that. The problem is that so many pro-vaxers DO want to make it illegal not to vax. Parents are the final authority on this decision, not government. Period.
I find it highly doubtful that you actually know the vaccination status of every child in your childrens’ classes. And if your kids’ health is robust, you needn’t worry about the “little one in the corner looking sickly.” No one has suggested that every child who is vaccinated is made ill from them. Some kids do seem to handle the onslaught well. Some suffer anything from mild fever to vaccine-induced encephalopathy to death. It’s just a gamble, and not one that every parent is willing to take.
Angela, I find what you said to be a very reasonable approach to vaccinations. It IS a a decion that should be left to the parents, end of story. I take issue with articles that come across as so one sided, as if there is only one choice. I did my research. In fact, I would bet I did more than some of the parents who choose not to vaccinate because they’ve “heard” bad things.
As for knowing the status of each child in the school, I do have a bit of an in (I work in the school district and have registered many of them myself). By pointing that out, I was only trying to say that there are two sides to the healthy kids coin.
My true feeling is that some kids can’t handle vaccinations. Something about their genetic makeup leaves them too vulnerable. And in a perfect world, the medical world would be working on researching that and customizing out healthcare based on our bodies and our needs. But this is the best we have right now and I felt that with our family histories (no major illness, no history of asthma, long lives, etc.) the risk to my kids was minimal. How many people actually research their family history before having a child? Not many that I know of. But what do you think influences your babies chances of haveing a healthy start more than that?
I think the issue isn’t the big, bad medical corporations or the doctors. I think it comes down to uninformed parents. I also think that articles like this lead many people in the wrong direction. Instead of blindly listening to their doctor, now they are blindly listening to a different group. If I could reach out to every parent, I would urge them to question everything, but to also make decisons on their own. It’s YOUR child, it’s YOUR responsibility.
Hello,
I have been reading your blog and am GREATLY appreciating it!!
I have a 11 year old daughter who has not had chicken pox yet. (I also have three younger daughters 9, 5, and 3.) It concerns me that they have not had this yet. My older boys both had chicken pox, but my girls can’t seem to “find it.” …..lol. Any ideas? Should I even be concerned?
(Hope you don’t mind my commenting on an old post.)
Hi Linda, my kids haven’t had chicken pox yet either and I wish they would get it. I wouldn’t be concerned though. If they are not immunized, they will catch what they need to catch to keep their immunity strong. Nature has a way of dealing with these things so if they are healthy and eating good quality nutrient dense foods, they should be fine. There is little need to worry. There is always homeopathic nosodes for pretty much all infectious diseases you can name which you can use in an emergency.
Thank you Sarah for responding. I’m sure your right. I have heard of things called tee shirt swaps etc… but I have a hard time knowingly exposing them in this way. Something about this just doesn’t seem right.
Yes we are eating as best as our budget can afford. We have a good place to purchase all of our meats, a large garden, top quality raw cows milk, kefir….there is more, but I spare you “the list.”
At any rate I appreciate your opinion on the subject.
Thank you for the time you put into your blog helping others.
Linda
meh, we all are going to die at some point. I’d like to not die from something I could have prevented. I mean, sure we have an immune system, but we weren’t born super humans! I’m not a Misophobic in anyway, but I would like to safeguard my kids from eminent danger.
I mean, what are you going to say to someone that had polio as a child? Oh, yeah I decided I would risk my health so I could be like you! Aren’t you glad? Yeah, they aren’t going to buy any of that b.s. (And yeah, I actually know someone who had polio as a kid, and I think he is all for vaccinations.)
Oh yeah, thanks for calling me unhealthy for being vaccinated. I don’t know what your idea of good health is, but I think it’s when your body functions properly. And currently, my body is doing quite well.
Think of how well you’d be doing if you weren’t vaxed? Feeling well is all a matter of perspective. I know plenty of folks who think they feel just fine eating junk all day long but when they stopped they couldn’t believe how much better they felt.
I have a kid damaged from both the MMR and the Dtap vaccines, and I am just now recovering 8 years after a tetanus vaccine injury that left me mentally, physically and emotionally drained… I don’t think that it is worth it to bypass nature’s immune system… I don’t believe in vaccinating any longer and all of my kids now have medical exemptions, but my daughter with the damage will deal with it for a lifetime, and my other children have suffered emotionally, physically, financially and so many other ways because of it… they have all missed opportunities we could have afforded financially and time wise because of the time and money recovering our daughter has taken. Statistically, I don’t believe that it is worth risking TAKING a vaccine any longer IF you are eating right, getting exercise and supporting a healthy immune system.
Did you ever stop to think for a minute that maybe, JUST MAYBE!!!, someone can research something just as much as you do (from both sides, even!) and come to a different conculsion than yours? And do you think it’s really necessary to call/imply that people who disagree with you are brainwashed/following blindly/stupid?
I actually do agree that vaccinations are up to each parent, and I am terriied of some of the ingredients in them.
However, where you lose me is in the lack of facts. All you have to do is Google some of the stuff you’re saying to find it’s not all true. Japan has mandatory vaccinations beginning at 3 months. Here is their vaccination schedule: http://idsc.nih.go.jp/vaccine/dschedule/Imm11EN.pdf
My sister in law is Japanese and when I asked her, she said it has never been like that.
