There has been much hoopla over the flu shot and vaccines lately, in regards to their adverse effect on children. The scary thing here is, each are supposed to protect us from diseases and sickness, but what if they are doing the exact opposite? What if they are hurting our children?
The more I've been reading about the flu shot, the more I find information about a link from it to autism. An estimated 1 our of every 90 children that are autistic. Why have the numbers become so common? Could it be that we are over anxious to pump our children with unknown chemicals and so this the outcome? Please, mothers with autistic children, do not read this blog and think I am pointing fingers. I am only trying to glean as much information about the flu shot and other vaccines as I can, before I make the decision to subject Malachi to them.
The more I've been reading about the flu shot, the more I find information about a link from it to autism. An estimated 1 our of every 90 children that are autistic. Why have the numbers become so common? Could it be that we are over anxious to pump our children with unknown chemicals and so this the outcome? Please, mothers with autistic children, do not read this blog and think I am pointing fingers. I am only trying to glean as much information about the flu shot and other vaccines as I can, before I make the decision to subject Malachi to them.
This is the information I have dug up in an attempt to educate myself, please give me your thoughts!
Found at Associated Content, a study has been done on a group (or maybe a few) of Amish in which no flu shot has been administered. Where they "should have found nearly 200 cases of Autism" (I'm assuming this is based on population) "only 3 cases were found. One was a Chinese girl that had been vaccinated in China, and when brought to America was vaccinated again, another was an Amish child that was vaccinated, and the third was of unknown cause. It was later found that the third Amish child lived in an area of an old mercury mine."
So, the connection here seems to be mercury. I do remember my teacher telling me about the little silver ball at the tip of a thermometer and that I should never allow it to touch my skin. The issue with mercury is that the body cannot process it, so it just stores it in the kidneys or brain-- causing all sorts of problems. This is the reason that pregnant women and babies should not eat tuna, the mercury content can be dangerously high. There are multiple articles and studies that support both sides of this heated debate. Here is something to think about (from the article mentioned above), "... the testing paid for by the pharmaceutical companies seems to be conclusive that there is no connection between vaccines and autism."
My step-uncle, who is a nutritionist, opposes vaccines (When I asked him his opinion of getting the flu shot he said, point blank, "HELL NO.") and hasn't had a shot since he was 16 said to me, "What do you do if your fish is sick? You don't pump him with chemicals to get better, you change his water. So, if your body gets sick, you change what goes into it- you eat and drink healthy."
The main questions he recommends to ask are: Do you know what the shot contains? What are the sources of the stuff in the shot? And, really, do we know?
So what do we do instead of getting a shot? "Be proactive." Ed says, "Wash your hands. It sounds simple enough, but it's the basis of all good hygiene. Think in terms of food, air and water. Number one, eat healthy. Get rid of all processed and white food. Live off of grainy and live foods. Take your vitamins. Number two, get an air purifier in hour house. Number three, drink lots of water; don't drink soda."
What are other ways of being proactive? Ed suggests grape seed extract, super lysine plus, garlic and vitamin c as alternatives to the flu shot. Visit your local health store and ask them about other alternatives for prepping your body against the flu season.
All this being said, I know that there is a line between being smart, doing your research and making and educated decision and believing everything you read or hear, panicking and never letting your child out of the house again. I'm trying to avoid the latter. I do hope this information helps. Please, as I said, let me know your convictions or thoughts. Have you vaccinated your child? Did he/she have the flu shot?
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9 comments:
My kids are completely up to date on vaccinations...they will not, however, get any type of flu shot.
As an adult, and their mommy, the normal flu vaccine has an awful affect on me, and for fear of that being genetic, I dont put them through the suffering. So far, we've been blessed not to catch anything flu related (in four years). I know this year is scarier for people because of the H1N1 swine flu things happening, but I plan to stick to our normal regiment and pray for the best. This new anti-H1N1 shot scares me. It was rushed, it's too new, and already has been proven to have bad reactions. For some, it's worth the risk, at this point, it's not for me or my house. We use Purel several times a day, we drink a ton of juice, and we bathe every day...stay warm, and cover our heads. Praying for another safe year. :)
Great blog miss Sazaran!
Nomz
PS-Allie did a great write-up on the STP blog this week on the Swine Flu Vaccine:
http://blog.sierratradingpost.com/in-the-news/is-the-swine-flu-vaccine-safe/
This subject has been a very debated subject in my life. When pregnant with my first the idea that I even had an option to choose to vaccinate or not was unknown. My husband was 100% apposed to our soon to be first child to have any form of vaccinations. In a panic to save my unborn son from all the horrible illnesses I was sure he would die of if not vaccinated I took the only route I knew that would work with my husband. I researched. I researched with the position of proving that vaccinations were save, effective, and nessesary... 3 months later I was 100% opposed to vaccinations as well. I now have 4 kids, 100% unvaccinated who have also never been on any doctor perscribed antibiotic... and the last time they saw a ped... he was amazed at how "robust" their immune system really were. We handle everything natural. The body is quite amazing. God has already given us all we need to live a healthy life, we just need to listen and obey. Do my kids get sick... yep.. thats part of life, thats part of child hood, thats part of developing a healthy immune system. I agree with your uncle. The best way to decide your stance on vaccinations is to look at the shedual, then vaccinations themselves, and the ingredients individually. Also look at the diseases they are designed to help protect against. What are the possible reactions, statistics and when were the statistics gathered?
