Laney -4 month shots When Laney was born, we were clueless of the anti-vaccine debate that permeated so many minds and hearts. I believe when Laney was around the age of eight or nine months, news of parents opting out of or delaying vaccines began to tickle my ears. I was so confused, and still am, concerning what to do. What a heavy load to bear knowing the decision you make directly impacts the health of your child, depending on how you view "health." (It's so subjective.)
About a year ago, I blindly bought The Vaccine Book that many POH authors have mentioned already this week. I went into Barnes and Noble looking for "How to raise a healthy child...inspite of your doctor" or "Dr. Denmark Said It" but they didn't carry either of them at the time. The need to educate myself was so pressing that I just picked up this book, thumbed through it and thought that though this book didn't look too much like an anti-vaccine book, of which I was in search, I was certain I'd learn a thing or two from it. And boy did I! I wanted Dr. Sears to TELL me what to do. Have you been there?
Shortly thereafter, I remember going into our Ped's office and telling Dr. E about this very book and what I had learned. He had never even heard of it. Being a girl who really didn't read much for pleasure in my years growing up, I felt like I had "done my homework." I was able to express my concerns to him about all of the additives in each vaccine, the animal serums, the live viruses, and my lack of peace concerning moving forward with these vaccines. Not only was I concerned about the side-effects now, I was MORE concerned with the damaging effects on the body these vaccines will indeed have in years to come. I felt well-informed for being a new parent. I did not want to move forward with the schedule knowing how I felt inside. I did not want to have any regrets and postponing the vaccines was not defined as a "regret" in my book.
There are many arguments concerning vaccines leading into auto-immune disorders. I discovered I had an auto-immune disorder when I was 22 years old. Who knows how I long I had this disorder called "Thrombocytopenia" which basically means I have a chronic low-platelet count. My undiscerning spleen is "eating" good and bad platelets alike, so my counts are low. When I'm sick, my counts drop. When I was pregnant, my counts steadily dropped as my pregnancy progressed, and caused a slight hiccup with Laney's delivery. Having major surgery could be a problem, and if I was in a bad car accident, my life could be at stake. I've read that the MMR vaccine specifically leads to auto-immune disorders. I received that vaccine when I was entering eight grade upon moving to Georgia and entering the public school system. I also received SO MANY vaccines in my missions travels abroad to China, Peru, Jamaica and Mexico in college. My point in mentioning this is that I'm leery "allowing" such a disorder to plague Laney's life and in the lives of my future children(God-willing He provides them).
Laney has had all of the scheduled vaccines up to age nine months. The buck stopped when I realized that live viruses were heading our way at her 12-month check-up. I do not have all the answers for you. I do not have the answers for our own family. Not yet. I believe that there are positive reasons for some vaccines, but many are unnecessary, especially for a tiny, newborn. Of the vaccines that we will get, we'll probably wait until after Laney is three for the majority of them.
Which vaccines will we choose to get? If Laney's life is not threatened by some of these diseases, I feel at peace with opting out of certain vaccines. Laney will probably get the polio vaccine, for I know it's still very much a present-day disease in other countries, and I cannot bear the thought of her becoming paralyzed. Tetanus is another one that we will probably all receive. We will not be getting the flu shots in our household. A very educated and reliable source informed me that flu shots were linked to many illnesses, including an increased risk of developing Alzheimer's if one receives five flu shots consecutively. Now, that was enough for me to nix the shot altogether, but again, there are so many more details to this debate. I'm just scraping the surface. (Of all the times to misplace my Vaccine book, this is not the time!) Chicken Pox - no way jose. We'll be opting out of this one as well. Like Leah, I'd rather Laney get lifetime immunity, even if there is a risk of the virus leading into shingles later in life. (My husband got Shingles last year.)
Food for Thought:
Here's a great website a good friend sent to me concerning vaccine research, including information regarding the flu shot:
Vaccine Research
Also an article titled:
Do Vaccines Disable the Immune System?
I hope I haven't confused you any more, but I just wanted to throw in my .02 cents. Thanks to you, we've had a great on-going dialogue this week. I don't know about you, but after three weeks of heavy, serious writings, I'm ready for the light-hearted topic that awaits us next week: Holiday Traditions!
11 comments:
Great post! I had a lot of unanswered questions when considering the vaccines for our daughter so I ended up purchasing The Vaccine Book too. I blogged about it last month:
http://www.bartonfamilyvalues.com/2008/06/vaccines-we-chose-for-our-daughter.html
I'm a new reader to your blog and I'm really enjoying it!
Vaccine effectiveness is based on the theory that if anti-bodies are produced in response to the antigen injected, then a person confers immunity from said disease. This is the basic premise for vaccination. “Vaccine”, a peer read review, found this to be false. When immunized children get the disease from which they are immunized against, antibody titers have been performed to determine the level of antibodies in the affected child’s serum and they find consistently that the presence or absence of antibodies had nothing to do with resistance to the disease. “Antigen-specific antibody titers do not correlate with protection.” Vaccine. 2001 Oct 15;20 Suppl 1:S38-41. PMID: 11587808.
