It has been brought to the attention of the moderating team that one of the articles on the main site is very anti-vaccination. While some people have no issue with this, there are others that object because they see it as innappropriate.
I would like to write an article that attempts to contrast both sides of the vaccination debate fairly. It is really hard to find unbiased information out there, and if possible, I'd like to try and create a resource that could really help new parents to make one of the hardest decisions in their young child's life.
In this thread, I am looking for comments from parents who chose NOT to vaccinate their children, with regards to why they made that choice. Please note that any comments you make here will probably be used in the article, but if you desire, I will make you anonymous.
This thread will be moderated and any flaming will be removed. This is not a discussion thread. Do not debate the choices others have made.
My eldest shut down completely after his varicella and MMR vaccinations, so I was cautious with the rest of my kids. I didn't choose not to vaccinate entirely but I looked at the individual risks of each disease vs the risks of vaccination and therefore chose not to vaccinate with varicella and a few others, but I did choose to vaccinate against whooping cough, measles, and a few others. Given the choice I would not have vaccinated for more than one disease at a time, but single vaccines are unavailable here.
I started vaccinating my first child at 6months old, she had one injection then, and one at 12 months which caused grief to no end (we separated that one so over 6 weeks we did them) and then not again. She has autism, not caused by the vaccinations, but I didn't want to exacerbate the situation. At 3 years of age she was found to have an extremely high level of mercury in her system, as well as a very weak immune system. We've worked hard to get her to a healthier place.
DD2, well... she had her first vaccination at 4 years old when she needed a tetnus injection.
We chose not to continue vaccinating or to delay the vaccinations for a few reasons. One is that we felt that our child was more in danger from the preservatives found in the injections around the virus'. We felt that where we live, the way we lived and our health were indicitive that our children were at a greater risk from the preservatives than the things we were vaccinating against. Now they are older we are happier to vaccinate knowing their immune systems are able to handle it.
After much debate and a very hard choice, we have decided at this point in time not to vaccinate our children.
We made this decision because they are in a higher risk group for vaccine reactions. As a child both my sister and I had reactions to the whooping cough vaccine. The reactions were different, but were fairly serious. I stopped breathing shortly after my vaccine and had respiratory problems for a period of time after the vaccine. My sister developed a rare form of eczema shortly after receiving the whooping cough vaccine and while it hasn't been conclusively linked to the vaccine, it was thought that the "hit" to her immune system was the "straw that broke the camel's back" which resulted in her actually developing the eczema. As some reactions are thought to be genetic, there was a slightly higher risk of my kids also having a reaction.
The biggest factor in our decision though is a rather controversial one. Our children (especially boys) are in a high risk group for being on the Autistic Spectrum. We sought out a specialist psychiatrist that deals with children with ASD's who also has an interest in vaccines and vaccine reactions. We saw him with our son and his recommendation was to definitely not give the MMR vaccine. He gave a really good explanation of why he believes so many studies are able to claim that the MMR vaccine does not "cause" ASD's, but also why he believes that they play a role in the formation on some ASD's in some children. There is also a recent report which reviews a number of the most commonly referred-to studies that "dis-prove" the link between MMR and Autism. It looks at each study and states the limitations of each study and why they are not actually scientifically conclusive.
I also did a huge amount of study into vaccines and ASD's (sticking strictly to reputable journal articles, NOT internet propaganda) sites. There have been two recent studies that have linked ASD's to vaccines in general, not limiting it to the MMR vaccine. A known possible side-effect of many vaccines is encephalitis, and it has been found that encephalitis can cause Autism. This is much more likely in a child that has a possible genetic predisposition to being on the Autistic spectrum already.
We also believe that a number of the vaccines are not needed for our children at this stage, and were uncomfortable with the fact that you are unable to "pick and choose" what vaccines your child gets due to "combo" vaccines.
In general, neither of us are against vaccines. We just believe that more research needs to go into the safety of some vaccines, and there needs to be more choice for parents when deciding what vaccines to give to their children. Once our children start school and move into a higher risk group for some diseases we may re-evaluate if we want to give some vaccines. The kids will then be past the most sensitive age for developing regressive Autism.
Schmickers - I hope that's the sort of information you were hoping to get. If you want to ask any other questions, please feel free.
To be honest it came down to the fact that no one can guarantee me they are perfectly safe. There are going to be casualties for "the greater good"
I decided I can always vaccinate later if they can show me that they arent filled with heavy metals, toxic preservatives and additives and wont cause long term damage to my child.
I can't unvaccinate my child, but I can always vaccinate them later.