Also in the “other countries” part, I lived in Sweden when my child was born. I was afraid to vaccinate and when speaking to my child’s nurse, I was given statistics and Sweden, who is near the bottom of the infant mortality rate worldwide, is just over 99% vaccinated. 99% is a lot for a country with such a low infant mortality rate. They’re even ahead of Japan in infant mortality.
I really wish an article like this could be written without stretching the truth or inaccurate information. It creates the ability to debunk the idea that vaccination isn’t a good idea. Now, obviously, I am a mother and have neither the time nor the desire to fact check your entire article, but the parts I found suspicious, were indeed wrong. I mean absolutely no offense, just pointing out that sometimes being over-zealous causes us to lose credibility. And it’s a real shame in this case.
“If the vaccines above have had serious problems, the others probably do too as vaccine manufacturers follow the same basic formula when coming up with each new shot.”
This is a huge logical fallacy. No matter what other research you have done, you cannot assume such a thing. What if I say some mothers have serious problems, are bad to their kids, thus other mothers are probably bad? All mothers (barring adoptive) are made following the same basic formula: sex. Doesn’t that mean, following your logic, that all mothers are bad? A few bad vaccines does not mean the whole system is bad.
Since all vaccines are manufactured essentially the same way, it is a highly logical argument.
Great website!!!! Thank you!!! I have a question, I have 6 children and my husband and I decided to not vaccinate any of our children any further, however my 13 yr old, 11 yr old, & 9 yr old have had ALL there shots…my 5 & 4 yr olds…have had a handful…and my 3 yr old…probably just his newborns vaccines…but I feel SO horribly guilty about especially my 3 older boys who have them all….are there ANY ways to detox the vaccines out of there bodies? My 13 yr old, is pretty healthy, my 11 yr old has Petit Mal seizures (which we are seeing a Holisitc Practitioner and he has decreased my sons seizures DRAMATICALLY just by chaning his diet and thru chiropracting….NOT medications.) and my 9 yr old is “borderline ADHD”…my 3 littles ones are healthy…thankfully. But I just wanted to know if there was ANY way to reverse the vaccines? Feeling like a HORRIBLE mama here…and disgusted at the deception!!!
My 2 cents- I used to be provax. Until my child was vaccine injured. I think some ppl here have misunderstood our anger towards the establishment to be directed at them. Have some understanding & common sense. What does a passionate caring loving protective mom get out of spreading their opinion? Nothing. Look at where the fighting stance of a particular group comes from. Ours? Not bc were getting rich promoting our views. Not fighting to protect our assets or lavish lifestyle. Not trying to keep job security. Not parroting the same ‘ol lines bc we cant break a political promise we made in past.
The prob is ppl r not doing the research for themselves until they “HAVE TO” & in most cases its too late-damage is done. But we do whatever it takes to help our babies. We become warrior moms. And when we become enlightened w the truth we become furious! Never underestimate the power of a warrior mom. We WILL BE THE ONES TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
Think about this: If someone said to u jump in that pool, its fine its only 5ft, u will not drown. So u take their word, jump in w/out concern but realize once youve jumped that its really 9ft & u r drowning & need to be rescued by a lifeguard. What will happen when u get out & dry off? What will u say to the person that said it was only 5ft? Wouldnt u have a few choice words for them, that is if u didnt knock them out first? Now imagine the person who didnt tell u the truth was someone u trusted, like say A DOCTOR!!” Now imagine this happens to your child?!?! The anger increases tenfold!
All this blog & others like it r tryin to do is open some eyes that are closed bc they think they r supposed to be closed. Our msg’s r not mean, evil, idiotic or full of fear. They simply come from mother instinct, intuition& love. And one day it will prevail!
If theres only 2 things a parent indicisive about vaccines has time to read, these are the two links to click on. Both quite lengthy but extremely eye opening. For the sake of your child, pls investigate before u vaccinate.
http://www.vaccinesafety.edu/package_inserts.htm -pkg inserts every parent SHOULD read. U read the ingredients on your child’s food pkg, why not what is injected in their blood. (but then again, those that blindly vaccinate their kids prob dont read whats in their food)
http://fb.me/Yi9BSgDN -very revealing interview w a retired vaccine worker. This person shares alot of info, some of it shocking even to those already anti-vax.
Six Reasons To Say NO to Vaccination — The Healthy Home Economist
http://ow.ly/62KuK
Six Reasons To Say NO to Vaccination — The Healthy Home Economist
http://ow.ly/62Ktl
Six Reasons To Say NO to Vaccination — The Healthy Home Economist
http://ow.ly/62Kvg
Six Reasons To Say NO to Vaccination — The Healthy Home Economist http://t.co/pxsxgbE #vaccines #education #babies
I read quite a bit on both sides of this. I look for “the catch”, the ” oh reallllllllly” parts of articles on both sides of this issue.
First of all, this idea that vaccinated kids are the most sickly kids this writer knows…well we now have a whooping cough epidemic that didnt’ exist before people stopped getting immunized for that. Measles is now back and being caught and killing people…and take a look in wikipedia on what life was like before the polio vaccine. People don’t have a clue what they are talking about. Before vaccines the infant mortality rate was horrible. Look on Youtube at at the Penn and Teller show on vaccines. I think people have the right to go either path, and everyone should respect that decision, but we vaccinate in our household and am glad for it.
Please take a look at my post “Why Vaccines are Scientific Fraud”. Vaccines didn’t save us from polio or any other epidemic INCLUDING smallpox. A nonbiased objective analysis of graphs on the subject proves this point without a doubt. Check out the charts gleaned from government death records.