My biggest concern will allways be the cdc's hard stance against doing any extensive research into the possible connections between the growing number of nurological, metabolic, and autoimmune dissorders umong our children today, and the mass amounts of chemicals, hormones and preservitives we subject them too everday.
I am not against families vaccinated, I am against uninformed decisions.
Thanks Christene! I appreciate your input and advice. It is amazing that all four of your children haven't had one shot. My 16 month old son had his shots up until nine months but lately (due to lack of insurance and/or money) he isn't up to date. However, lately, I'm almost wondering if I will ever have him vaccinated. Do your kids go to public school? Which other methods do you use as treatment or protection against sickness? Have your kids ever had any serious illnesses?
A friend of mine had kids get kicked out of school for her daughter not being up to date...it seems if you want go the all natural route, the schools wont support it. :(
THey do not go to public school, at this point we have chosen to homeschool, but that is not in relation to our decision ot opt out of vaccinations. With the exception of two states, every state has either religious or philisophical exemptions to vaccinations for public schooling. The goverment defines religious exemptions as "ones own personal statment of faith". We typically at this age use good healthy eating, exercising and hygine praticses as well as homeopathic remidies, naturall supplements, old tricks, and probiotics. The biggest thing we do different... is we let our childrens body and immune system do what it is designed to do. That means we do not break fevers. We keep them hydrated and watch their behavior, but we never lower their fever. I would suggest researching how a fever works, and what it is doing. Each child has a noticable fever pattern. My two youngest d(15 mo and 2 yrs) have not been sick enough for me to notice a distinctive pattern,but my two oldest have. The immune system begings to really kick in between ages 4-7. My kids have not had any "serious" illnesses. They have had the flu, colds, and all thos fun things. They have been exposed to chicken pox twice, but did not catch it. One year we caught a flu and the kids that we are typically exposed to all had the same strand, most of them ended up in the hospital and were extreamly ill for 2 weeks. Zeke was over it within 48 hours, gabe one week. Mikhaela was still breastfeeding and developed only a runny nose. We have alos had strep. But we treat that with a homeopatic remedy and the kids are usually over it within 48 hours... me and james it can take about a week for us to kick it. Recently our two youngest had a stomach bug. THeir friends had the same symptoms as well. We treated with probiotics, and easy to digest foods as well as letting their fevers run their cours, my friend insisted on antibiotics. My two were all better within two days, my friends son was sick for a week then developed diareha from the antibiotic (and I don't quite understand why the ped gave her an antiobitic for a stomach virus as antibiotics only work on killing bactirial infections, and any healthy bactira and gut flora int he system), the antibiotic also caused an imbalance in his body resulting ina horrible yeast infecion. My oldest to did not get sick at all.
For an unvaccinated child to attend school you MUST submit the proper exemption forms and most states require that they be noterized. Or yes your children could be excused till the proper forms are in place. If a child is excused and the proper forms are in place and there is no outbreaks,the the parent has a good case to sue the school. By law (with the exemtpion of two states, and those to state are in the process of change), they cannot deny a child if the proper forms ar in place (private schools and daycares are different. the goverment give them freedom of choice in those situations)
Good commentary a lot of good ideas. Hopefully through stem cell research (and other kinds) we can get closer to finding cures and better prevention for diseases and viruses in general. Pathology is a fascinating subject. I often times wonder how diseases have evolved over the hundreds of millions of years, look at the rapid changes over the last century!
RT
PS Hopefully all of your kids can stay healthy throughout the school year.
Ed gives good advice. I've had one flu shot in 13 years. The year I caught the flu is the year I got the shot. Don't think that the autism-shot connection has really been made (lot of other evironmental influences haven't been identfied or accounted for very well, so who really knows). Never fail to wash my hands in those bacteria-factories called public c****ers.
Same time I stopped getting shots is the same time I got religion about washing my hands (not OCD-religion, sorry Nomz) which was same time I started getting sick less.
Ever take notice how many farm & ranch folks are sick win their adolescent & adult years due to contagious, seasonal illnesses? Not many (compared to city-grown). Probably because they played around in the dirt and manure enogh to where their immune systems got bullet proof.
Hi this has seemd to cross over to vacinations in genral. I have to say as a mom of a child who is severaly developmently disabled. All because the HIP vacine was not given intell the childern were 18 months old( at the time of when my son got sick) He contracted H flu menigitist. This is the worst form you can get. As a result he know at 21 years old functions on a 3 to 4 year old leval and will forever be my little man. If I would have had a choice to give him the shot I would have. Now the shot is given at 2 months old. FDA approved this new age 9 months after my son became ill. As far as the flu shots. Not sure it is worth it, we all need to practice hand washing, coughing sneezing and such to protect ourselfs and others. I am not crazy that a vacine was made so fast after the out break scares me. The shot depate will continue for years to come. I think that they should not be given in bunches. ( giving 3 or 4 at the same time) and we should be given the option for time lines. But do believe they are very important.
Just my thoughts.
Thanks for letting me share.
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