I know that this is a touchy subject for some Moms.
For obvious reasons, the subject of vaccinations has been on my mind a lot for the last while.
I recently read a blog post about a woman who had decided against vaccinating her youngest child. She has 2 kids. Her child 1 had all his shots and was a sickly baby/toddler – think hospitalisations, grommets, regular colds and gastro etc. Her child1 has Aspergers and as I understand it, has also been diagnosed with severe ADHD.
Her child 2 was born sick (he had cancer at birth), is now better and has not been vaccinated yet because of immunity issues relating to the fact that he was born with cancer. As I understand it, she was advised to wait until her Child2 turned a year old before vaccinating. Despite the fact that her Child2 was born sick, he has been SUPER healthy since he got better which wasn’t too long after he was born. Am I making any sense?
She has weighed up various options and has thus decided that she is not going to vaccinate her Child 2. I am not judging her decision at all. In fact, whether or not I agree with her decision is not the issue here. It is HER DECISION (the blogger in question is definitely not a stupid woman and I know that she would have given this subject extensive thought) and I respect it. In a way I can understand how she came to that decision.
Whether or not we want to admit it, vaccinations have been the source of controversy for quite some time now, mainly because of more and more children being diagnosed with Autism and also due to a host of other factors.
Both my kids are vaccinated. It was simply something that I never even questioned. Child 2 had many of his vaccines quite late because he was sick and on antibiotics every 2nd week or so. We only really got up to date when he just turned 2.5.
I have been wondering a lot about my kids and where their issues stem from. It would seem that they have been genetically predisposed to ADHD and everything else on that spectrum. In case you are wondering, Autism, ADD/ADHD, Aspergers, Tourettes, OCD, ODD etc are all on that spectrum.
I know that I can (mostly) control what they eat and help them manage their issues as holistically as I can to the best of my ability.
I suppose I could have decided NOT to vaccinate but then I would have had problems further down the line. I don’t know of ANY school in Cape Town that would accept a kid without an up-to-date vaccination certificate.
Am not really sure why I’m blogging this. Quite frankly, it’s no use crying over spilt milk and all. There is no scientific proof that my kids issues are related to vaccines. There is also no scientific proof that my kids issues are NOT related to vaccines.
I do wish though that I had done some more homework on vaccinations. I wish I had asked more questions.
I wish that I had asked things like what it actually means to vaccinate, what are the possible implications of vaccinations, WHY we need to vaccinate, why it would possibly be better to NOT vaccinate etc.
If you had asked me a few years ago WHY I was doing it, I would not have had a good reason, simply because it was something that I did without question. I would have answered and said something like “because I must” or whatever.
Have you ever really thought about vaccinations? WHY you are doing it? Possible implications further down the line?
How do you feel about parents who choose not to vaccinate for whatever reason?
Do I have ANY readers who don’t vaccinate? Why? No judgies from me. I’m just very curious about how and why you came to that decision.
Personally I feel that not vaccinating puts everyone at risk. The ( what we now know was a faulty ) study about the MMR vaccine and autism cause a generation of non inoculated British kids, which resulted in a major measles ( and now resistant and way more aggressive measles ) outbreak in Britain.
I would not hesitate to innoculate, but I did not do some for instance, chickenpox as I feel it is not that dangerous and better to get and be done. With the pneunococcal ones I did not think twice.
Here’ s another thought – the Princess was born before the Rotavirus innoculations. She had it 3 times as a little one- it bad! And she has a sensitive tummy – picks up any tummy bug. I did not question once to let the boys get it – and they both have tough tummies!
I actually asked Dr S about it (the link between the vaccination and autism) and he said the same as Cat did, that there’s no proof linking the two blah blah. Sorry, I was always going to vaccinate (those kinds of things I do by the book
) so I didn’t pay much attention to the exact reasoning but next time we’re there I can ask him again?
Interesting how Cat has all these live examples in her house LOL!
PS you’re right – even at D’s work’s nursery school (we’ve signed the kids up for those days when V doesn’t pitch – mind you, R150 per kid per day… yes!) they wouldn’t even take the forms if their stuff wasn’t up to date!
A friend of a friend’s kid that has autism is adamant that it was the cause. My question to her was, “Not all kids innoculated end up with autism…?” She said some kids were predisposed to it and the vaccination offset it.
I then chatted to my cousin about link between vaccinations and autism and she was saying the studies were not conclusive.
So who knows. Jodie Picoult explores this in her book “House Rules” – it’s an interesting read.
I find the topic very interesting. I did some research just before I had Zoe and I followed a delayed vaccination schedule with her. I’ve done even more research in the last year and to be honest I’m not sure I would vaccinate if I had a third. You can read more about the cons of vaccinations here https://www.facebook.com/#!/thetruthaboutvaccines
Just for the record Ethan is in a good private school and they never asked to see his vaccination card (he was vaccinated btw). I also know of one or two other couples who are against vaccinating and they were able to get their children into school too.
I was once told by somebody that vaccinations are the cause of child cancer. I then said that if that was the case my kid would not have been the only kid in her daycare centre (where 95% of all kids were vaccinated) to get cancer. Both mine are vaccinated. Bianca had to get her MMR again after she finished her cancer treatment because she lost immunity against measles, mumps and rubella. So I’m not convinced that vaccinations cause things like autism and cancer and so on.
I’m grateful to people who chose to vaccinate as things like measles could have killed Bianca while she was on treatment. And if kids (and adults) on cancer treatment get measles there is nothing they can do to treat the measles and with zero immunity…well it becomes a life-threatening situation. And unlike other kids she could get the same illness over and over and over.
