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I sign the religious waiver, its a belief of mine, not "religious" but as long as I sign it they dont give me ANY problem, its no biggie and Ive done it in every school and have NEVER had a problem. All they say is if there is any outbreak that I will be notified and my kids will have to stay home, no biggie, I accept that. But its really not a big deal to sign the form, you may be find it easier to deal with and the school better about it if you sign it.
I chose not to fully immunize my youngest 2 children as their older brother died within 24 hours after his first vaccinations. The autopsy said SIDS, but I was with him not the drs. and my baby's little body slowly shut down after those vaccines. Never did trust vaccines, then after our tragedy, will not say anything positive about them. DH and I refuse a flu vaccine. As far as watching the foods my kids eat (Youngest is 17) I figure I and a whole generation of baby boomers lived on sugar sweetened cereals, etc., whats good enough for me is good enough for my kids. We do only eat whole grains. We never did feed them fast food such as McD's. We eat at home, always have, I cook a full meal every night. I packed their lunches every day for school. Read what goes into those vaccines and you'll refuse them too.
How awful. You poor thing...I am so sorry for your loss. I guess that's the answer to the original question. When something goes wrong with vaccines it can REALLY go wrong and quickly. Whereas the results of eating badly show over the course of a lifetime (if ever).
We don't vax anymore, and we try to eat healthfully. I don't buy all organic, but we eat lots of fresh produce (when we lived in Florida, we ate locally grown produce year round, but here in CT it doesn't seem to be the season yet). Switching to bottled water is something I'd like to do, but at this point, haven't done it yet.
Everyone has to draw the lines that they're comfortable with. It's not all or nothing... just because you eat healthfully does not mean that you don't vaccinate, or vice versa. That would be like saying that if you can't do the "health" thing perfectly, you might as well just eat ring dings and Doritos all day long.
I have a question. My son is in college and they would not admit him w/o a completely documented record (signed by physician) of his vaccinations. Now, he is entering into a nuclear medicine program and they not only require all his vaccinations and documentation, they require several other innoculations, including Hepatitis.
What are you all gonna do when your children get to college? I had a heckuva time pulling all those records together. Some states, such as mine - NC - will not let a student on campus w/o vax. ???
I think that non-vax parents are becoming more and more common, and that by the time my non-vax son hits the college scene, they'll be used to dealing with it. Also, going in to the medical field is a whole different ball game as far as required health screenings go, including vaccinations. I'm not against vaccines for an adult or even a teen who wants to go into a field where they will be extremely beneficial. My concern is overloading the bodies of our little ones with toxins that their bodies are not yet equipped to handle.
If my non-vax son wants to be a doctor, nurse, pt, whatever, great! He'll have to have the vaccines at that time, or have the titers drawn to see what he needs. By then, he'll be able to process them, and hopefully they will be a little safer.
I'm pretty sure colleges would accept a religious exemption... but I am not positive. Also, doctors and nurses can refuse vaccinations if they want to.
I don't accept the notion that parents should be able to make ANY choice for their child. A parent who "chooses" to cut off a child's right arm should be sent to jail. That isn't a choice. Failing to vaccinate kids isn't as cut as dried as that, but its closer than most want to acknowledge.
In 1860, two out of every three children died before they reached age 7. Abraham Lincoln stood by powerlessly while several of his children died of infectious disease. Child life expectancy has improved dramatically in the last 150 years. This wasn't the result of magic. Its mostly the result of a range of public health measures that include chlorinating water supplies, refrigeration, and, of course, vaccination. The diseases of diptheria, whooping cough, red measles, small pox, and polio used to kill children at the rate of hundreds of thousands in epidemics. Deaths from chicken pox, rubella, and mumps were much more rare. However, even these diseases have a certain fatality rate among children. Even when they are not fatal there was often a significant "morbidity factor" which could involve long recuperation times, hospitalizations, loss of time from school, and permanent problems. How ironic it is that we have almost eliminated these terrible diseases and now ignorant parents are choosing to not give their children this protection!
