I’m not taking a stance one way or another on whether or not to vaccinate your children. I don’t feel it’s my place. I’ve chosen a middle ground for my own children, but I’m not even suggesting anyone choose the middle ground.
That’s not what this blog is.
This blog is to help you make your own informed decision. I know many of my mommy friends feel overwhelmed when facing this decision. So, without making any kind of stance, I will just do the busy work for you. Then, you can make your own informed decision.
CDC’s list of Vaccine Ingredients
FDA’s Stance on Vaccine Ingredients
World Association for Vaccine Education’s Ingredients Evaluation
Here is a brief explanation of a few of the key players involved in vaccines:
Aluminum Hydroxyphosphate Sulfate: Aluminum is the most commonly used adjuvant (substance added to a vaccine to amplify the immune response) in vaccines. The FDA has continued to approve the use of aluminum as an additive to vaccines for many years, however, a newborn who gets a Hepatitis B injection at birth would receive 250 mcg of aluminum, but the FDA also recommends that premature babies, and anyone with impaired kidney function, receive no more than 10 to 25 mcg of injected aluminum at any one time.
Animal Cells: This has been getting a lot of attention lately. The rotavirus vaccine was pulled temporarily when it was found to contain contaminated pig cells. The major concern is that contaminated animal DNA can cause secondary disease when injected into humans. This mirrors the huge concerns from the past when it was discovered that the polio vaccine given for years (which used monkey DNA) was contaminated with a monkey virus, which was found to cause brain and lung cancer in humans.
Egg Protein: This is added as a stabilizer to many vaccines. The big concern is for children with allergic reactions to egg.
Formaldehyde: Formaldehyde is a naturally occurring substance made of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. Formaldehyde has been shown to weaken the immune system and is listed as a potential carcinogen. It is used in vaccines to inactivate the viruses and detoxify the bacteria that is used to make vaccines.
Neomycin: This is an antibiotic. It is added to prevent bacterial contamination during the manufacturing. The predominant concern, besides the overuse of antibiotics creating resistant strains of bacteria, is allergic reactions to it.
Should you prefer not to vaccinate, here’s a state by state list of laws on parents’ vaccination choice rights.
***Disclaimer: As mentioned above, this blog is not intended to give medical advice. It is a compilation of information so that any decision you make with your doctor or nurse practitioner can be more informed.
Good blog post, Dawn, and it’s nice to see someone putting this information out here so that parents can educate themselves about the subject.
We delay vaccinations due to a severe reaction my oldest son had to the pertussis vaccine, more than 20y ago. Yes, there’ve been scads of studies since then that say the thimerosol in that vaccine didn’t cause him to be on the austic spectrum, but I’m a scientist and I’ve reviewed enough data that I’m not buying it. So in addition to no pertussis, we do not give our kids many of the newer ones on the market, such as varicella, flu, etc. And I won’t allow anything preserved with thimerosol to touch them.
We also insist that the vaccines be given one or two at a time, and won’t allow a bunch at a time. Yeah, so it costs me a few more bucks in copays for doctor visits. So what? I mean seriously folks, no tiny baby or toddler needs to be pumped full of that crap all at once. It’s asking for trouble, and with a bunch of different things being injected at once it can be difficult to determine which one causes a reaction in the event of one.
While I firmly believe that not vaccinating your children at all without medical cause it’s socially irresponsible, the choice of when to vaccinate and which vaccines to give our children is one that should not be mandated.
-v
Hi Dawn, great information you have provided regarding vaccines. While I agree that there are some very scary things currently involved with the vaccines, I am worried that if we don’t vaccinate our children many of the diseases that were once eliminated will again return. For example, things like polio are starting to pop back up, and to me, I wouldn’t want to see children suffer like my great grandmother did. With that being said, I believe children should get things like chicken pox and the measles, and may be even the mumps. These are illnesses that we all had as children, and I believe we all came out just fine. May be a little uncomfortable for a bit, and my parents had to readjust their work schedule, but we were fine.
Blogs like this will help Federal organizations like the FDA, realize that we do understand what is going on. And that we do know what they are putting in our drugs and vaccines. If we can all band together we can all make a difference, and see that our government works for us, not against us.
Thank you again for providing this kind of information. It is very important to keep us all informed!
Best,
~Krista
That’s a really good point Krista. One of the things to keep in mind as well, is that virgin coconut oil is HIGHLY effective at killing diseases like measles. VCO is more skillful at killing viruses than the prescription antivirals. Plus, with antivirals, we have the same situation now that has been happening with antibiotics. They’re adapting. Things like VCO or oil of oregano have no resistence concerns. In the long run, we’d be doing ourselves a favor to face these things head on and be smart about it, imo. In many ways, if we looked to SCIENCE to support healthier NATURAL solutions instead of being stuck in a rut, our outcome would be much better.
That’s really great information Dawn, I am just learning about the natural approach to things, so I apologize if I seem a little naive. I hope to see science take on a more natural approach, being vegan, that would really make it easier on me! Thanks again for the information and opening my eyes!