Top 3 reasons you do not vaccinate

[purslaine]

The thread title says it all.  My top 3 are not firmly articulated, so i will wait to hear what others say and "yeah that!"

I will say one of the reasons I do not vax is confusion and distrust.

1.  I do not trust the vaccine industry.  The reasons and stories would take up pages of text.

2.  As I do not trust the vaccine industry - I need to do my own research.  The research befuddles me.  I am well educated, but not in science.  I think I would need to devote a heck of a lot of time to figuring out what is true, what is false etc .  It makes my head hurt.  As I do not trust the industry, I cannot rely on them.  The body comes unvaxxed, the default is to leave it like it is, unless the evidence is strong in the other direction.  I do not exactly trust the talking heads from either pro or anti vax camps - and as I said the default is to do nothing.

[Chloebelle]

1. The reasons you state. I do not trust the people who make the vaccines nor those who Govern them. Aside from the fact that they are all getting rich from it, I do not trust their other possible motives as well. It's scary.

2. I believe the immune system is designed by God, and in healthy children is perfect at birth, and injecting toxic chemicals and animal and human tissues into a perfect, developing immune system makes absolutely NO sense to me.

3. Overall, I use more of an alternative and holistic approach when it comes to the health of my family.

[lovebeingamomma]

1. I'm more uncomfortable with the possible risks and side effects of vaccines than I am with the possible risks and side effects of the VPD's

2. None of the VPD's are an epidemic in my area, or even remotely common.  Some of the VPD's would be better to get anyway as kids (Chickenpox, Rubella for girls)

3. I trust the human immune system more than I trust the drug companies and government regulation

[SilverMoon010]

Originally Posted by Chloebelle 

1. The reasons you state. I do not trust the people who make the vaccines nor those who Govern them. Aside from the fact that they are all getting rich from it, I do not trust their other possible motives as well. It's scary.

2. I believe the immune system is designed by God, and in healthy children is perfect at birth, and injecting toxic chemicals and animal and human tissues into a perfect, developing immune system makes absolutely NO sense to me.

3. Overall, I use more of an alternative and holistic approach when it comes to the health of my family.

 My top three reasons all in a nutshell. 

My fourth one is:

I would never get myself vaccinated with the stuff, considering all that it's them, so why would I ever want to have my children vaccinated with it!

I don't agree at all with the society we live in and how altered everything is. What happened to keeping things natural, as God intended?  It's sad we cannot even trust our own bodies to do it's job on its own; the important thing these days is how much money the next guy can make off of it.   I do believe vaccines at one time in the distant past were created with health in mind but not anymore.  It has gone way overboard, and it's obvious.

[mommytimes2]

1. I have a healthy distrust of modern medicine and think that a lot of what is promoted is "trendy," for lack of a better word. There have been so many instances of practices or pharmaceuticals that were found to be damaging later on. I need something to be proven safe first. Then, maybe.

2. Vaccines have not been proven safe nor effective. Especially with the sheer number of vaccines that are being given. Often all at once. OMG!

3. We eat organic, etc. etc. Why would I then inject such obvious toxins and foreign animal tissue (and yet unidentified viruses) and toxic levels of aluminum into my kids? We are born healthy, and we undermine that innate vitality with every shot, IMO.

[ILoveMyBabyBird]

1. Too many vaccines: honestly had the vaccine schedule remained the same or diseases that were no longer a 'threat', the vaccines were eliminated i would have probably continued getting the vaccines for the kids. I didn't like the fact that the only time my ds was sick as an infant was after his vaccinations. In fact he never had more than a cold until he was no longer breastfeeding and 2 1/2 and traveled to india where he developed a virus that caused an Ear Infection, nothing more, eventhough he was only paritally vaxed (he was vaxed until 9 months of age so did not revceive many vaccines like MMR, HEp A, chkin Pox etc.) nor did fall gravely ill from visiting a developing country...

2. I had chickenpox and survived, so it made me question what else the vaccine industry was pushing was so deadly that my children needed to be vaccinanted for it lest they 'die', same with dh, he survived in India  without any vaccines, comes to the USA and has to get shots and develops eczema after never having any for 25 years...

