Why aren't I vaccinated?

[annettemarie]

My nine-year-old just asked me this, and I don't feel like I really have a good answer to give him. He actually was delayed and selectively vaccinated. Most of my reasons have to do with babies and toxins and natural immunity. The ones he didn't get, I still wouldn't have him get. He said "I think I'm old enough to have them now." I'm just not really sure how to explain this to him.

[Marnica]

Originally Posted by annettemarie

My nine-year-old just asked me this, and I don't feel like I really have a good answer to give him. He actually was delayed and selectively vaccinated. Most of my reasons have to do with babies and toxins and natural immunity. The ones he didn't get, I still wouldn't have him get. He said "I think I'm old enough to have them now." I'm just not really sure how to explain this to him.

It sounds to me like you just answered his questions. Explain to him about the toxic chemicals in vaccines, explain why it is better to have natural immunity and explain that most of the diseases there are vaccines for are generally not life threatening and you feel as his mom that the risks of the vaccines outweigh any benefits they may have for him.

[peainthepod]

I would ask him why he wants them and what triggered his interest in them. Then I would try to explain how natural immunity is for life (no boosters necessary) and that VAD's are treatable while vaccine reactions are not, and how we try to be healthy naturally by boosting our immune system and eating well instead of running to the doctor for a quick fix that might have unintended consequences, etc.

[grandmaofthree]

Originally Posted by annettemarie

My nine-year-old just asked me this, and I don't feel like I really have a good answer to give him. He actually was delayed and selectively vaccinated. Most of my reasons have to do with babies and toxins and natural immunity. The ones he didn't get, I still wouldn't have him get. He said "I think I'm old enough to have them now." I'm just not really sure how to explain this to him.

you could tell him that before he was born you had heard of babies and children having bad reactions to vaccines, that you didn't think there was enough evidence of vaccine safety for all vaccines and you didn't want him to be a guinea pig for future generations. However, if more research shows that your concerns about toxins are not valid or exaggerated compared to the benefits, you will let him get vaccinated. that's sort of how my daughter is explaining things to her 5-year-old. she is getting her vaccinated now and she needed to explain why "now", so she said that the things that she was worried about 5 years ago were researched more by scientists and now she thinks it's safer to vax than not to vax, and that there just wasn't enough information 5 years ago. (hence my being here to see if i find more information for her, just in case she's wrong.)

[alegna]

Unvaccinated is the default state for the human body. To do something or add something there should be significant enough benefit, without significant risk. I will tell my kids that I have yet to find vaccines that carry enough benefit for the risk.

-Angela

[tanyalynn]

I talk to the kids, at a lot of different times, about all the different things we do to support our bodies and help them heal. For us, I feel like we've got enough other health-supporting options that vaccines just don't have anything to offer. Mine aren't old enough to need to get into the potential negatives of the ingredients in the vaccines themselves... not really looking forward to getting to that point.

[amnesiac]

Originally Posted by peainthepod

I would ask him why he wants them and what triggered his interest in them.

I'd start there too.

[HappyMommy2]

Just tell him the truth!

[kdtmom2be]

I would also ask why his interest. There is a gap in law here and if the school administrators can scare the kids into getting the vaccines they (the children) are legally allowed to over-ride the parental decision and get vaccinated in the school clinics. Shady politics if you ask me!

[annettemarie]

Well, he's homeschooled, so I know the principal isn't influencing him. I think it's just commercials, etc. It came up because I was watching a you tube news article about people getting sick from Gardisil.

[rhiandmoi]

Is he worried about getting a VPD? Some kids go through a weird mortality phase where they get hung up about dying in some unlikely way.

But that being said, if he continues to want to be vaccinated what would you do?

[annettemarie]

At 9? No. When he's a teen? Yeah, I'd let him if he researched it and I felt confident he understood the risks and advantages of both sides.

[applejuice]

Dear Annettemarie:

My parents had a harder time explaining that to me when I had classmates with leg braces from polio and I was not vaxed. The answer is that vaccines do not work, that they contain toxins that make you sick all of the time and put off a simple illness.