Yeah, wait until one of these un-vaccinated kids comes down with polio or hepatitis…
At such young age…. no more need to be said.
Have you checked the graphs? Obviously not. Too in the box to take a peek out, are we?
Oh, dear… Can’t believe my siblings and I have made it for so long without dropping dead!
BEFORE you vaccinate your baby… get BOTH sides of the story… THEN decide… It IS in your hands! ask me how! http://t.co/yVq4S2b
6 reasons to say NO to vaccinations.http://t.co/b1WF9rs
Vaccinations are not legally allowed to be dumped in Landfills due to their toxicity, and yet people seem to think… http://t.co/iNbZHFq
Six Reasons To Say NO to Vaccination — The Healthy Home Economist http://t.co/aEfkNea
Six Reasons To Say NO to Vaccination — The Healthy Home Economist http://t.co/9lqRYz6
I’ve been doing a lot of reading from various sources and I now do feel on the side of no vaccines and do not want to vaccinate my children any more. My first had all her vaccines up to age 18 months. My 2nd just had one. My problem is family pear pressure. Even my husband, is not on top of this topic. He is supportive but reluctant to do any reading so is undecided and would probably veer towards vaccinating but delaying. He asked me is there another country that has better vaccination schedules. Do you know of countries that have the least and most delayed vaccination schedule or evenly possibly non at all (wishful thinking!)? At least this way we could show to family members that not all governments are in agreement on this issue. I hope you can help! Many thanks.
Just to add to my comment above. Another reason why my husband not keen not to vaccinate: he looks at himself and his own siblings and younger family members, they were all vaccinated and all are healthy and developed well. So in his mind he feels vaccines have not affected them badly.
Really? Ive not seen so many medical experts on one board ever. All vaccines are bad? Skip your kids polio vaccine so you can watch them die a slow painfull death. There is a LOT of misinformation on this board. Australia and the flu vaccine. It was never tested or approved for kids under 5. That was a government decision. A bad one. Drug companies are pure evil? Cmon are you telling my I can tell my mother to stop taking her insulin? Shes just a victim of greed? Too much. Gamma Globulin for tetnus? GG will help boost the immune system against a viral or bacterial bourne illness but doesnt nothing against a spore bourne illness like tetnus..
You don’t have to be a medical expert to know when you are being scammed by the Pharmacrats.
Sarah, TheHealthyHomeEconomist\’s last post: My Child’s Food Diary for One Week
Tetanus immunoglobulin silly. (see below)
http://www.bgipharma.com/documentos/Tetanus%20Gamma%20eng.pdf
And no your grandma shouldn’t stop her insulin (even though type 2 diabetes is reversable), but if she has type 2 diabetes, it is completely a disease of lifestyle and modern-day living. The food industry we trust to feed us cares little about our health, and the health-industry (drugs) we trust to make us well cares little about our food!
HUGE PROBLEM. If you take a step back and look at the picture it is impossible to not realize that the MAJORITY of the problems that we rely on the drug industry for are OUR FAULT. Individuals and our culture as a whole for letting this happen. It all goes back to what we put in our bodies.
Just to say, I have 2 sisters who both have 3 children, I hve one child. All of us got vaccinated with vaccines that are obligatory in Croatia, including shots for tetanus, MPR, hemophilius influenze, polio and so on. I also had my son vaccinetet with PREVENAR (streptoccocus pneaumonie) and we are all healthy. No mental, autoimune or other diseases. Only occasional common cold or running nose. And I have a lot of similar examples around me. I’m not saying all vaccines are good and nessesary, but please think again, if there were no vaccines we would be still dying from black plaque, but thanks to the vaccine the disease is eradicated!!!
One more anecdotal story. Nothing fascinating or dramatic though. I have 7 children. #1 was vax’d until age 2, which is when I learned I can refuse. None of the others were. Of the 7, the oldest is the only one who has asthma. She also had the worst struggle with eczema, and is sick more often. When pertussis (whooping cough) hit, she got it right along with the unvax’d ones, same severity. My then-6-week-old baby (who was somewhere around 12-15 weeks by the time it was over) never got it. My own opinion is that she was protected by being exclusively nursed, which I ramped up during everyone’s sickness to give her all I could of the antibodies I was producing as a result of the exposure that came with caring for the sick ones. With chicken pox, we tried *multiple* times to catch it, I eventually quit trying because I figured they’ll get it if they need to. When some eventually did, even though some of the siblings sleep together and we practiced NO quarantining of the sick ones, only half of the children got it. The oldest got it twice.
I am sad at all the name-calling and insulting that has gone on in this thread, I realize (really, I do!) how frustrating this topic can be, but no one is ever convinced using those tactics.
I definitely regret having the oldest vax’d, and do not regret not having the younger ones vax’d. Even in the uglies of pertussis, when I didn’t KNOW that no one would die, when someone asked me “don’t you wish you had spared them of this and gotten a little poke?” I still had no regrets.
