This post is in no way written to influence anyone's decision to vaccinate - it is a very personal decision, that should be an informed choice.
I am not in the medical industry, and have no medical knowledge. The below is ALL my personal opinion. I merely write this to balance everything I am currently reading online.
To give you, as the title says: an alternative view...
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I have written about vaccinations on two previous ocassions. The first time here and the second time here.
I would say that this post below is the one I have done the most research for. However the time I did THE MOST research was back in 2010, when I actually made my personal decision for my child. Back then I also watched all of the You Tube videos available on the subject which I have not done this time.
To begin, there is currently a measles epidemic in South Wales which Whiskey For Aftershave has written about and The Boy and Me. They both live in Wales so are writing from having personal experience of being near to the epidemic, whilst getting information from their local health authority (Public Health Wales) with guidelines etc...
What saddens me is that a lot of people think that anyone who chooses not to vaccinate does so because of Andrew Wakefield, and therefore naturally thinks they should reverse their decision in light of him having being struck off and in light of The Lancet retracting his publication. In fact when I posed my concerns RE: vaccinations with my Health Visitor it was he, and only he that she wanted to discuss. The wider subject is met with a change of subject.
If people who think that, did as much research as anti-vaxers, they would know, that this is far from the beginning and end of the story. Instead of saying "vaccinations don't cause autism" and closing down the conversation there, how about reading up on vaccine injury. How about reading up on the contra-indicators that may mean vaccinating your child could be harmful.
In fact RE: the autism link, The Institute of Medicine has issued a report that declares the MMR vaccine is not linked to autism, but if you want to read another interpretation of that report - and not just the sound-bites that the media reported, read a take on it, from Natural News here >>>: Institute of Medicine adverse reactions report admits MMR vaccines cause measles, seizures, anaphylaxis and other health problems
If people have convinced you that the measles can cause death, how about looking at the statistics, and the fact that it is underlying health conditions that often contribute to this. In fact disease severity can vary from mild (usually in the well-fed child) to severe (usually in the malnourished or immunosuppressed). It's worth reading up on the link between measles and vitamin A, which was used to assist people's chance of fighting it, pre-vaccines. Vitamin A was found to reduce the chances of mortality. The fact that underlying health conditions can contribute to death can be confirmed on the foot note here: >>> Public Health England
Read the "Treatment" section here, regarding >> Vitamin A and how it can assist with lowering rates of mortality.
Knowing that, I ensure that Aaron and I juice really often, and his juice ALWAYS contains a few carrots (as he does not eat them) as an easy and tasty way of giving him a dose of vitamin A. His body loves nutrition and as he doesn't consume toxins like alchohol, caffeine or sugar in high quantities, he is still sensitive to listen to his body signals, i.e. he craves broccoli when he needs it, and literally won't touch it when he doesn't.
He also takes HalibOrange Baby & Toddler Multivitamin Liquid nearly every day, and it is he that gets it from the fridge, again because he knows when his body needs it. Given we are in a country with good nutrition and sanitation I do not panic on the odd day he or I forget him having it.
WHAT YOU REALLY NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MEASLES IS HERE <<<<<
Words taken from the link immediately above are:
Germany does not routinely use the measles vaccine because their reporting system found 1 per 2,500 vaccinees had a neurological complication, and 1 per 17,500 vaccinees had abortive encephalopathy. (FDA Technical Report, 1980)
The Germans considered the risks too high in light of the fact that deaths and disease severity had decreased without any reference to a vaccine. * THE SAME IS TRUE OF NEW ZEALAND, but parents are not told that.
Whenever I say the words "vaccine injury" to anyone, they never know what I mean, largely because that phrase is kept out of the media and off the front pages. However if you would like to be informed, please read this, which I think gives the best explanation: >> Vaccine Injury
<< Reading that will also inform you as to the "Yellow Card" adverse drug reaction reporting scheme which I think as parents we have a duty to know about. It was started by Bill Inman and pages 10 and 11 <<< here give you some great info as to where he is coming from and also takes you back to the 1960s and 1970s to previous scares like problems with THE PILL.
This next link makes interesting reading, but click on it when you have time to spare as it deserves to be read in full and is quite long, and disturbing >> Vac Truth
Incidentally, there WAS an outbreak of chickenpox in Aaron's nursery a few weeks ago. A couple of times during that time, he got me to scratch his back, and as MY chickenpox when I was little began with one spot on the back, each time I thought right, THIS is it, but you know what, he might have incubated it, but he did not contract it (touch wood), and I am ready to look after him if he does.
The decision to vaccinate is an important one. You have to educate and inform yourself and then make a decision that you can live with and feel comfortable with. I cannot follow the herd or what the media spouts out, as I can't unknow the knowledge I have. I also can't ignore the intuition I have.
Whichever choice you make, make sure you listen to your inner whisperer and that of your child's. If you do THAT, truly do THAT, you can't go wrong. Whichever decision you make, it'll weigh heavy. They both come with weight and with pressures. Choose wisely, choose authentically, and be ready to face the consequences.
Remember WE did not undergo the length depth and breadth of the current vaccination schedule personally, unless you were born in the 80s? So, we can't even say "hey son, I went through it and I'm fine".
Personally everytime I had an injection I screamed the house down, so I was exempted from the one that makes a polo on your upper arm, and Rubella. My Mum exempted me on the strength of me being scared of injections, but I wonder what else I was scared of....
I spoke to my Mum this afternoon and I told her about the outbreak of measles in Wales. She is from the generation that caught measles and looked after their child accordingly. To her mind, it was a condition you nursed, not vaccinated against, like chickenpox. I told her that people who have complications usually have underlying health conditions and she practically told me, in not so many words: "what did you tell me that for?". I explained that my generation of parents appear to need to be told that, and she said, not so, for her generation. She went on to tell me about Ireland and how most people refused to get the Swine Flu vaccinations once they found out what the ingredients were.
Anyway I will leave it there.
Oh, the ONLY other thing I want to say is that I have TRIED to read up on the current South Wales epidemic but someone somewhere must have made a press release as it doesn't matter where I go, it is the same stats and sentences I am reading everywhere. I want to know if children who have had their vaccine AND booster have still gone on to get measles anyway, but seems impossible to find out. Ah well, another media blackout where we are only given headlines.
EDIT from 12/04/2013 to add the following:
Despite me saying "I will leave it there" I am back today, thanks to knowing MORE as a result of an informative discussion on mumsnet.
I have now discovered this: Family Wins 18 Year Fight over MMR link to disability
EDIT from 25/04/2013 to add the following:
The outbreak is now predictably spreading to London, so we are being subjected to the same media demands to go get the MMR. I just read this on Wikipedia <<< look how they introduced a type of MMR vaccine in 1988 despite knowing it had caused problems in other countries and it took them FOUR LONG YEARS to remove it, unsurprisingly because they encountered the SAME problems as those countries...
Oh and P.S. Andrew Wakefield has not gone away and recently recorded this>> Andrew Wakefield YOU TUBE 2013
Edit: 26th April 2013:
My heart goes out to the family in Wales who have lost a son, but it seems it is not as straight forward as the media has been leading us to believe:
Mystery Remains Over 'Measles Death' Man news.sky.com/story/1083054/…
— Sky News (@SkyNews) April 25, 2013