Some people really believe that the reason that unvaccinated children don't get sick has to do with taking vitamins, eating organic food, or some intervention that is allegedly boosting their immune system. Wrong. The reason these kids aren't getting sick is simply because of the huge percentage of children that are vaccinated. This creates "herd immunity" which is another way of saying that not only do vaccinated kids not get sick, they also cannot spread a disease to others. However, the more unvaccinated kids we have, the more herd immunity declines. We have already seen mini outbreaks of whooping cough in some areas because too few kids are being vaccinated.
Once in a while, vaccinations do cause allergic reactions. These are rare, but if recognized can be dealt with by hospital emergency rooms. The number of these allergic reactions and difficulties is infinitely smaller than the number of children saved by vaccination. You can't compare a few hundred allergic reactions with hundreds of thousands of deaths due to a disease. There is no scientific proof that the MMR shot or any other shot causes Autism. No fewer than twelve scientifically conducted studies have now refuted any alleged link between the two.
I am not interested in whether one whacko physican somewhere believes vaccination is unsafe. What all of us should be vitally interested in is that the Food and Drug Administration has approved all vaccinations that are currently given in this country as "safe and effective". The FDA will not approve a vaccination as safe and effective without first having the benefit of reviewing accurate scientific studies. This is far more important than someone's opinion.
I realize that all the science in the world just isn't going to convince some people. There are people out there who believe we never landed on the moon or that Einstein's Theory of Relativity is a hoax. Since, I can't convince all of you that vaccination prevents disease I would ask all the non-believers to do the rest of us a simple favor: Please keep your little snowflake child out of public school. Its the least you could do. There are other kids there who are unvaccinated because of an error or because they are truly allergic to the vaccine. I don't want your kid to make those kids sick with a potentially fatal disease.
We have a well so we don't have fouride in our drinking water. My kids have never had a cavity and I haven't had a cavity since moving here from a city where we had floridated water.
I don't think it's necessary. My kids have topical flouride treatments applied to their teeth when they go for their 6-month dental check ups. Insurance pays for one treatment a year. We have to pay for the second one but it's only about $35.
I think that non-vax parents are becoming more and more common, and that by the time my non-vax son hits the college scene, they'll be used to dealing with it. Also, going in to the medical field is a whole different ball game as far as required health screenings go, including vaccinations. I'm not against vaccines for an adult or even a teen who wants to go into a field where they will be extremely beneficial. My concern is overloading the bodies of our little ones with toxins that their bodies are not yet equipped to handle.
If my non-vax son wants to be a doctor, nurse, pt, whatever, great! He'll have to have the vaccines at that time, or have the titers drawn to see what he needs. By then, he'll be able to process them, and hopefully they will be a little safer.
Just my pair of pennies!
~D
I agree,it is becoming more common. I noticed that now at my sons school vs when my older kids went.
Seems people are not so much in the sheeple mode as years past and question and research on their own. There is a plethora of information pro/con on this subject on the net now and many physicians who respect the decisions of parents.
I actually posted this on another thread but think it's worth repeating:
I agree vaccinations are important but I don't necessarily agree with the vaccine schedule of today.
Back when my older son was a baby there were VERY strict rules about when to vaccinate in order to make them as safe as possible.
1. Children were never vaccinated if they were ill or appeared to be coming down with something, i.e. if they had a sore throat.
2. Vaccines were given at least 4 to 6 weeks apart, even if that meant they were slightly behind schedule.
3. Vaccines were not given to newborn infants in the hospital. They were typically at least 4 to 6 weeks old.
4. Multiple vaccines were not given. It was absolutely unheard of for a baby to receive vaccines for 6 to 10 diseases at once.
5. There ARE some vaccines that in rare cases can cause brain damage, however they do not alert parents of this fact anymore.
6. I believe Numbers 1 - 4 were put in place to reduce the risk of number 5.
7. The current vaccine schedule has more to do with insurance purposes than the safety of children and the general public.
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