I dont think injecting diseases into their blood stream is a good way to build an immunity. The body has many ways to fight off infection before it reaches the blood stream. So for me it was inject something right into their blood, or risk them coming in contact with the illness in public, having their body not fight it off, and then also having a complication arise from the illness.
Breastfeeding and eating a varied diet and including foods that boost the immune system is a better protection in my eyes then injecting god knows what right into my newborns blood.
My middle child is vaccinated and has autism. We have autism elsewhere in my family. I didnt want the vaccines to trigger autism in my youngest and that is how my research started. I went on to decide to decline all vaccines based on my research (not solely online, I read peer reviewed studies and books etc)
You need to make a decision you can live with. If I vaccinated and my son was diagnosed with Autism i would have always wondered if I could have prevented it. If he had a vaccine injury i would have felt responsible. If he contracts a "vaccine preventable" illness, and goes on to have complications (which is a risk still even after being vaccinated) I know that i have given him the best tools in beating it by his diet and breastfeeding him for over 2 years and not overloading his immune system with vaccines.
We do a partial and delayed schedule in our family.
We chose not to take up the rotavirus vaccine for DD2 (DD1 had it) as we felt that the batch that was coming out that year had had too many issues. We also figured that we had the priviledge of living inner city and have access to hospital and good quality healthcare, and we weighed up the risk vs vaccine and for this, felt that it was in our case best to not proceed.
For both girls we have delayed the MMR to have first booster at 4 years and then final at 6 years. This was preceded by consultation with a family-trusted paediatrician in italy when i was pg with DD1 that advised against such a large vaccine at all. I felt uncomfortable about not immunising 100% so we looked up the possibility of delayed schedules...and were pleasantly suprised that they are common and easy to organise.
We did not give the HepB at birth as we felt that with our family circumstances our babies would not be exposed in the interim until they start the full vaccine.
We were not going to vaccinat against the varicella, but our circumstances changed with the arrival of a special needs child in our close group, so opted to have it done.
Is it ok to answer when partially (mostly really) vaxd?
We have declined the HepB at birth, Rotavirus and varicella as we do not feel they are necessary and so the risks would outweigh the benefits for us. There were others we would have skipped, but they're all bundled together.
I did not get HepB vaccination at birth for my kids because they are at extremely low risk and i didn't see a need.
I began vaccinating my DD at a slightly delayed schedule. After the 2 month and 4 month vaccines, she was quite unwell for about a week. I discussed this with the Council run vaccine clinic nurses who showed little concern and just wanted to make sure she was given next lot of injections. The 6 month vaccines i split up, and again tried to voice my concerns with the clinic nurses. My concerns were not listened to, and i just felt there was a lot of bullying behaviour. The minimal faith that i had in the system was lost and so for now i have elected not to continue vaccinating.
If i had a medical professional that listened to me, and was willing to explore and answer my questions, i may be more likely to vaccinate.
I also believe that there are too many vaccines given at one time, and am disappointed that because single disease vaccines are not always available in Australia, parents have to choose between not vaccinating for one disease or vaccinating for 2 extras that they may not see as necessary.
I was previously very pro vaccination - my sister had a horrific case of chicken pox when she was two and I didn't want my kids to experience sickness like that. But as time went on and I actually starting researching it for myself instead of just blindly accepting the 'party line', I was adding up 2 and 2 and getting 6 every time, so it made me start asking more questions and a few things stood out for me which I just couldn't ignore. When I was pg with my 4th child I was almost convinced that it wasn't right, but then I just wasn't brave enough to refuse them. But when he had his 8wk rota virus vaccine and had a terrible reaction to it, my mind was made up.
The things that stood out for me and convinced me it wasn't right were;
The fact that vaccines are a one size fits all delivery - my 10lb+ baby at birth was getting the exact same dose as a 6lb baby. We don't even give a standard dose of panadol to babies and dose according to weight, so it didn't make sense to give vacinations that way.
There are too many vaccines given at once, and the burden placed of the under developed immune system of a baby is MASSIVE. This makes it harder to pin point what is to blame when reactions happen.
The whooping cough vaccine is so ineffective now that it is worthless. It only gives a 70% protection rate at best and even then it only protects against ONE strain of WC. Not only that, fully vaccinated people can still get WC, except that it is a milder case and because of the assumption that vaccination = immunity, people do not realise that their children even have WC, put it down to being a mild cold and carry on their way infecting other people who may not have any immunity.
And then there are the carrier and stabilising ingredients. I simply cannot believe that with all the money thrown towards R&D of vaccines that they still have not come up with safer ingedients to put in them.