Hi Sarah,
Great post. It’s always nice to see blogs/posts that support people educating themselves about what is or is not going into their body. I am a nurse and work in a hospital setting, but don’t agree with half of the practices I see. I try to be a voice that encourages patients to think before they agree to something and consent to it. Also, I work in labor and delivery and love a natural birth! While I do agree with your view point on vaccines I did want to mention that the vaccines don’t go into your bloodstream so to speak (or into the vein). They should go into the muscle (which I know it eventually leads to getting absorbed and perhaps that’s what you meant by “blood”). Also, more education for those that are reading this and choose to vaccinate themselves or their children. Please make sure that when the healthcare provider puts the needle into your arm that they ASPERATE before they inject it into your arm! That is the only way to know the vaccine is not going directly into your bloodstream/vein/artery. I have seen people give vaccines without asperating first, very UNSAFE! When all else fails just say, “please remember to asperate before you inject” if you are vaccinating.
Well, isn’t this a heated blog… It always is. Well, for what it’s worth, here is my two cents…
I have three kids, two of which were vaccinated fully, and one was not. My two that were vaccinated fully, they both have autism, my oldest son had a cancerous brain tumor and almost died in 2001. He was only 5 at the time. He still has his tumor but it has not grown since 2001.
My middle child was given a round of vaccines in 2003 and suffered seizures, so from then he was no longer required to be given vaccines. For many years after his vaccines he sickly, diagnosed with seizures, autism, and ADHD. He finally recovered and “miraculously” is no longer considered autistic, ADHD and is very healthy now. But it took about 10 years for him to recover from his vaccines. The doctors cannot explain why he just got over his autism and ADHD, and say it must have been a misdiagnosis. But we saw Developmental Ped., psychiatrist and psychologist, plus many therapists, and all agreed on the autism diagnosis and ADHD at the time. I cannot say we have had a horrible experience with our Dr.s, as a matter of fact we have a great relationship with them and they are very open to the idea vaccines may have caused my three children their issues. We have even been considered for study in this area. In Dec. we see his nuerologist one more time, and if no seizures he will be deemed seizure free and will no longer need his seizure med.
While I cannot say with 100% vaccines caused this, it sure points in the direction that vaccines were the cause. Even our doctors agree. With all the severe issues my kids have had they NEVER push vaccines for my kids, it is always a “Do you want to”. We have even had letters sent to the PS by our Dr.s excusing them from the vaccines, so we didn’t get hasseled by the schools. Sorry this is so long, but this is our story. We know seizures were caused by the vaccines, it had to be reported too. As far as my other children, well no more vaccines since my one son had his reaction to them and they are doing better but not as well as my middle child who received the fewest. We as a family have suffered, and like I said, it sure seems the vaccines are to blame for most of it.
I didn’t realize this original post was this old, oops. I would like to add that I also blame all the bad additives in our food for the issues we see in children.
My 10-year-old son has a large, icky, raised black scar on his leg where he received vaccines as a baby. And he has autism. Not sure there’s a connection, but it at least makes me wonder.
Laura’s Last Ditch–Adventures in Thrift Land\’s last post: Toast to Thrift
Sarah, if ignorance is bliss why are you so angry?
Hi Sarah, I know this post is old and I’ve tried my best to read through all the comments thoroughly to find the answer to my question but I don’t see it and I’m really hoping you’ll respond. Long, horrible, nightmare of a story but in short, my 2 year old was double vaccinated. Our new peds office had not updated her records before her appt and she received all 6 scheduled vaccinations in one go for a second time! I was beyond furious when I found out. I have three children, oldest 2 vaxed and will not vax again. Our newest is 5 weeks (natural birth at a birth center!). You said, “There are holistic therapies that can detox a child from the vaccine’s poison, but the damage that is done can never be 100% repaired.” What can I do for my sweet girl to help rid her of the poisons I let them put in her twice. I feel sick about it. She is a very healthy, robust little girl, not sick often and our whole family is greatly benefiting from our newly adopted Real Food mentality. I need to let this guily go and any info you could pass on would be appreciated. Thanks!
I hope you find your answer. There is a wealth of knowledge out there for detosing for various things. I would start with a reputable homeopath and get a book about it and start googling, not that everything you read online is reputable, but it gives you a starting point of what to look into. God bless you on your journey. And I know that guilt, it will eat you alive. You meant no harm, and not one parent is perfect, also it isn’t your fault she was double dosed. You must forgive yourself, and focus all that energy on positive helps and changes for your family. I am sure you’re a wonderful Mommy, but looking back with regret can destroy your ability to move forward. Learn from the past, but make sure you forgive yourself Mom, you’re human too!
I am pro vaccinate all the way, however, I don’t ever spread around all the reasons you should vaccinate, I feel it is your choice and I have no right to try to convince you otherwise.
I live in an Amish community where they have not vaccinated in their families for generations. These families have children with health/learning issues like everyone else, such as leukemia, down syndrome, lupus, cancers, Alzheimer, etc.
I have never seen a difference in the behavior or health of a family who vaccinates compared to a family that doesn’t and I know plenty of both.
Behavior and health issues spawn from poor diets. Our children, who have received all of their vaccines their entire lives, are all well mannered, healthy children. We have 7 children. Two of them have 1 allergy each, even though we live in the worst area for allergies in the country. None of them have ever been sick beyond a common cold/flu about once a year or so. None of them have learning disabilities or any symptoms similar to these. I believe the reason is because our children eat healthy. We eat our own or buy all fresh/ non-hormone added meat, eggs, milk, fruit, and vegetables. We limit the children to only one “unhealthy” snack per day, a small piece of candy, a few small store bought cookies, popcorn, etc. They only drink filtered water, 100% juice, tea, and raw cow’s milk. NO SODA, NO SPORTS DRINKS, ETC.