When Bianca was on treatment we suspect that once she got whooping cough (this is something people can vaccinate for) and of course the chemo wiped her immunity against things so somewhere she must have been exposed by somebody who had whooping cough. She spent 34 nights in hospital in an isolation room and on oxygen. And once she had a broncospasm as a result of a coughing fit. Basically she asked to go to the bathroom, I helped her off her bed, she had a coughing fit, got back to her bed and told me she wanted to sleep. Within minutes I got concerned about her breathing that became quite fast and rapid. Doctors all came and she was pretty unresponsive and they had to do emergency treatment to wake her up. It was the scariest thing ever. And happened so fast.
I think what a lot of parents forget is that if all of us decided not to immunise we would actually have a crisis on hand and many of those illnesses will spiral out of control. Measles are highly highly contagious for instance and even for healthy people could have severe implications. And the trouble with these illnesses are that you can be infected without realising and by the time you realise it and see actual symptoms you have spread it to a lot of other people.
Absolutely it is a parents right to choose. And it is tricky working your way through all the info. We chose to protect our children from serious children’s illnesses.
The link between autism and MMR, which was published by the Lancet journal (if I remember correctly), was retracted because information was falsified in the study.
I did all the vaccines. My reasoning was very similar to Cat’s – I did not only do it for my child, but also for those children around us. The only way these illnesses will ever be eradicated, or controlled, is if everyone, or as many people possible, vaccinate against them.
My child has did not have any reactions to any of the vaccinations, has not been diagnosed with anything subsequent to them, and is not displaying anything I am concerned about at the moment. He was on antibiotics often as a baby due to recurrent ear infections, had grommets done twice by the time he turned two, suffers from allergies, but I do not believe that any of this was caused or exaggerated by the vaccinations.
I do not judge other mothers’ parenting decisions. But I am likely to be upset if my child was to be put at risk because another child had not been vaccinated.
I think this, like so many (if not all) parenting choices are so personal, and often the cause of unnecessary arguments between moms.
I’m with Cat and Sweets on this one. Ava is fully vaccinated and my reason’s are the same. I’ve also read that the study on the link between vaccinations and autism was inconclusive and that some of the info had been falsified rendering it null and void.
Isabella is fully vaccinated. I chose to do it because I felt that prevention is better than cure. My chiro, on the other hand, feels differently about it! He thinks that kids DON’T need to be vaccinated. I would be too petrified to NOT have Isabella vaccinated, to be honest!
I’m still in a quandry about this.
I’ve don’t the 6 in 1s with all of them (will do J3s at 8weeks) I did rotavirus with J2 and K and will do it with J3. J1 got it and it was scary!
I am not doing MMR’s with the girls. And will only do J2 and J3 when they’re 6, unless they’ve had mumps. Then I won’t do it.
They’ve had measles in place of the MMR.
Also haven’t done Prevenar.
I’ve delayed many of the vaccines we’ve done. But I remain unsure of vaccinating. And because we are homeschooling, I don’t need to produce a card for anyone.
Ita a tough subject. 1 I struggle with often.
I did all mandatory vacs. Except MMR on my last child….i got the willies and just didnt do it even though I did it with my first two! He has had german measles as a tota and I gave him the measles shot. So its mumps he is at risk for which is dodgy but I will probably just take him someday for his MMR!
I also did RotaVirus for my last two. It wasnt available for my eldest and she got extremely ill with it. I also did chickenpox for myself and my girls about 2yrs ago. Purely because I had exposed them over and over again and they did not get it. Doc says they are probably immune BUT I didnt want them getting it as adults so I vacced us all. (my DH’s sister has just spent 2wks in hospital with chickenpox so again I got the willies!)
Ito of Prevenar and all the others I prefer to undervaccinate so I havent done that. My kids have never been prone to ear or chest infections so it seemed less necessary.
I have been wondering about the whole vaccinations/autism link. It seems to be more general that you find more people autism now than in the time my children were small.
I don’t have children, but know for sure that I would not have vaccinated them. I’ve read extensively about the issue and I believe that vaccination seriously harms children’s immune systems. Furthermore, many vaccines still contain mercury, which is dangerous. The medical establishment can’t prove that vaccines are safe, even in isolation, let alone in the combinations they are being given these days.
When I was a child, we got maybe six shots between birth and puberty. In those days autism, ADHD, SID, auto-immune diseases etc were unheard of. Children rarely got cancer. We also ate mostly real food and had much less exposure to chemicals and EMF’s.
Today, children get up to 36 vaccinations (in the USA) by the time they go to school – many of them in combinations that have not been researched and proven safe. As far as I know there are no independent, peer-reviewed, double-blind studies that prove that vaccinations are safe or even necessary. Cars are extensively tested for safety and even have safety ratings, yet what we’re supposed to take the word of somebody with a profit motive that what we put into our children’s bodies is safe. I mean, sure, most kids are not obviously affected. But what is an acceptable risk? 1%? On paper, maybe, but not so acceptible if it’s your child.
I have read too many books by eminent scientists and doctors about the mafia tactics of Big Pharma to trust them on this, or many other things for that matter. It is in their best interest to keep us sick but alive, and they want to make sure that we’re consumers from birth, hence the big push for vaccines.
I’m don’t criticize parents who do vaccinate, because they lack information and the ones who dare pose a question often get bullied into it, for instance with the threat that schools won’t take their children without vaccinations. Unfortunately this is an area where we’re unlikely to see honest, open and healthy debate, because many doctors and scientists who dare question Big Pharma are targeted, harrassed and discredited in any way possible.
Unless you’re planning to have another child, don’t worry about this. It’s not your fault. If you are interested though, you may want to read “Disease-proof your Child” by Dr. Joel Fuhrman.
Thank you so much for this awesome comment. I think that you have hit the nail on the head and I wish that I had done more research at the time and asked more questions. Am going to have a look for that book. Sounds interesting.
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