Great article on the unbelievable benefits of immunizing children:
http://health.nytimes.com/ref/health/healthguide/esn-vaccinations-ess.html?ref=health
I am appalled at the current "fad" of refusing vaccinations. How someone can read a description of these horrible diseases we are now miraculously free from, look at their helpless, almost immune-system-free infant, and say "no thanks" is beyond me. Even something that sounds innocuous to us now - measles (Spots? Hey, what's wrong with spots?) - killed over 750,00 people worldwide in 2000; an aggressive vaccination program since then has reduced the yearly number to less than 250,000*. Most of the lives saved have been in Africa.
There has been no peer-reviewed, well-done medical study that has conclusively proven a link between vaccinations and any serious medical condition. On the other hand, hundreds of thousands of lives have been saved over the past 100 years from vaccination programs.
Here is a good analysis of the current state of thimerasol in vaccines (everyone's favorite whipping boy, which isn't even in the majority of vaccines anymore), and details about studies that have been done related to thimerasol's effects.
http://www.fda.gov/CBER/vaccine/thimerosal.htm#t3
And another good link - this one shows the effects vaccination programs have had on death rates in the US - old data, but you can see how deadly these diseases were and how powerless they are now thanks to immunizations:
http://www.healthsentinel.com/graphs.php?id=14&event=graphs_print_list_item
Fads are fads - when it's your lifestyle or even your health, it's entirely your choice. But God has entrusted our children to us; it's our job as parents to look beyond junk science and trends and do what's best for them.
*Just as a comparison, the American Cancer Society estimates that 465,000 women die each year from breast cancer. If we could cut that by close to 70% and spend $470 million over 5 years, can you imagine the press reports?!
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2 comments:
I totally agree with you - I think vaccinations are a blessing from God. Any trip to an old cemetary, seeing all the tiny tombstones reaffirms this.
BUT - now, on my 4th kid, I am doing a delayed vaccination schedule. I am not sticking 6 shots into my baby at a time like I used to. That is just not ok to do to anyone's immune system - especially a little infant. I am spreading his out.
And because Ike was a preemie and already developmentally delayed, I am skipping the MMR for as long as I can. There is just something fishy about that MMR. Too many moms have too many stories. And I know that when it comes to my own kids, I know more than my doctor does.
There is definitely a link between autism and gut issues and ear infections and probiotics - my theory is that autism is an autoimmune disease, and kids with autoimmune diseases don't need their systems totally shocked by a ton of shots at one time. They don't cause autism, but they can catalyst it. Problem is you don't know if your child is prone until it is too late.
And I am one of the moms with an MMR story - Maggie had a mini-seizure - or SOMETHING that scared the crap out of me and the nurse and looked like a seizure - with her MMR. And now she has a severe language delay. May be conincidence...but I am not taking my chances. If I am wrong, so what. But if I am right...praise God.
My first two kids were strong as horses. The second too have been weaker. So I am proceeding with caution.
Two has weird issues (speech delay and sensory processing disorder) and who knows if they came from an external source or not (or a trigger like you suggest). A good friend of mine went into pre-term labor with her second - just like I did with Two - and we were both given the same drug to stop smooth muscle contractions. Both of our first children had nothing "extra" to deal with, and both of our seconds had all kinds of stuff. Was it the medication? Dunno - don't really want to know on some level. We just have dealt with what is, and he's done really well overall.
On the vaccines, I would slow some down and skip some (chicken pox) if I had it to do over again. I was creeped out to find that the boys have had the same number of shots already, even though they're 3 years apart - and One has had shots in the past 3 years, so it's not that. The doctor just sped through all of them with Two. And once again I failed to notice. Yuck.
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