My girls will never, ever have the 'cervical cancer' vaccine - what a joke that is! The propaganda that the Govt and Health authorities spread about this one beggar belief! It is not, and never has been, a 'cervical cancer' vaccine, yet whenever it is spoken about in the media, there is the false assumption given that it will protect against cervical cancer. It is a vaccine for the HPV virus - a virus which may trigger cervical cancer in some women. Again, it is a vaccine that gives a false sense of security because of the assumption that vaccinated = never get cervical cancer and it makes people believe that they are safe and protected. There have also been far too many deaths and serious complications from this vaccine that Govt agencies around the world are failing to investigate as directly related to the vaccine.
So basically the more aware and educated about vaccinations I became, the more I starting seeing that there are massive problems with them and I should avoid them until I feel they reach a point where they are safe. We've accepted that its alright to **** around with a perfectly normal immune system - which if working properly will successfully fight off these illnesses and that doesn't sit right with me. I can't in good conscience do something to my kids which may affect them. Even recently there have been two incidences with my youngest child where he has been injured in a way where the tetanus vaccine has been offered and I have declined both times because it is not necessary - one reason being that if he had been exposed to tetanus through his injuries then it would already be in his system and giving the vaccine would be a moot point and the other reason being that even the tetanus booster is not a stand alone vaccination, it is combined with diphtheria/tetanus, diphtheria/tetanus/pertussis or diphtheria/tetanus/pertussis/polio.. Even the ones adults get are not stand alone tetanus vaccines - how many people know that? Probably none because you only ever get told you need a tetanus booster.
Like trillian, things doesn't add up.
DH did all the research or rather as much as possible anyways without spending 110% of his time.
We decided on delayed schedule but it's to start after DD is 6mo. I don't have the details. Mod: pm me if you want details of the research.
I come from a big family and have seen children from one generation grew up no asthma, allergies, autism to variants of those symptoms. True there are many variables that could affect it but we are eliminating a lot of that and this is one of them.
Also have personally seen how a severely autistic child can affect the whole family in a very significantly & negatively.
Sent from my smart phone using Tapatalk.(Occasional fat fingers syndrome might occur)
I have chosen to stop vaccinating my DS and DD my DS is up to date and DD only had up to her 4 month ones
the reason is i have looked into it and has also been found that kids (mostly boys) have a higher incidence of ADD/ADHD and i believe my son has it his dad has it so it might not be that that caused it but i dont want to risk it the second time around with DD i did notice a change in DS after he had the MMR vaccine it was like i had a totally different little boy it was within a week of him getting the vax
We currently don't vaccinate, though we have in the past and we may do again in the future.
Initially we did a delayed/partial schedule. We skipped birth Hep B and rotavirus vaccines as our children were not at risk of these (no Hep B in the family and fully breastfed, not in child care). We skipped chicken pox as we felt the vaccine was fairly unreliable and the illness itself not highly risky in our healthy children. So our reasons for not vaccinating were because we felt that not everything on the schedule was needed for every child.
Since our eldest son has been diagnosed with autism we have done further research and decided not to vaccinate either of our children. We are recovering our son from autism using the Gut and Psychology Syndrome protocol and Dr Campbell-McBride's theory is that autistic children have such poor gut flora that they do not detox sufficiently and are suffering from toxic overload. Vaccines add to the toxic overload and are not safe for children with poor gut health. Perhaps a couple of years down the track if we feel our children have healthy guts and can detox the toxins in vaccines then we may consider partial vaccination again for some illnesses.
I think maybe one option greatly overlooked by the public at large is a Homeopathic Vaccination Schedule (legally not allowed to be called a 'vaccination'), better known as Homeopathic Prophylaxis. This is a series of remedies which are scientifically supported to offer an immune resistance against these diseases and are generally safe.
These remedies work by helping the immune system gradually develop an immune memory and a form of resistance to specific diseases. Nothing is a guarantee, including routine immunizations from our Doctors - testimony to this (for me) is that most of the children who I know who have been diagnosed with these illnesses (such as whooping cough) had already been medically immunized for them.
Schmickers, if you are interested you may want to research Issac Golden, the Japanese Schedule for Vaccinations and the corresponding drop in SIDS, and if you want to go one step further talk to a qualified Homeopath who specialises with children. I did this and feel more informed for doing it.
P.S. Can you send me a link to the article you mention in your post, I would love to read it.
Last edited by Amethyst in the Rough; March 30th, 2012 at 11:14 PM.
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Why did you choose NOT to vaccinate your child?
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