Vaccines

This is another one of those "different" posts.  I thought it timely to discuss this since we currently have Pertussis (Whopping Cough) in our house.

I will start by giving a bit of background.  I had my first 2 kids vaccinated almost fully.  Tink was vaccinated fully (but delayed) up until the age of 2.  Lady has received 2 vaccines in her life, June has received 1, and Buddy has received none.

Out of all the parenting topics I've researched, I have read the most about birth and vaccines.  I've read at least 3 or 4 books about vaccines, numerous articles and medical journal entries (online), and many, many websites-- pro AND anti vax websites.

I've come away with a good amount of knowledge about the diseases and the vaccines......and absolutely no clear line indicating what path I should take for my children.

I don't believe there is a "right" or "wrong" in regards to vaccines.  There is just "choice."  And I'm glad we have that choice to make for our children, but man, it's a big burden for me.

I'll discuss a few of the vaccines (not all of them) and things that I have learned and reasons why we no longer vax....at least at the moment.


Pertussis (Whooping Cough)

Last week Buddy came down with cough/cold symptoms.  We weren't surprised since our neighbors across the street had the same thing a few days prior and they'd been over at our house playing.  I tend to not worry too much about cold symptoms.  Otherwise the kids would never get to play with any of their friends for 6-8 months of the year.  And my kids have great immune systems and tend to not get sick very often anyway.  June started coughing at night as well during this time and had a couple of nights where she needed some menthol rub on her chest to help her sleep.

A few days later, Buddy's coughing was getting worse....especially at night.  It wasn't the "barking seal" cough of Croup.....we've dealt with that before.  Then Friday night, he started to "whoop" on the intake.  Brent suggested that it might be Whooping Cough, so I listened to kids with Whooping Cough on Youtube and decided that's most likely what he had.  I called the doctor's office in the morning.  Luckily my ped's office has a clinic open on Saturdays at a different location.  We drove up there later that morning.  They took a swab from Buddy's nose and said they'd call us with the results.  They also started him on antibiotics.  They called the next day and said it was positive for Pertussis.  No surprise.
While we were at the office, the nurse was quite nice to us in the beginning.  Then after the doctor asked us if Buddy was vaccinated and I told him no, the nurse's tone changed quite considerably.  But all-in-all, it actually wasn't as hostile as I had prepared myself for.

I called my neighbor to let her know it was Pertussis since she has a 3 month old baby girl and I was really worried about her.  And guess what she told me.  Her kids are vaccinated.  (And they all have Whooping Cough, including the baby.)  This confirmed what I had been reading.  The Pertussis vax is one of the least effective vaccines.  And in most of the outbreaks, the majority of cases are children who have been vaxed.  Back when the shot given was DTP, they used a whole-cell Pertussis vaccine in it.  It was more effective than the current vax, but caused a lot more side effects as well.  So they developed the acellular version....which is why we now have the DTaP shot.  This shot is not nearly as effective, but causes less side effects.

I'd read a lot about Pertussis with my last few babies.  My ped recommended I get the DTaP shot for Lady before her first winter and for June before her first winter.  I conceded and they each got the shot.  But they only got just that one shot.  For the vaccine to be as effective as possible (which isn't very effective anyway), I should have taken them back for more shots throughout the winter.  I chose not to.  During those winters, we heard of no one around us getting Pertussis, although I did read about outbreaks in other states.  When Buddy was born last year right before winter time I was faced with the same dilemma.  This time I chose to not give him any shots.  It was just what felt right.

And I will fully admit that when I realized Buddy had Pertussis, I felt guilt.  I wondered if I could have kept this from happening.  But the truth is that he probably would have gotten it even if he'd been vaxed.

Now, there are stories on both sides of this issue....heart-wrenching stories.  My friend posted one recently on FB that made it seem like every parent who chose not to vaccinate against Pertussis (and chose not to get the booster for themselves) was selfish and putting their child at risk.  If it were this simple, the answer would be obvious.  But it just isn't this simple.  Believe me, I wish it were.  No one should bully another parent into or out of vaccinating their children.

Pertussis is usually mild, if even symptomatic, in adults. But the younger the child/baby with it, the scarier this disease is.  This is why I was concerned about my neighbor.  There are still deaths from this disease.  There always have been, even when they used the more effective DTP shot.  This is why I am very vigilant when I have a new baby.  I didn't go back to church for a while after Buddy was born.  And when I did, I kept him in the wrap and did not pass him around at all.  I didn't let people touch him.  And when we got home from church, before the kids did ANYTHING else, they all washed their hands extremely well.  And we got lucky.  Buddy didn't get it last year, when it would have possibly been much worse for him.

The news and the commercials on tv would have you believe that if everyone was vaccinated, that we wouldn't have the problem with the outbreaks, but this just isn't true.  In reading about vaccines, I found out that there are different types of diseases.....those that can be potentially eradicated and those that will most likely never be.  Pertussis is one of the latter.  Small pox was eradicated because there was just one strain.  They made a vaccine for it, and everybody was quite compliant in getting the vaccine, so they were able to get rid of it completely.  Pertussis has multiple strains.  AND these strains mutate.  So there is really no way to make a vaccine that will confer immunity to every single strain and every single mutation.  This is why Pertussis outbreaks wax and wane.