3. The ingredients in vaccines, need i say more. We shoot chidlren with vaccines that contain eggs of all things, a very allergenic food, yet wonder why kids could have reactions, then there are the toxic chemicals and human tissues to take into account. Ultimately we are playing russian roulette with vaccines, we do not know how our bodies will react to the individual vaccine components, never mind the ingredients as a whole, and then top it off with 2 or 3 more vaccines given in the same day, it just spells trouble. Also since dh has come from an unvaccinated society, i do not know what genetic dispostion our children may have for some reactions caused by vaccines or those ingredients, like eggs for instance, my dh is not allergic but he comes from a a vegetarian family/culture, so how do i know if there is a genetic disposition for an egg allergy or not?? Plus my fathers family history is unknown, so there we go again...I could go on, but will leave it at that.

[peainthepod]

1.) I believe in evidence-based medicine. A one-size-fits-all approach for administering powerful pharmaceutical drugs to all children regardless of medical history and/or possible allergies is not evidence-based. It's political, profitable, and the scare stories make great copy, but the blanket approach doesn't make sense from an ethical perspective, let alone a scientific one. Here at MDC, we tend to accept that many obstetric practices are not evidence-based. It is my belief that, similarly, many pediatric practices are not evidence-based.

2.) There are too many conflicts of interest in the vaccine industry. Follow the money. (Hint: Check out opensecrets dot org for nonpartisan disclosure of which industries and companies have the most clout in Washington.)

3.) My children are healthy, happy, and whole. I'm not going to drug them unless I have extremely compelling reasons to do so. "They might get sick!" is not a compelling enough reason for me to tamper with their perfectly functioning immune system, no matter how scary or complicated some vaccine-available diseases may become. I'd rather treat a sick child than risk injuring a healthy child.

Edited by peainthepod - 6/25/11 at 9:00pm

[KayCSmommy]

The top three reasons that I stopped vaccinating my son.... 

1. My son had an allergic reaction to a vaccine! So I quit being a sheeple and following the mass population in believing that vaccines were good for my kid because other people that don't know me or my kid said it was good for my kid.

2. I think fear rules our lives in America these days, fear of everything. I believe that American's have tendency to go to extremes to prevent their fears,including the most natural thing as getting sick. People fear diseases that in the past killed many children, but in the past we didn't have the medical advances that we have now. We also have the knowledge of how diseases are spread, and the knowledge of how to keep ourselves healthy. Even when these childhood diseases ran rapted way more children survived these disease than didn't. In short I am not afraid of me or my family getting sick, I feel its a natural process, and it only makes us stronger in the the end. I live by the saying what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger! Especially when it comes to illness, I don't fear germs or viruses like most Americans do, we all eat right, wash our hands frequently, and live in cleanliness. We rarely get sick with even a cold...

3. I don't believe that government or doctors have our best interests at heart! I think they care more about the money that lines their pockets. I also don't trust them to tell me the truth, as I know that many of VPD's are not DEADLY as they try to portray them as, so why trust them when I already know they are lying to me!

Edited by KayCSmommy - 6/26/11 at 10:28am

[mamakah]

1. Ingredients- from a biochemical standpoint: Yikes!

2. The information we are given about vaccines and the diseases they are to prevent is often wrong. It troubles me that the medical community doesn't fully explore each vaccine and disease. For example: the drive to get all new parents vaccinated for pertussis EVEN THOUGH the studies on the pertussis vax clearly state that it does not give pertussis immunity, only lessens the severity of symptoms and that pertussis can still be transmitted to and from a vaccinated individual. -Or- "If you get polio, you'll be in an iron lung and/or die." Well, yes that may happen, but statistics don't make it that black and white.  Plus the whole disease vs. vaccine thing isn't black and white either.  It's not as easy as "get vaccinated and you'll be protected," but that's what the public is essentially told, and we are made to look like bad parents and bad members of society if we just weigh the options. Do this and you are instantly a "denier of science!" Since when is researching and coming to a conclusion "un-scientific?"  It makes me wonder if the deceit is deliberate or not.