The second premise for vaccination is herd immunity. Herd Immunity was developed by A.W. Hedrich in 1933 who said when 68% of children under 15 were immune to measles, epidemics did not occur. His research was based on natural (getting the disease)immunity, not artificial, (vaccination), immunity. More facts:
“Outbreaks have occurred in 100% vaccinated populations.” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. US Government 12/29/89/38(S-9):1-18.
“80% of Measles is contracted in vaccinated people.” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. US Government 6/6/86/35(22):366-70.
“[Pertussis] infections are common in an immunized population…more prevalent than previously documented.” 98% were vaccinated in this population. He Q, Vijanen MK, Arvilommi H et al. Whooping cough caused by Bordetella Pertussis and Bordetella parapertussis in an immunized population. JAMA. 1998;280:635-637.
As far as vaccine research; vaccine research is the only so-called scientific research that does not hold itself to the standards of level 5 research. Often new batches of vaccine are evaluated for safety by testing them against the old vaccine, or against a false placebo like aluminum salts. This is not only dangerous, but dishonest when our federal government guarantees that a new vaccine is safe and effective. The public is unaware that double blind studies, nor randomized control trials are being done on vaccines. Furthermore, vaccines like Gardasil for example, have not been clinically tested with other vaccines that young girls receive and therefore, have no idea how the reactivity of these vaccines will manifest themselves.
VAERS and reporting reactions. Reporting a vaccine reaction is voluntary, and based on the statistics that are available, it appears that pediatricians do not recognize, or are not being taught to recognize vaccine reactions…
“According to the US Food and Drug Administration, only 1-10 vaccine injured children is ever reported.” Investigative Report on the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. Vienna, VA: NVIC 1987.
In another study only one in 50 was reported. Froeschle J. Connaught Laboratories. Adverse events associated with childhood vaccines, evidence bearing on causality. institute of Medicine presentation. May 11, 1992. Washington D.C.:328, Appendix B.
I’m not anti-vaccine. I am for making a concerted effort in determining what is causing the rise in auto-immune disease, cognitive disease, and cancers. There is extensive amounts of misinformation on both sides of this debate, and people have the right, when making choices on behalf of their children, to be informed of both sides. We cannot continue to allow the companies that make the vaccine to do the research that guarantees it’s safety and effectiveness. This needs to be done by independent laboratories that have no vested interest in the outcome. I respectfully wish you the best of luck with your child.
In conclusion, I don’t believe we can currently say, without a shadow of a doubt, that vaccines are safe and effective. Furthermore, I am not ready to test the hypothesis that the benefits out-way the risks on my children.
to mick---you certainly captured the essence of how my husband and i feel about the vaccine question. we, too, so strongly feel that as long as the vaccine companies are the ones researching and presenting findings on the safety of vaccinations, the resulting info that is currently available/openly distributed by the AAP can't be fully trusted. we, like many other POH "vaccines" commenters, plan to wait until our children are 3 years of age before exposing them to vaccines. we also plan to break up the schedule so that they are never given more than one vaccine at a time.
thank you for your well written and informative comment!
Mick - Thank you for sharing and documenting. You did an excellent job and my husband and I couldn't agree with you more.
Thanks Mick for the great information and encouragement.
Mick, Thank you for you thought provoking and very informative post. I was just having this identical discussion today and I could not agree with you more.
Thanks for the kind words. There are many layers to the vaccination debate. I think one of the best layers to explore is the neurological effects of vaccination on the Central Nerve System. Dr. Russel Blaylock, a neurosurgeon, eloquently describes in detail the effects of vaccination causing brain inflammation (encephalitis). What we do know definitively is that inorganic mercury (thimerasol) and aluminimum, cross the blood brain barrier. Blaylock explains that our brains have their own immune systems and when confronted with a toxic substance that could endanger it, vaccination, the brain liberates substances that attempt to isolate the invading toxin and limit brain tissue destruction. One of the substances produced is glutamate. When glutamate is liberated by the brain it creates a prolonged inflammatory state which leaves the brain vulnerable to further insult upon the next invasion via vaccination. Blaylock believes its the repeated insults to the brain which may cause a child to become cognitively impaired or damaged. Blaylock also believes that the elderly are at as high a risk of cognitive disease when they subject themselves to flu shots for the same reasons. Alzheimer's, Parkinsons, and unexplained dementia have risen 100 fold in the last 10 years. Many of the questions I receive as a physician are related to the "what if" scenarios. We could go days contemplating these scenarios. The biggest one I get is that if we all stop vaccinating, these diseases will come back. Neil Z. Miller wrote a great book and is an easy read: Vaccines are the really safe and effective. In his book he repeatedly shows that all of the diseases we vaccinate against were virtually gone before mass vaccination programs were put into place. For example, he shows the CDC data for Measles which was 98% eradicated before we started to vaccinate for it. Again, best of luck and God bless your children and the decisions you must make to ensure their health.
One more thing..
A great resource for accurate vaccine info is at http://www.nmaseminars.com/
Great video on-line: Vaccine Nation by Gary Null it can be found at you tube.
I guess that was two things.
I sent you an e-mail Krista.
Regards,
Mick
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