Vaccine Decisions

Cara, I read an anecdote on my fitness forum the other day that would tend to support your research. A woman said that her four kids were sick and she suspected whooping cough. She doesn’t vaccinate, so this was not a shock to her. A woman down the street from her has kids who also have whooping cough – and they’re vaccinated! Things that make you go hmmm, eh?

The doctors told her it was post-nasal drip. Oy. They wouldn’t even entertain the possibility of whooping cough until she told them that other kids in the extended family had tested positive. They had just returned from a family reunion.

I’m glad I don’t have to worry about this now; my only child is 37! When he was a baby I vaccinated without a thought. But there were fewer vaccinations then. I don’t know about the crap they add.

I do worry about the H1N1 vaccine, though, and hope that they don’t try to make it mandatory. They’ll have to drag me kicking and screaming to jail first.

[Reply]

Chickenpox- it’s my understanding that you can still get shingles (which can have complications) later in life, even if you have had chicken pox as a child. Also, when I was doing research it appeared that the chickenpox vaccine only provided immunity for a few years, so someone would need to get a ‘booster’ every few years of their life if they wanted to do it that way. I also remember reading that the whooping cough vaccine was only effective for one year, and we don’t get boosters for that every year. And one link real quick, because it’s so often said that ‘it’s been proven that autism isn’t caused by vaccines’. The study was flawed that they site.
http://www.whale.to/vaccine/stott.pdf

(Kelly, feel free to delete my comment if I’m coming across too bossy! Sorry! I’m just passionate about this stuff)

[Reply]

I recently saw an ad in a magazine for a vaccine for shingles!

[Reply]

I don’t have a problem with there being a shingles vaccine; my elderly uncle had shingles before he died a few years ago and it was very painful and miserable for him. However, I strongly object to forced vaccinations, especially of children, especially for multiple vaccines at once, or for unproven ones like the proposed swine flu vaccine. I also object to the typical portrayal of people who question, merely question, vaccines in general or a particular vaccine, as being nutcases who reject all medicine etc. As the Mothering article points out, people who decline to get vaccinated or to vaccinate their children are more likely than average to be well educated, and their ranks include many doctors. There no doubt is misinformation about vaccines floating about, but it’s not all on one side.

[Reply]

When I saw a news article recently about the military preparing to assist the health officials with the swine flu vaccine administration I freaked out inside. I imagined the military dragging us to get the vaccine, lol. The implications of the matter are still freaky (I won’t get into that!) but I realized after reading another article later about where they will be distributing and have been having drills that they are anticipating mob-like behavior from people WANTING the vacs… So that’s fine with me; I’ll sit this one out!

What I can see happening in the schools is that even if a parent has it written on the forms and the teacher/administration is respectful of that, in the chaos of the vaccine day a child might accidentally get put in line, get the shot, and later they would say, “Oops, sorry.” The child needs to also be aware and able to say “No shot, call me mom or dad.”

Beth

[Reply]

It’s such a tough and personal decision. I feel like I would have to dedicate my life to wading through the information and even then would I totally get it…I’m not sure.

I’m relying more on intuition for these decisions. I read as much as I can handle and then take a deep breath. What feels right for my family, for my children.

I do wish it was more black and white, but I also trust that this phase of humanity will unravel into a deeper understanding of health for future generations (if we ever do sort this out.)

[Reply]

Kelly,
I didn’t read all of the comments, but if you haven’t heard I wanted you to know. Matt Lauer is interviewing Dr. Wakefield. He is the doctor who found strains of the measles in the guts of 12 of his autistic patients. It is coming on Dateline tomorrow night 8/31/09 at 6:00 central time. I’m not 100% sure when my ds (5 yrs) bowel problems started, but I do remember somewhere around 12 months I had to carry extra pants with me everywhere we went. His stools were soooooo loose! At his 2 (thimersol) month and 4 (thimerosol) month shots in Africa his leg swelled, he wouldn’t let me touch anywhere near the shot wound, and he screamed high pitched squeals for about 8 hours. I also had 4 rhogam shots with thimerosol. I have had 2 girls here in America one didn’t have any reactions to vaccines. My third had high pitched squeals at her 4 month shots just like my ds. We stopped vaccinating at 6 months. Oldest child now has severe GI issues and is a little hyper boy with really bad handwriting…doing well in other areas. Girls are both doing fine. I have one friend who had a normal baby and the night of her 6 month shots started having seizures. She is now 4 years and has awful seizures that haven’t stopped and she has very little speech. The government said if they signed papers that they wouldn’t sue they would pay for medical treatment for the rest of her life. My heart goes out to that family!!! OOps didn’t mean to go on and on…although I could about this topic!! lol

Ashley

[Reply]

Thank you so much for giving us this information. I don’t think I’ll let my kids get very many shots (maybe a few) when I actually have some kids. Hopefully by then, things will be better. I realized just recently that I don’t like to talk about things like this too, because I could be wrong, and I don’t want to be responsible for somebody getting a serious disease.

Oh, and I thought I’d let you know, my brother died a couple weeks ago (he was 15, a few years younger than me, and my best friend). That really made me want to change things, to spread the truth about nutrition. They gave him so many pills, and while some pills might have helped, a lot of them seemed like they were well-let’s-see-what-this-pill-does pills. He never wanted to take those pills, or get shots, but he didn’t have much of a choice. He complained about them all the time. I think rejecting the pills was something is body was instinctively telling him. It made me sad when they put him on a non-fat diet, and everything they did was just against everything I’ve learned. But the doctors loved him too, they promised that they’d get him through this. They did their absolute best, and I can’t begrudge them for that. You believe in God, right? I do too, and I don’t know what I’d do if I thought his death was the end, but it’s not.

Anyways, thanks for listening, and thank you so much for your site!

[Reply]

Thanks so much Kelly, again, you’re completely right

[Reply]

Darcie, add fermented cod liver oil to your daily regimen. Most of us are short on A and D, which fight infections and cancer respectively and are so important for the immune system. You can get FCLO at http://www.drrons.com/ or http://www.greenpasture.org/.

I just made a pot of garlic soup with homemade chicken stock to help me get over a lingering “almost sore” throat. That should help with anything!
Cheers,
Jeanmarie

[Reply]

Darcie,

I heard on the news (briefly) that it had to do with the pressure on the lungs from the baby but I haven’t looked into it further. I just googled and found this quote from a mainstream media (CNN) article:

“Still, the apparent disproportionate impact of H1N1 on pregnant women is not surprising, given the body changes that occur during pregnancy, she said.

“As the uterus grows and pushes the diaphragm up, there is less room for the lungs,” affecting a woman’s ability to breathe, she said.

Pregnancy’s impact goes beyond structural; it affects the body’s ability to fight off illness, she said.

“A pregnant woman has to accommodate this foreign body of the growing fetus, so there is an immunological shift that occurs in pregnancy,” she said.

Don’t know if that helps or not.
Beth

[Reply]