Honestly, I don't believe that government is deliberately lying, and I go back and forth on whether I think the pharma companies are. Mostly I think it's just the love affair our society has with vaccines that drives this.  People are very attached to the idea that we were able to outsmart nature and protect ourselves from illness.  I don't think people want to believe that a vaccine might actually cause harm. Since so many people can walk away from getting a shot with nothing but a sore arm, it's easy to say "most people are ok!" but our rise in chronic illnesses -often autoimmune diseases- make me wonder otherwise.

3. I'm not threatened by most of the diseases. My DS is currently unvaxed, but 2 or 3 illnesses concern me and I still weigh my options with those from time to time.  But, for illnesses like measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox, pertussis, hep b, etc. I don't feel immediately threatened. The threats may change, in that case I'm willing to re-explore my options. Again, just like vaccinating isn't black and white, neither is not-vaccinating...for me at least.

I don't believe in God, but I believe our bodies work to keep us alive and have many means of doing so. I trust this. I also understand that sometimes the body fails and you don't survive. Do I feel like vaccination stops this from happening? For some, yes.

I wish the medical community would use it's energy and resources to discover why person A survived but person B didn't from the same virus/bacteria.  It troubles me that we have just been running with a "let's just make a vaccine and forget about it" approach instead of a "Hmmm. What's the reason for this complication?" approach. The latter seems more scientific if you ask me.

[akind1]

1) if it ain't broke . . . don't fix it! our immune systems work just fine, why introduce so many toxic things to a body that is unprepared and unable to handle it?

2) so many of the vaccines don't even fully prevent disease. why introduce all that toxic stuff to your child, and then have them still come down with the disease? (whooping cough, for example)

3) the vaccine industry in general is untrustworthy.

[Bokonon]

1. I am more afraid of an irreversible vaccine reaction than any of the VPDs.

2. My son had a reaction to his 5th DTaP and has basically been sick ever since - 1 year now.

3. I don't believe that vaccines, their ingredients and assault on the immune system, are safe.  I don't believe that there are enough (any?) independent studies exploring the effectiveness and safety of the entire recommended vaccine schedule, and more are being added all the time.  I wish they were safe.  I wish it was an easy decision.  There are some that I would still avoid because I don't think they are necessary, but parents shouldn't have to choose one risk over another when trying to raise a healthy child.

[boomer78]

1.  My biggest concern are vax ingredients and also their potential and long term side effects that are yet unknown.  We try to avoid harmful and toxic substances in our family, whether it be in foods,  cleaning supplies or those found elsewhere.  I will not allow toxic ingredients be injected in my child's body for no good reason, let alone so many vaccines at once as recommended.    

2.  I don't trust mainstream medicine in general anymore, Big Pharma, FDA, CDC or the goverment.  I don't believe for one second that they have our best interest in their hearts.

3.  I believe in our immune system, good hygiene, breastfeeding (when possible), good nutrition that comes from whole foods and being active (outdoors).  I am not afraid of VPD at this time (dd is 18 mo).  As she gets older (teen years) I may consider some vaxes if situation warrants it and benefits clearly outweigh the risks. 

[mattemma04]

1.All adverse events (listed in inserts) are non-treatable.

2.If an adverse event occurs you can expect denial that vaccine was the cause no matter how obvious the vaccine caused the death/injury.

3.Vaccine injury compensation program is an insult upon injury.You don't just call and get free medical care for you or your child.They put you through hell all over again.Bad enough having a vaccine injured child.

[Sri Radha]

Originally Posted by lovebeingamomma 

1. I'm more uncomfortable with the possible risks and side effects of vaccines than I am with the possible risks and side effects of the VPD's

2. None of the VPD's are an epidemic in my area, or even remotely common.  Some of the VPD's would be better to get anyway as kids (Chickenpox, Rubella for girls)

3. I trust the human immune system more than I trust the drug companies and government regulation

Are you pregnant right now?  Do you realize how devastating it would be for you and your unborn child if one of your daughters contracts Rubella right now?

