Questions for those of you who dont vaccinate..

[tinkerbelle]

For all my research Ive done so far (which has been a lot), Ive pretty much made up my mind I wont be vaccinating my bub.

My biggest concern though is - what if bubs catches mumps or measles and passes it onto hubby or I. We were both vaccinated as kids but I dont think the immunity lasts forever and these diseases are much more complicated for adults than for children.
Has anyone any thoughts or experiences about this?

I just wish I could get single pertussis and tetanus vaccines, they would be the only ones I would do I think..

[~Stoked~]

I don't have any experience sorry but I've recently had my immunity to rubella checked (as I'm pregnant) and I am immune.. However, when I had it checked in 2009 during my pregnancy with DS I had borderline immunity. What the? I don't know how I could've suddenly gained immunity when the last time I would've been vaccinated was when I was 12? 13?
Anyway, just thought that was interesting! Probably a useless tidbit for you though!

[Pretty Butterfly]

If your worried, and dont want bub to get the shots, you and DH can!!
I dont vaccinate till after 2, and so far still havent

They are more complicated in adults, and as their vac's have worn off, are more likely to be the ones to get it , and pass it on, not a little baby anyway.

So if your happy for yourself to get them instead, you could go that way.

[Yeddi]

Yes, if your worried you can get yourselves vaccinated. Although I would suggest that you leave it off until you stop breastfeeding so that you don't excrete the toxic metals through your breast milk.

TBH though, I personally wouldn't bother as I don't think vaccines really work anyway but make you more vulnerable to catching the disease. I've looked at every major Western outbreak for the last 20 years and from what I've seen of the stats it doesn't seem to matter whether the vaccination rate is only 60% or 98% people still get the diseases, and the vast majority are the vaccinated not the unvaccinated. San Diego measles outbreak in 2008 consisted of 900 people, 810 of those were vaccinated despite the area only having a 70% vaccination rate, of the 90 put into the not vaccinated group, 48 of them where vaccinated in general but under the age of the specific MMR vaccine, so in reality only 4% of those effected were completely unvaccinated. Even if we did include the littlies that's still only 10% unvaxed and I would think that at least 30% of those measles cases would have been in unvaccinated in order to give a balanced infection rate. 2009 mumps outbreak in New York consisted of 1500 cases, all but 50 were again vaccinated. These types of stats lead me to believe that vaccination is either somewhere between benign to being effective of increasing your risk of catching the disease so I personally wouldn't bother.

[tinkerbelle]

Thanks guys. yeh have thought of the option to get us vaccinated but i cant really, because one of the main reasons why i am not vaccinating is that i morally object to the fact that they use aborted foetal tissue to culture a lot of the vaccines on (I dont care (as some Dr's argue) that there are no foetal cells in the final product - its the process that I object to!).. so yeh, unfortunately not an option for DH and I to get vaccinated ourselves either.. i guess we will all just have to build up our immunity really well using vitamins and herbal remedies and hope for the best.

[Heaven]

You could look into homeopathic vaccination?? I don't really know much about it or if it works but worth a look I think.

We didn't vaccinate to the schedule either. DD just had her first vaccine this month (at almost 2 yrs old) because I wanted her to have the tetnus one. Unfortunately the smallest I could get was DTPa + polio.

[Heaven]

You could look into homeopathic vaccination?? I don't really know much about it or if it works but worth a look I think.

We didn't vaccinate to the schedule either. DD just had her first vaccine this month (at almost 2 yrs old) because I wanted her to have the tetnus one. Unfortunately the smallest I could get was DTPa + polio.

[smee]

Thanks guys. yeh have thought of the option to get us vaccinated but i cant really, because one of the main reasons why i am not vaccinating is that i morally object to the fact that they use aborted foetal tissue to culture a lot of the vaccines on (I dont care (as some Dr's argue) that there are no foetal cells in the final product - its the process that I object to!).. so yeh, unfortunately not an option for DH and I to get vaccinated ourselves either.. i guess we will all just have to build up our immunity really well using vitamins and herbal remedies and hope for the best.

Not meaning to start a debate or anything, there are plenty of reasons not to vaccinate or to delay vaccination and it's 100% your decision - just wanted to clear up the aborted foetal tissue thing. The abortions (2 of them) happened in the 1960s and the original culture was developed on the tissue - it now survives on its own. So the process hasn't actually involved abortions for over 50yrs. That's not to say that it wasn't immoral in the first place or that the cell culture and/or vaccine definitely hasn't got any traces of foetal cells or whatever, I don't think anyone can know that for sure. But yeah, the process of developing the vaccine doesn't require any new foetal tissue and hasn't for a very long time.

[Yeddi]

Tink,
there is a lot of evidence that has long been forgotten or fobbed off (because it wouldn't make as much money says my cynical side) that vitamin C is one of the best ways to protect from disease. They've found that large doses of intravenous vit C given to cancer patients makes them more likely to go into remission by almost 300%, and a lot of doctors from the 1930's to the 1960's found 1000mg of vit c every 6 hours cured measles and polio. Of course then the vaccinations came onto the market and no further study was allowed to get off the ground and any attempts since have had to deal with some really unreasonable aggression and is considered career suicide. It's a shame it's not about health! Vitamin D is a natural steroid too and very helpful in healing. In the olden days the nurses in the hospital used to wheel all the patients out onto the patio of the hospitals and give their sore bits some sun (morning or late afternoon of course). They've recently found that there is a link with vit d deficiency and MS.

Health begins in the gut! Good luck

[smee]

Yeddi, that's really interesting about the vit C and D - I've heard that there are a lot of links with vit D deficiencies and various diseases including cancer and depression. Do you have a link somewhere to read more?

[Yeddi]

Sure, you might only be able to get the abstracts though. I think they are taking it even further and investigating its relation to all autoimmune diseases.

Vitamin D and multiple sclerosis. [Proc Soc Exp Biol Med. 1997] - PubMed result
Vitamin D and Multiple Sclerosis : Topics in Clinical Nutrition

Some other interesting information about Vitamin D

- Vitamin D activates your immune system to respond to any viral exposure (not just one virus), so if you are vit D deficient vaccines wont work
- Vitamin D also improves sugar metabolism, bone density and healthy moods.
- Vitamin D works on everyone and is safe for everyone, including infants and children.
- Vitamin D is found naturally in breast milk.

[tinkerbelle]

thanks yeddi - i have read along the same lines and always dose up on vitamin C and D if I think Im coming down with something.. probiotics meant to be good to boost immune system too.
i too believe health starts in teh gut - ive just recently bought the body ecology diet book and the gut and the gut and psychology syndrome book and im looking forward to reading both!