I was that mom. The
kind that really, really, really tries hard not to judge, but can’t help it,
due to her own insecurities. I thought
I knew better. I have three kids, so I
know plenty, right? A girl, two boys, all the bases covered. And TWINS to boot. I know stuff.
I was so, so wrong.
I am only bringing this up because I brought it up in my
comments on FB. I promise we won’t talk about vaccines again. Or at least, only in passing.
I thought, these selfish girls, not vaccinating their
children because they subscribe to this crazy theory that somehow it hurts
children. How dare they endanger MY
children, who are fully vaccinated, who I hold down while they cry and get
stabbed with multiple needles every couple of months.
I trusted my doctor implicitly. He was my doctor from birth, after all. MY birth, not my childrens' birth! I happily drive 30 minutes for every single
visit, with three kids, because I can’t imagine trusting my precious ones with
anyone else. If HE thought this
vaccination schedule was the way to go, who the heck was I to think
differently? Had *I* been practicing
medicine for 30 years? Did *I* go to med
school? That's what I paid HIM for!
Yet the moment this boy was diagnosed, from the very first
book, internet article, contact on the internet, the first thing always always
mentioned as the villain are the vaccines.
And when you do any digging, at all, it is so clear that these babies
are being poisoned with mercury. Now, will vaccines hurt every single child, of course not. But for so many, 1 in 54 American boys, who have this genetic predisposition to become autistic somehow, who are maybe sick when they get vaccinated or get too many vaccines at once, it wreaks havoc on their little brains and their guts and they are not ever, ever the same. And any reading at all you do on the topic, you will find these very basic facts.
So just so you know, I was a very loud proponent of getting your babies vaccinated, on schedule, and basically doing whatever your doctor thinks is best for your kid. A “necessary evil”, I called it.
I was very, very wrong. For those of you I judged, I am sorry.
I'm a friend of your Mom's, Janet Olson, I don't know if you remember me. My son with autism is 27, still living with us. I'd like to follow your blog but atom doesn't work. This journey will give you rewards you never thought possible.
ReplyDeleteHi Janet, the follow button's not working? Not sure what you said there. Feel free to check in every couple days here. I sure have a lot to say :)
DeleteLindsey, thanks for your comment on my blog. As I said in my most recent post, I am torn about vaccines. Scarlett is my seventh baby, so you would think I would have my mind made up by now. My five older kids are all fully vaccinated; with the first four, I never gave vaccines a second thought - that's just what you do. By the time I was pregnant with my fifth, I was fed up with traditional OB care and planning my first home birth, and along with that I began questioning vaccines. We did go ahead and have her mostly vaccinated on schedule (there were a few we skipped). When I became pregnant with my sixth, I was really torn, and when we got a diagnosis of Down syndrome after he was born, and I discovered that he was more at risk of autism (as well as a host of other conditions) merely by virtue of having Ds, we opted out of vaccines. He's 4 1/2 now and still hasn't had a single vaccine. Scarlett, at 8 months old, has not received any vaccines either. None of my older kids who have been vaccinated ever suffered any ill effects from them, but on some level I feel like we dodged a bullet there.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe that vaccines are inherently evil. I don't believe there is any conspiracy behind them. It's an undeniable fact that vaccines have accomplished stunning reversals in the occurrence of deadly diseases in the world, and I would never preach to anyone that they shouldn't vaccinate their children. However, what is most frightening about autism - as well as other neurological conditions like epilepsy and other seizure disorders - is that nobody knows what causes it. It is generally accepted at this point in time that there is a complex genetic predisposition to it, and an external factor probably triggers its manifestation. But nobody knows what that external trigger is, and it's probably safe to assume that it's different things for different children. Vaccines might be a culprit for some children, and that's what scares me.