[purslaine]

Originally Posted by Sri Radha 

Are you pregnant right now?  Do you realize how devastating it would be for you and your unborn child if one of your daughters contracts Rubella right now?

It is devastating to unborn babies.

The best thing would have been for rubella to not be in the vaccine schedule.  Then people would have caught this not-particularly dangerous to children disease as children and have life long immunity.  Any female who did not have the disease as a child could get the vaccine as a teen or adult.

As it stands, I will have to look up incidences of rubella where I live, risks of MMR and decide if I should vaccinate my daughters as they hit their teen years.  Of course, they get a say in this.  Boosters and or titers will need to be sought- all because a disease they should have caught in childhood they didn't. - due to vaccination.  Adults are notoriously bad at getting boosters in general. From a public health standpoint I wonder if they (the government, doctors) made the right decision.

[Chloebelle]

I agree that it is unfortunate that they immunize for Rubella since it is so mild and getting it would mean lifelong immunity. This vaccine was not given to me as a child and I got tested while pregnant. I am immune, so I must have had it, even though my mother, nor I remember. That's how mild it is. I hope my daughters somehow get it.

[lovebeingamomma]

No I'm not pregnant (I can't seem to change my siggy to say that I have 3 girls now...), but it wouldn't matter if I were, I was fully vax'ed as a child, and like every other pregnant woman I get tested each pregnancy, and have remained immune to Rubella.  I hope that was written in the spirit of true concern and not implying that I'm ignorant.  I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. 
 

Originally Posted by Sri Radha 

Are you pregnant right now?  Do you realize how devastating it would be for you and your unborn child if one of your daughters contracts Rubella right now?

[lovebeingamomma]

I hope my daughters get it too, although it's very unlikely because it's so uncommon now.  This will be a vaccine I will be sure to explain to them fully when they are older if they don't become immune. 
 

Originally Posted by Chloebelle 

I agree that it is unfortunate that they immunize for Rubella since it is so mild and getting it would mean lifelong immunity. This vaccine was not given to me as a child and I got tested while pregnant. I am immune, so I must have had it, even though my mother, nor I remember. That's how mild it is. I hope my daughters somehow get it.

[WaitingForKiddos]

Originally Posted by mamakah 

2. The information we are given about vaccines and the diseases they are to prevent is often wrong. It troubles me that the medical community doesn't fully explore each vaccine and disease. For example: the drive to get all new parents vaccinated for pertussis EVEN THOUGH the studies on the pertussis vax clearly state that it does not give pertussis immunity, only lessens the severity of symptoms and that pertussis can still be transmitted to and from a vaccinated individual. -Or- "If you get polio, you'll be in an iron lung and/or die." Well, yes that may happen, but statistics don't make it that black and white.  Plus the whole disease vs. vaccine thing isn't black and white either.  It's not as easy as "get vaccinated and you'll be protected," but that's what the public is essentially told, and we are made to look like bad parents and bad members of society if we just weigh the options. Do this and you are instantly a "denier of science!" Since when is researching and coming to a conclusion "un-scientific?"  It makes me wonder if the deceit is deliberate or not.

Honestly, I don't believe that government is deliberately lying, and I go back and forth on whether I think the pharma companies are. Mostly I think it's just the love affair our society has with vaccines that drives this.  People are very attached to the idea that we were able to outsmart nature and protect ourselves from illness.  I don't think people want to believe that a vaccine might actually cause harm. Since so many people can walk away from getting a shot with nothing but a sore arm, it's easy to say "most people are ok!" but our rise in chronic illnesses -often autoimmune diseases- make me wonder otherwise.

2. Because both Dh and myself had severe reactions to vaccinations as kids and our families are filled with auto-immune compromised folks.

3. Because it makes no sense to us to inject a healthy kid with sickness.

 

[suschi]

1) The Hep B vax almost killed my infant

2) I believe the higher risk is the vaccine, not the disease it's "intended" to prevent

3) I don't think it's a good idea to inject neurotoxins into a child multiple times by the time they are 5