Vaccines and Flu Shots

Of all the questions other moms and usually younger moms ask me there are two that I seem to get the most. One has to do with what our family does about Halloween (whether we celebrate it or not and if we don't, what do we do instead) and the other question is about Vaccines/Flu Shots. Moms seem to struggle with this issue as more and more research and debate about vaccines and flu shots comes up.

Positions about vaccines and flu shots are as passionate an issue with parents as any other parenting issue. If you want to get parents riled up, take the opposite position than what they passionately hold when it comes to vaccines and flu shots. I'm not here to argue or to convince you otherwise of your position. Rather, I'd like to have a post to point parents to, who ask me what our family's approach is.

So, I'll cut to the chase and share with you that our family absolutely refrains from the flu shot. We also have concerns about vaccines but realize that there are also situations in which vaccines may be the lesser of two evils.

How we got here: I'll start with vaccines. There has been a lot of concern about autism being linked to vaccines among other health concerns/risks. Here is a post that has several links to wonderful articles and information about risks concerning vaccines. Vaccines When it comes to vaccines we basically have these same concerns. Our own story concerning vaccines is as follows:

Our daughter was born healthy and thriving. She was a healthy weight and left the hospital with no concerns. I breast fed her until she was about 8 months old and within about a week of weening she became ill...very ill. She was vomiting every 20 min. for 8 hours....soon she had nothing left and she started throwing up blood (the inner lining of her stomach) at which point we checked her into the ER. This was only the beginning of unexplainable sickness. After a year with her becoming very ill (raging fevers, vomiting, being lethargic, etc.) every two weeks and no answers from our family physician we were referred to a Pediatric Infection Specialist (the best in the state). After extensive testing we still had no answers.

We continued vaccines, kept illness charts, and visited the specialist regularly. We tried asthma treatments, quarantine, sanitizing our whole house and her room, etc. Still, the sickness continued. It was exhausting and we felt helpless when it came to helping our baby stay well. By the time she was two years old I had began to hear and learn more about vaccine concerns and risks. So, we stopped vaccinating. Low and behold she improved.

So, we continued to avoid vaccine and she continued to improve over the next two years. She got sick a lot less often but when she did get sick she was still getting severely sick. It wasn't until we started changing our eating habits and pursuing natural remedies that the severity of her illnesses improved as well. She has never been healthier... and I'd go so far to say that she is healthier than a lot of vaccinated kids (like our son).

Our experience matched up with the concerns and research we had read about. Thankfully we did not experience symptoms of autism. To do again, we would avoid vaccinating our children other than required for traveling abroad. Watching your children suffer because of something you thought you were doing good for them is a horrible experience. I am aware of the reasons for vaccinating. I'm not ignorant of how vaccines have benefited our country. But I do believe that natural living would solve many of the infection/disease issues without the use of vaccines. Often, other parents who do vaccinate their children become angry with parents like us. They feel that we are putting their children at risk. They'd rather my child suffer than know that a child is walking around without antibodies to each disease out there. Let me point out that if you vaccinate your kids, then you don't have to worry about people like us infecting you. You are already vaccinated for it.

If you have concerns about autism you may want to consider holding off on vaccines until your baby is older despite the grief you will be given by others. Spacing vaccines out has also been suggested to help their little bodies handle the overload of vaccines given in combo shots so close together. Or, avoid vaccines altogether. But first, do your own research. Don't rely on what others say.

The flu shot is a slam dunk for us. My husband first had concerns about the flu shot when our daughter was recommended to get one when she was suffering. We did extensive research. We even called the United States Department of Health and Human Services to which they told us that they "can not actually say that the flu shot will help at all." They explained that they take a "guess" at what strain of flu might be the worst one that will go around the next year and often guess wrong.

From there our concern grew. I observed other people who were getting the flu shots only to end up being sick within two weeks of getting it and ended up being some of the sickest people I observed that year. Since that time I've met several families who had autistic symptoms start up the week of a flu shot or other vaccine combos and seen some stories of others who have suffered from flu shots enough to concern us. So, we took the opposite risk and decided that we could probably find better ways to help prevent her from getting sick. Now that we are pursing real foods and home remedies we are sick a lot less often, have avoided the flu for the past 3 years, have avoided even a cold for one of those years, and when we have been ill it's been very mild and lasted only a few days. Here is another great link to a post with links to articles about the Flu Shot.

These are the conclusions we've come to for our family. I hope that this has been a helpful amount of information for those who have asked me our thoughts on the topic and that I've been able to point you to some links that will help with your own research. What does get to me though are people who are cruel to people who choose not to vaccinate. They point to research....I can point to just as much research by bio-chemist that I know that prove there is risk.....it just depends on who you choose to listen too. Taking away other's freedoms, thinking you have arrived (pride) and know the only right way, and being judgmental of others is just sad. We all struggle with that in our humanness. We all want to think we've figured it all out. I for one have not and God has continued to show me that I'm hopeless when it comes to my prideful thinking...so blessings to you on whatever you choose to do for your family.

Vaccine Ingredient List

a video worth watching....