It sounds like you will say whatever you think will freak people out the most, even when exaggerating the facts, just to get them to stop vaccinating. As for the drug companies, OK, they are not credible when making depression/heart/high blood pressure medications, but these are meds that you are exposed to for long periods of time. A vaccine is only one to a few doses broken up over time. As for exposure to metals, and all of the other ingredients you mentioned, why not share the real facts, like how there’s more aluminum in one soda can eroding into it’s content than in hundreds of vaccines. And how your vehicle’s exhaust gives out many of the toxins that you mention. And that there are MSG’s in almost every store bought food/drink including sprayed on “fresh” fruit and vegetables to add to their shelf life. When labelled, MSG’s can be disguised as natural flavor. These are just a few off the top of my head just to prove that unless you are completely organic, and I don’t mean shopping at Whole Foods or similar, then you have no grounds for saying that everything you listed is grounds for someone to not vaccinate. They will get exposure to all of these chemicals through their foods, water supply, air, and health and beauty products, like toothpaste and detergents.
As for what you said about vaccines that are now deemed unsafe and taken off the market, Johnson and Johnson makes baby shampoo with cancer causing agents in it. Fluoride is in water and all of your store bought foods including fruits and veggies and fluoride is poison.
I will add that autism is a huge issue in many countries, even the ones that have NO ACCESS to vaccines. This is how they proved that vaccines were not the cause for autism.
Pollution, poor diet, daily exposing your skin to anti-aging regimens, smoking while pregnant, drinking while pregnant, doing drugs while pregnant, being exposed to any of these things while pregnant, using tylenol, ibuprophin, fluoride, or any of the other over the counter supposedly safe medicines are all things that our society exposes themselves to on a daily basis and you think it’s necessary to go to this extreme when trying to convince people to stop vaccinating.
Think of the outbreaks of little babies and children suffering and dying with cases of small pox, polio, scarlet fever, whooping cough, etc that our ancestors had to deal with before vaccines. Go find an early American cemetery and you will find hundreds of infants and young children on the head stones. Most of them didn’t survive those outbreaks. Vaccines eradicated most pandemic diseases. The benefit of a vaccine far out ways the risk.
I know that in 10 years I wouldn’t want to be part of a group that didn’t vaccinate, I don’t want to watch my children slowly, painfully die with something I could have vaccinated for.
Now, I have a question for you. If you were dying of cancer and the only way you could live was to go through Chemo therapy or radiation, what would you do; roll over and die or poison yourself to live???
Hi Sarah. I wish I would have had your blog before I gave birth to my son. He’s 8 months now and has a doctors appointment in a month. He’s been vaccinated up until now but now that I’ve read your blog And talked to some people I don’t want to go through with any more vaccinations. Is this going to be a problem since he’s had some vaccinations or can I stop at any time? Do I need to prepare myself for chaos from the pediatrician? Do you have any helpful advice? Do I need to go in there prepared with information? I’m a little nervous.
Many are complaining that Sarah is “one-sided,”…. well, it IS her blog… and these are HER beliefs… If you went to a pro-vax article, those who don’t vax would be ridiculed! Shame on everyone for using “fear” to vaccinate or not! What is best for YOUR child is for you to do the research. Far too many parents out there vaccinate “because everyone else is doing it.”
That’s what I would have done… except for some reason I began researching articles about those against vaccines and I chose to side with them! And Sarah is right, I am 28– and when I was younger it was definitely less than 10 mandatory shots– I think half that… now today, 60 some?! It is a BIG deal putting poison into a child’s bloodstream, direclty!…It is a BIG deal using human embryos (specific genectic makeup) into another human not yet grown. Think about your day old baby getting a Hep B shot… Hep B?! It’s to protect those that have mother’s with Hep B, Drug users, and the sexually active…. my newborn, no thank you! And to think that by the time my child may need the vaccine, the immunity is gone. Vacc Immunity isn’t 100% nor is it forever.
If you want to vaccinate, fine. I choose not too, fine. I chose to listen to minorities in the field, like Dr. M. Einstein (sarah has noted him). And unfortunately for us, there aren’t as many of us– but we are here and we believe what we do. And if you are concerened about vaccs, there are doctors (Dr. Sears, right?), who suggests shots at a different cycle. It makes my heart sick for the 1/ 100 children who are diagnosed with Autism. The growing cases of asthma/ adhd/ allergies… And it’s not just children… adults have complications after vaccs, too. Not every injury caused by vaccs is reported, did anyone think of that?
What we need is more studies. What we need is honest, truthful information.
I like your frank, honest assessment. My boyfriend always reminds me that they call it ‘practicing medicine’ for a reason. I am thouroughly unconvinced that a doc that just prescribes a med for a symptom actually knows what they are doing. Most of them are probably downing energy drinks and coffee and wondering why they are so tired. Go ahead, be rude Sarah. This country needs tough love. People just don’t want to face the truth that companies with money are squashing modern science because they can. I don’t have children yet, but I do not look forward to having the vaccination debate. Looks like I need to start looking for a pediatrician who knows the truth now…. I don’t want my future kids on formula, drugs or a diet recommended by the FDA. This is starting to feel like a communist society more and more everyday.