And now they're finding out that the vaccine also wanes.  They originally believed it to confer life-long immunity, but now they've realized that it's often as little as 4 years, if that, depending on the strain you are exposed to.

Unfortunately for us, having the disease naturally also doesn't confer life-long immunity.  But it confers immunity for a lot longer than the vaccine, although there are still those who get it multiple times.  The assumption is that they're exposed to different strains each time.

So now they want everybody to get a booster shot for Pertussis every few years.  For how long?  Apparently a lifetime.  I just can't wrap my head around that.


Chicken Pox (Varicella)

This one is a really frustrating vaccine for me.  I honestly wish it had never come on the market.  It came out a couple of years before AJ was born and was just coming into popularity when she was little.  So I had her vaxed against it.  Roo and Tink were as well.  I really wish I wouldn't have done that.  As with the Pertussis vax, they are finding that the vaccine wanes and in just a few short years, the children  no longer have immunity.  The problem with this is that the older a person is when they get Chicken Pox, the worse the disease usually is.  It is not a fun disease, by any means, but unlike Pertussis, it is MUCH more dangerous for a teenager or adult to get it than it is a child.  And getting the vaccine at a young age is leaving children vulnerable at an age when the disease will be much more devastating.  So guess what they want you to do.  That's right, get a booster every few years.  Although they still can't even agree on how often one will need a booster.....most are saying every 5 years.  So every 5 years......for a LIFETIME.....my children will possibly need to get another vaccine.  I am not ok with this.

Luckily the Chicken Pox vaccine is similar to the Pertussis vaccine in that those who have been vaxed can still get the disease, they usually just get milder symptoms.  So my hope is that once I feel Buddy is old enough, I can find someone with Chicken Pox and purposefully expose my children.  I'm sure many of you have balked at the idea of a "Chicken Pox Party," but this is what it has come to.  I would MUCH rather my children get the disease naturally and have life-long immunity conferred than have to get a vaccine every 5? years for the rest of their lives.  The problem people like me are encountering now, is that it is VERY hard to find "wild" Chicken Pox.  There are many kids who get the disease FROM the vaccine.  So they go on to expose other kids, but now they're finding that that version isn't so great at conferring life-long immunity either.


Polio (IPV)

This is the one that I hear about most often from my parents' generation.  And rightly so.  They lived through it.  It was a scary disease.  My father-in-law likes to tell me about the "iron lung" he saw some of his friends have to use.  And the debilitations they were left with.  I have no doubt about any of that. It is a horrific disease.  It was interesting to me to find out, though, that only a small percentage of people who got it were affected by it for an extended period of time.  That's not to say that it wasn't scary. It was.  You didn't know whether you would be one that would have horrible complications or whether you'd be one that came away unscathed.

What I also found interesting in my reading was that the disease was declining quite a while before the vaccine came out.  Most people believe that the vaccine is what got rid of Polio.  But there is evidence that this isn't so.  If you look at diseases, they tend to have a life span.  Polio was apparently "dying" before the vaccine "saved" everyone.  There is further evidence of this because when the US came out with a "mandatory" vaccine program for Polio, Great Britain did not.  And if you look at the numbers, Polio in Great Britain died out at the same rate as Polio in the US.  In fact, there were many people at that time that got Polio FROM the vaccine because they used a live vaccine!

My father-in-law thinks that this generation has become complacent because we haven't lived through the fear of this disease.  And that may very well be true.  But there is a lot more to it than that.  Polio is no longer a threat like it was when he was young.  He attributes this to Salk and his vaccine.  I do not agree.  And that's ok.  We are both coming from different perspectives.

Unfortunately Polio has not been completely eradicated worldwide.  It hasn't been reported in the US for a long time.  And the few cases that were (the last one being in 1993) were imported from outside the US.  So there is still a risk of getting it......albeit minuscule.


Hepatits B

I actually don't really have a problem with this vaccine itself.  What I do have a problem with is vaccinating babies against it when there is no risk whatsoever of them getting it.  (Obviously there are some babies born to high-risk mothers, and those babies should get the vaccine.  But this is not the majority of cases.)

HPV (Human Papillomavirus)

This is one that scares me to death.  There have been so many horrible side effects seen with this vaccine.  They usually give it to pre-teens/teens to try to prevent HPV in hopes of preventing cervical cancer.  Honestly, if you are the mother to a pre-teen or teenage daughter and your doctor is telling you she needs this vaccine, PLEASE research it.  Research the HECK out of it.  There have been more deaths from this vaccine than you can imagine.  And there have been many horrendous reactions that have life-long complications involved.  My belief is that this one should have been pulled off the market LONG ago, but for some reason ($$$), it has not been.  If it were a drug causing these same issues, they would've pulled it already, no question.

My thoughts on vaccines in general

Oh goodness, where to start?

You know how before a drug comes on the market it has to be tested for a long time to see what, if any, negative side effects they might find?  And then even when a new drug does make it onto the market, many of them are recalled because of side effects that they were not aware of?  Well, vaccines go through no such testing.  I mean, how fast did the H1N1 vaccine hit the market?  There was no way to do reliable short-term studies, let alone long-term studies of the vaccine.  That one scared the crap out of me.

And some of the other vaccines have gone through what you could call long-term studies.....with the general population being the guinea pigs for the experiment.  This really bothers me.

Many people have asked me if I think vaccines cause Autism.  Even saying those 2 words in the same sentence these days will result in a "Pfft." reaction for most people.  The man who originally made that claim was discounted, right?  Right.  He absolutely was.  That doesn't mean he wasn't headed in a viable direction.

So....do I think vaccines cause Autism?  No.  I do not.  Do I think there is a correlation?  Absolutely.  I have many friends who have kids with Autism.  There are many homeschoolers who choose to keep their children with Autism home instead of sending them to school.  One of these friends and I have had many discussions on the topic.  There are so many factors that there is no way to say THIS-CAUSES-THIS.  Her son was born healthy and happy.  And he developed that way up until 18 months.  They went in for their regular well-child and he got his vaccinations.  His mother said it was almost immediate.  She said on nearly a daily basis she could watch her son drift further and further away.  He is now completely non-verbal and his communication level is almost non-existent.  In talking with her I found out a few things.  Many of the people who claim that vaccines cause no harm point out that Autism has always been around.  And this is true.  But late-onset Autism (meaning they didn't have it from birth) has not.  And it has risen drastically and in correlation with the increase in vaccines over the years.

Side note:  Did you know that if you are from my generation (I was born in 1979), you probably received around 10 vaccines total before you went to Kindergarten.  Children now?  They receive 36.  36!  And 26 of those are given by the time they turn 2.  You can't tell me this hasn't had an impact on our children's health.

So.....what my friend (and I) believe about vaccines and Autism.....
There is usually a genetic link in regards to Autism.  The likelihood of one of your children being diagnosed with it is greater if someone in your family has it.  We believe that some kids are genetically pre-disposed to getting Autism.  They have a switch that can be flipped.  And that vaccines (along with possibly other things) can flip that switch.  Not even necessarily one vaccine, like that one scientist was trying to prove with the MMR vaccine.  But that the build-up of them can lead to the switch being flipped.  For some reason it is much more prevalent in boys than in girls.

Vaccines are full of things that, if someone offered them to you on a spoon, you'd never ingest them.  And yet, we willingly inject them into our bloodstream.  This is another thing that bothers me about vaccines.  When someone contracts a disease, they usually get it through contact with bodily fluid or direct contact with a carrier.  A lot of these diseases enter the body through an orifice (eyes, nose, mouth).  The body then sends the immune system into gear to combat it.  It usually takes a long time for a disease to get to the bloodstream (if it ever does).  And yet we are injecting these vaccines (dead diseases) directly into the bloodstream.  The body's immune system does NOT react in the same way it would if we contracted the disease naturally.  This is why many vaccines do not confer life-long immunity while contracting the disease naturally does.  So I guess you could say the system of delivery bothers me, along with MANY of the ingredients in the vaccines.  There are toxins in all of them.  And I have a hard time being ok with putting that into my child's body on purpose.

One thing that bothers me about vaccines is when they're called "immunizations."  Because this infers that they confer immunity.  Many of them do not.  In fact, none of them actually claim to confer 100% immunity.  But this paragraph is probably just me being picky.  I'm kind of big on semantics.  (This is why I say "children with Autism" instead of "Autistic kids."  Because Autism shouldn't define them.)

Back to worrying about the health of our children and how vaccines affect their health.....
Like Autism, there are probably multiple factors that contribute to childhood illness and also illnesses later in life.  There are many childhood illnesses that I wonder about, though.  More and more children are being diagnosed with cancer, autoimmune diseases, and allergies (which all have correlations to the immune system) than ever before.  I have to wonder if the increase in vaccinations has a lot to do with this.
The next book I want to read on this subject is this one.  Sounds interesting. ;) Here is a write-up about it.


So.....for now we're not vaccinating.  I may change my mind in the future.  In fact, I plan to read up on some again, now that Lady is 5 and see if there are any that I really want her to have.  There are many that she doesn't need now that she's 5.

There are very few parenting decisions that I feel have an absolute right or wrong.  I do believe that there are "good enough," "better," and "best" choices to be made in most situations.  I honestly don't even claim to be making the "best" decision in regards to this.  I'm just doing what feels right right now.  That may change in the future.  A lot of study and a lot of prayer goes into these decisions for me.  I feel like I'm "playing it safe" by not vaccinating.  I have many friends who choose to "play it safe" by vaccinating.  And that's ok.