Katy\’s last post: Roasting Marshmallows? Not really…
I have to say I finally read through all your comments and there were some great points made on BOTH sides. I would just like you to build off of some stronger premises to create your conclusions. However, I believe in freedom of expression and I will defend your right to expression your opinion – not matter how many holes I see in it.
I’m so torn on this. My son is almost 9-months-old (and therefore due for his 9 month shots…). We just moved and are in the process of finding a new pediatrician, so we have the opportunity to start over. He has had all of his vaccines up to this point, but I’m considering cutting them off here. Do you know of any negative effects off getting vaccines but not the boosters? Also, any tips on finding a pediatrician who will support a decision to not vaccinate? Is there a directory or anything? I know that when we were interviewing pediatricians when I wad pregnant, they told us that if we refused vaccinations, they would refuse us as patients.
Vaccinations are an extremely important thing to have done. People who are choosing not to vaccinate their children are contributing the overwhelming outbreaks of diseases that were suppressed for so long such as pertussis (whooping cough). Although I am a pharmacist, it does not mean I am part of “big pharma” who are trying to brainwash people to get vaccinated. I work at a hospital and genuinely care for people. Vaccinations were made for a reason and that was to prevent epidemics and mass amounts of death to benefit EVERYONE. Many of the reasons why children are getting autism and other diseases are due to the environment we live in today and from GENETICS. You may look at the ingredients in these vaccines and say they are toxic, etc, however what you don’t know is the quantity to hurt someone is way under the threshold. IT WOULD NOT BE MADE AND FDA APPROVED AND ALLOWED. You people really need to get your facts straight and become educated when it comes to the opinion that you have towards “white coats”. We work very hard in school and learn that vaccinations are safe (or else they would not be given) and to help the public understand that. Yes, there are some adverse effects that do occur to people, but that is only a small majority of the population that is affected, and the benefit clearly outweighs the risk. I take it as a huge insult the views you people have on pharmacists. We do not just count pills and call it a day; we take the time to research what we are giving to patient to promote safety and healthiness.
Since you are proud of how you, as a pharmacist, take the time to do research, maybe you should look into this statement you typed in bold faced print regarding medicines being safe and trustworthy: “IT WOULD NOT BE MADE AND FDA APPROVED AND ALLOWED.”
I actually laughed out loud. Ever hear of the word RECALL? If your trust is in the FDA, I feel sorry for you. Get YOUR facts straight and become educated before posting absurd comments.
Bree, I hate to inform you but as a pharmacist you have been trained on how to make the drug industry nothing but $$. The FDA does NOT care about our health. They work together with the food and drug companies to make billions in profits!! I repeat, THE FDA DOES NOT CARE ABOUT OUR HEALTH!! I’m not calling you stupid, it’s just unfortunate that you are very misinformed about the truth. Remember the whooping cough outbreak in California not that long ago? 47% of the children who contracted the disease were vaccinated. Why would I give my child a vaccination and have to watch the suffer the dreadful side effects of it? I suggest you quit believing in the FDA, get YOUR facts straight and do some actual research on the subject before coming on here and telling everyone they are crazy for not believing in vaccinations.
That last comment was directed at Alex, not Bree
Interesting thread, I joined a forum years ago consisting of parents with autistic children. Parents should not be construed to be less knowledgeable concerning their children than doctors, they know how their child was before they were vaccinated & laboriously live the reality of their decision. Some links of interest:
CDC officials discuss neurological damage from vaccines in secret meeting – Simpsonwood http://therefusers.com/refusers-newsroom/cdc-officials-discuss-neurological-damage-from-vaccines-in-secret-meeting-simpsonwood/
Metals Linked To Alzheimer’s And Other Neurodegenerative Diseases: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070813185007.htm
Medical research is polluted by pharma-funded propaganda. Drug companies either do their own studies or hire captive Contract Research Organizations (CROs) to conduct studies, with the conclusion dictated before the study is started. Then they bribe prominent doctors to put their names on these bogus studies and articles that were ghost-written by pharmaceutical industry employees. http://therefusers.com/refusers-newsroom/challenging-medical-ghostwriting-in-us-courts-plos-medicine/
These 2 messages are from the group I mentioned I found years ago, I don’t know if non-members can see it but I’ll post it in case you can. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/no-forced-vaccination/message/18610
Baby Dies After 9 Vaccines in One Day. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/no-forced-vaccination/message/18597
Lest you think the medical establishment has your best health in mind now or in the past you may find this an interesting read. It deals with a toxic metal poisoning in the 1800 – 1900′s and the attitude of SOME physicians.
Beautiful Black Poison
http://www.westonaprice.org/environmental-toxins/beatiful-black-poison
“According to Boyd Haley, a researcher at the University of Kentucky, the mercury in thimerosal acts as an enzyme inhibitor that can negatively affect the immune system’s ability to deal with toxins introduced in the body, such as the various diseases in the vaccines themselves.1 When combined with other heavy metals present in vaccines, the toxic effect of the metals is intensified, the same way it is enhanced after exposure to multiple forms of mercury, such as methyl mercury (in fish), ethyl mercury (thimerosal), and mercury vapors (from air pollution and amalgam fillings). Mercury has a particularly synergistic relationship with aluminum. Mercury “eats away” at aluminum, potentially releasing more mercury into the environment or tissues. Consequently, scientists believe that the aluminum present in vaccines may exacerbate the toxicity of the thimerosal.2
Many children experience external allergic reactions such as hives and eczema because of the repeated doses of thimerosal in the childhood vaccine schedule.3 Of far greater concern is the fact that the nervous system can become “intoxicated” or overwhelmed from exposure to mercury. Symptoms of mercury intoxication include memory loss, uncontrollable shaking and loss of balance—some of the same symptoms exhibited by children after receiving a vaccine (or two or three) containing thimerosal. Many of these symptoms do not appear until some time after the vaccine has been administered, which may explain some of the learning problems and mental disorders that could potentially be associated with vaccines. The fetus is also at risk of mercury intoxication if the mother receives thimerosal-containing injections while pregnant.”
Hope this give you more ideas how to research some of the diseases we are afflicted with. You can also look up Dr. Sherry Tenpenny & Mary E. Tocco. Peace out!
Oops, I forgot to include these. There are small segments of the U.S. that don’t have autism,
The Age of Autism: ‘A pretty big secret’
Read more: http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2005/12/07/The-Age-of-Autism-A-pretty-big-secret/UPI-68291133982531/#ixzz1leEvnat4
The Age of Autism: Mercury and the Amish
Read more: http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2005/05/20/The-Age-of-Autism-Mercury-and-the-Amish/UPI-19701116593191/#ixzz1leI2M51J
VACCINATION – A MEDICAL ABOMINATION
by Lawrence Wilson, MD http://drlwilson.com/Articles/VACCINES.08.htm
You people are crazy. The Autism-vaccination link has been discredited. You are clinging to bad science that has been disproved and retracted. Please, keep your polio/mumps/small pox-ridden children away from the rest of us. Are you listening to someone who has had years of medical training or someone with no training or qualifications? If you don’t trust your physician, get a different one, get a second opinion, get 10. It will be a long search before you find a board-certified Dr. that will tell you vaccinations are a bad idea.
Good luck to your children. May their health hold out, no thanks to you.
If you and your children have been vaccinated for polio/mumps/small pox, then how would me or my unvacinated children being around you potentially harm your health? Didn’t you get vaccinated to ensure you wouldn’t get sick from the disease if there was an outbreak? Think about it!!
As stated many times previous to your opinion! Just because you have been vaccinated does not exempt you from contracting “said” diseases and becoming sick. This can happen all because you took those so called “preventive measures”. Alot of people wouldn’t have gotten sick at all had they not vaccinated themselves and their children. So what is the point in vaccinating? The immunity does not last, you will require booster shots to ensure effectiveness,(meanwhile a person who naturally fights any illness has the immunity for life! no boosters required!) who knows what ingredients they will have used to concoct this vaccination (since they are recalling vaccinations left and right). They are not even required to give you a full list of chemicals found in their vaccinations. Will it be harmful to you or your children? You don’t know, you just blindly follow that of the mainstream and get off lucky. If you happen to not be so lucky, the pharmaceutical companies are not even held responsible . They would never pay for the damage they can potentially cause, if proof is found a vaccination did harm to your person or worse your child!. In fact a live strain is active in your body and those of your children! So you are the polio/mumps/small pox-ridden culprits! Just let that marinate for awhile!
Thanks for this. I have 7 children, the oldest 4 are fully immunized, the 5th a shot or two. The fourth was given his fifth dose of DTaP in July prior to starting kindergarten. In November, I received a phone call from public health saying that he was exposed to pertussis in his classroom. I took him to the pediatrician and had him tested. Positive. My two unvaccinated children (ages 3 and 2) did not get pertussis.
GREAT article! Thank you!!
What vaccinations are the additives found in?
Hi Sarah,
Interesting points you bring up and I both agree and disagree with them. The main one I would like to bring up is how you say the big pharma companies begin pumping out vaccinations to make more money. Yet if you think about it, and if they really are in it completly for the money, wouldn’t they begin to stop making vaccinations at all? Surely the extra cases of the disease, extra hospital and doctors visits and extra scripts and purchases of the same companies drugs to help the person overcome the illness would end up making them far more money than one vaccination per person would?
I think vaccinations not only bring in more money to the big pharm companies but it is almost guarenteed money. How wise would it be to let a disease run rampant especially when you can’t guarentee that every baby will get that disease or that they will even be around long enough to make money off of if they do catch it? But it is almost a guarentee that the majority of new babies will get vaccinations and survive and it is not simply one vaccination per person, it is multiple vaccinations given multiple times throughout childhood. Also if the vaccinations create new health problems that require more medications then they profit from that as well.
Vaccinations make the big pharma companies money because vaccinations make people sick. What do people do when they are sick? They go to their doctor to get drugs. Imagine a world full of healthy people? The drug industry would be out of business!!
I have not allowed the hep b shot for either of my children in the hospital, but what is your, or anyones opinion on the vitamin k shot?
I urge those with autistic children or other problems to look at a product called PCA-RX put out by Maxam labs. It might be called PC3 now, not sure. I am taking it myself for other problems. It is good for heavy metal detox too. It is very powerful and I have to take a little of it at a time or I have too severe a reaction. It’s a spray and parents have gotten wonderful results with it.
Unfortunately I was following the advice of the medical community and had my children vaccinated. However, I have completely changed my opinion on this subject. No more vaccinations for my kids. Not that I want to diagree with your statement that vaccinated kids are the sickest. I agree with that statement. However, my kids are very healthy, despite the fact that they were vaccinated. I think the fact that I breast fed all of them, and we try to eat whole, nutrient dense, organic if possible, foods I have been able to fight off modern day “diseases” of childhood. It’s really a shame.
When I was a child I probably had less than 20. Or I should say, there was about 20 on the recommended list. Now there is about 68 vaccinations for children up to the age 18. And now “they” are adding so many to the list its absolutely crazy into adulthood. I read somewhere that the increase in adults getting shingles, is because there are no more children getting naturally accuring chicken pox. Because the population has been vaccinated against chicken pox, adults are not getting their naturally accruing booster from being exposed to children. Makes you think twice that’s for sure.
4fstudio\’s last post: What Is The Best Form of Exercise?
I’m not sure if you’ll see this, but wasn’t sure where else to put it so you’d see it. I have not vetted the sources.
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/242608-Smoke-Mirrors-and-the-Disappearance-Of-Polio
Anyone remember Fen-Phen? I lost my aunt to this supposedly safe weight loss drug in 1996–after she’d already been to the doctor twice with chest pains and they told her it was nothing and sent her home. She went on a business trip and dies of a heart attack a few weeks later. I trust Big Pharma about as far as I can throw them.
I’m very uneducated about this topic.
Aren’t certain vaccines requiered to be a part of the public school system?
I’m in high school now and I remember in middle school everyone had to get their “7th Grade Shots” before you could even get your school schedule for the year (or quarter/semester).
Hi Sarah, I live in Mozambique where polio and meningitis are real everyday threats. I understand not getting vaccinations in a country like the USA, but do these reasons apply for people living in third world countries? Can anyone shed some light on this subject for foreign readers, please?
It’s ridiculous how much misinformation one person can spread. I will just point out a few. Glycerin- not dangerous, also found in many hand lotions, soup, etc..
Vaccines are NOT administered “directly into the blood stream”. Most are administered SQ (under the skin) or IM (into the muscle). THAT is how a vaccine works. The body DOES have a chance to recognize what is going on, hence the anamnestic response kicks in.
Neomycin- an antibiotic…which you already mentioned were in vaccines.
Stating that the diseases prevented or lessened by vaccines are not fatal is absolutely absurd. The reason why YOUR kid doesn’t have to be vaccinated is because of all the moms who chose to vaccinate their own child. That is how diseases get eradicated. While your choices are fine for your own children, do not spread un-documented misinformation.
It would behoove you to stop believing everything you read/learned in the classroom and actually investigate the other side of the argument. You have clearly swallowed everything hook line and sinker and have never openmindedly investigated anything but what you were taught as “true”.
Sarah, TheHealthyHomeEconomist\’s last post: GM Bananas Currently Under Development
Herd immunity is a myth. The reason I don’t have to vaccinate has nothing to do with everyone else getting vaccinated. Once again, something made up by pharma industry (herd immunity) taken as truth by the believing lemmings in medical and nursing schools. Herd immunity ONLY applies to natural immunity not temporary, artificial immunity from an injection.
Sarah, TheHealthyHomeEconomist\’s last post: GM Bananas Currently Under Development
Anamnestic response is not a myth. Neither is the administration of vaccines. Nothing I stated warranted an accusation of being a lemming. This is simple biology. Herd immunity is demonstrated all the time in animals, hence the term. There are often distemper outbreaks in un vaccinated areas of the world. Once people start to vaccinate their pets, the prevalence and severity of the disease goes down. Similar to how human vaccines work. I noticed you mentioned homeopathic vaccines in a few of your responses…i was curious about them, which is what lead me here. I was hoping for some valid resources, but that seems to be the only post you haven’t answered of mine.
Has anyone had the experience with their child who, at birth had very dry skin, had the 6 week check and the DTap – IPV- HepB/Hib vaccination (I’m in New Zealand). A short while later, his dry skin became eczema, I would call it bad, but not terrible.
I am now doing the GAPS diet for him.
Has anyone had a similar experience and is doing GAPS? How are things going?
Thanks
I am 30 years old and have NEVER EVER been vaccinated in my entire life. My parents were extremely health conscious back in the early 80′s and did their homework, it’s a shame as you say a lot of vacuum mom’s these days just believe every word the doctor tells them and never take the time to do the research themselves. My brother and I are extremely healthy and never had any major health issues at all. We did get the chicken pox when were younger and it was fine, nothing some chamomile lotion couldn’t cure. I am about to have my 1st child and want to make sure I make an informed decision, I have done a ton of research and strongly feel that I will not be getting my child vaccinated. The pharmaceutical companies will have to find other ways to make money of me! Great article!
Sarah, Would you give the same advice to avoid all vaccinations and antibiotics to someone taking their family to West Africa? My wife and I (24yrs old) are missionaries about to move to Cameroon, Africa. We have a certain number of required shots, immunizations, antibiotics, etc. that we are supposed to take. If it would help you make the call, I could get a list of the exact vaccines but I know they include hepatitis and malaria.
One observation… The missionary community as a whole seems RAMPANT with illness. Maybe this is a result of the massive amounts of vaccines and antibiotics we’re taking?
I really hope to hear back from you. Thanks!
Matt
Hope you feel better now Grace. You say you won’t be back, but I seem to keep seeing comments from you? What’s that all about? Something about the info is just too irresistable I guess. The truth does tend to do that to people.
And for the record, I never called anyone a moron. I’ve been called a moron plenty though.
{ 5 trackbacks }