Vaccine damage and attitudes about immunization

[Katana]

I've been thinking about this for a while.

It seems to me, that many of us who post here started questioning or researching vaccines because we were injured by a shot or we knew someone who was injured by one.

Is this a majority reason for starting to question vaccines for most of us?

Would it be fair to say that a big reason that some people don't question or don't even think about the damage shots may cause is because they and the people they know have been relatively unscathed so far?

Does it take a tragedy, in the form of damage for many people to 'wake up' to the notion that there is another side to shots?

Any and all thoughts are welcome.

[Mommy To Baby Roni]

When he knew I was considering getting pg, my cousin (a new DC) had suggested I look into vaxes. He started sending me emails from Mercola and other sites. Once I was pg, he gave me a couple of books to read. After that, I was off and running with the research. After my research, DH talked it over with my cousin (probably for reassurance that the info I relayed to him WAS that scary), DH & I had several discussions and mutually agreed NOT to vax.

Not until after I started to question vaccines, did I realize that my friend's son had a reaction to the Hep B vaccine at birth, in 1998. Since then, I have known several people who's children have had bad reactions. After discussing it with my mother, she feels that it may have been the root of some of my brother's problems as a baby. However, for me, there was no bad incident that triggered my questioning of vaccines, just a loving cousin that I will always be indebted to for the health of my daughter.

[Evergreen]

I had a mild reaction to a rubella vaccine at the age of 19. I remember reading and signing the CDC sheet at the hospital and not thinking much else of it. However, shortly afterward I developed painful arthritis in my fingers and toes. My big toe on the right foot is in a state of perpetual pain and I will only be 23 next month. Since the shot my two big toes have turned inward to face the other toes and the joint bulges out considerably despite the fact that my toes were perfectly strait before. While packing my stuff to move in with my husband after our wedding (I was 21) I noticed the paper I had signed along with my hospital discharge forms. I read that joint problems are a side effect of the vaccine. I decided to research it further and found they are a very common side effect. While I was researching my condition, my friend's toddler had a seizure after a chickenpox vaccine, so I began to research other vaccines and reactions. I was also actively trying to conceive at the time, and everything I read showcased the dangers of vaccines. I feel the hospital noticed I had no immunity and offered me the option of a vaccine before I had children for a reason. Had I not experianced my reaction, perhaps I would not know about the adverse reprecussions of vaccines and my daughter (born this January) may have been the victim and not myself.

[Arduinna]

I have a cousin that was severely brain damaged as a child from DPT. So yes I fit the criteria you mentioned. Since I was so young when it happend ( I was 5-6) I have no idea if it hadn't happened how I'd feel about vaxing.

hmmm this has really made me ponder the possibility that this incident has made a huge impact on my beliefs in informed consent and individual choice.

[Katana]

Originally posted by Arduinna
hmmm this has really made me ponder the possibility that this incident has made a huge impact on my beliefs in informed consent and individual choice.

It's interesting that you bring up informed consent and individual choice as I've been thinking about that a lot the last few weeks.

I've been thinking, maybe instead of pushing for people to see both sides of the immunization issue, maybe there should just be a push for informed consent. That no one should get a shot, whether they want one or not, until they can fully understand the good and bad sides of it.

Logically, I know this would never work, as the whole push is to vaccinate when we are babies, and most babies don't have the understanding they would need to be informed. Or the ability to sign anything.

My twin was damaged by a DTP shot when we were newborn. We didn't realize this till many years later, but our whole lives there was this unanswered question. Where did her disability and brain damage come from?

Because to the doctors and nuerologists she saw, she was a puzzle, a mystery. She didn't have the usual type of cerebral palsy that they could classify, so they made up a category for her. And she never followed the path that most people with CP do.

Of course, her condition impacted all of our lives hugely. She went to school with kids with all kinds of challenges, and seeing how they lived, and what struggles they had to face is forever a part of me.

It was at her school that I first saw kids with autism, degeneritive diseases, and heart conditions that they had no explanation for.

I've always thought that everyone who works with vaccines, whether it be the manufacturing of them, or the administering of them should, as part of their training, live with someone who has been damaged by them, or just live with a challenged person for two months.

I think it would be a very educational experience.

[Katana]

Celestial, don't feel bad at all.

I didn't know there were vaccine exemptions till I came to this board, about 8 months ago. I didn't know much of anything about vaccines up until then, other than the basic, I think there's more than one side to this.

As much as I have issues with the Hep B vaccine, I have to be grateful for it, because if it hadn't become mandated right around the time I started having kids, I never would have looked into the vaccine issue.

I would have let my kids get all the shots I had, as I am fully vaccinated for my age group.

It wasn't till after I started researching that I even figured out that my sister was damaged from one. If I had never started researching, I'd probably be sitting in a pediatricians office right now with one of the kids. Or still thinking that Bill Gates was such a humanitarian for starting vaccine programs in poorer countries.

[Robyn]

I didn't start researching vaccines untill my son started regressing rapidly at 18 months old after recieving a dpt, mmr, polio, hib and hep-b all in one day! He was later diagnosed as having autism and since then, I met many other parents who said there kids regressed at 18 months too and the one thing we had in common is we were going by the mandated vaccine schedule. Since then, I learned that many problems in my family and also my husbands family occured as toddlers such as adhd, and asthma. I stopped vaccinating since and I'm 3 months pregnant now and will refuse vaccinations with the next.

[Mona]

I never had any personal negative reactions (that i know of) to vaccinations, nor has anyone in my family (that i know of...)

I first learned about what vaccinations can do in Mothering Mag.
I am so grateful i came accross that.... Of course, my best friend is ap, so she would have talked me out of vaxing anyway.

[The Lucky One]

Honestly?

Until a year ago, I didn't even know there was a vaccine controversy. At another board I visit, there was a mama there who did not vaccinate her son. This was the first I'd ever heard of not vaccinating. I am ashamed to admit, I challenged her decision and she pointed me here. She said this place was a great wealth of knowledge.

So, I came, preparing to sit and laugh as I read what 'you people' had to say.

My first time here, I read things, thoughts and ideas I'd never heard before. Some of what was said was so foreign to me. I went away and didn't come back for a month or so.

But, something brought me back. Just some lingering doubt in my own mind, I guess? What if I was wrong and 'you people' were right?

And so I've read and read. Dh has read and read. We've come to the conclusion that at the present time we don't want ds to have any more vaccines. We've even considered moving to another state because of this.

So, for me, tradgedy didn't bring me to the place I am now. It simply took 'meeting' another mama who did things differently than I to make me take a deeper look.

Does it take a tragedy, in the form of damage for many people to 'wake up' to the notion that there is another side to shots?

You know, that's interesting. Never underestimate the power of denial.

Yesterday, as I stood on my driveway talking with my neighbor, she mentioned that her three year old didn't have to take his asthma medicine anymore. I said, 'asthma, didn't know he had it. Do you or your dh have it?' She said that no, neither of them had it nor was there any family history of it. I couldn't help but wonder if this child's asthma was a direct result of the 20+ vaccines that had been injected in him thus far. When I asked the mother if she knows why her son has asthma, she said 'he just does, it doesn't matter why.'

To me, that about sums it up.

BTW, my neighbor and her husband both have PhD's and seem to be very intelligent people.

lisa

[The Lucky One]

T, again.

And sometimes it seems the more the qualifications, the fewer the brains...

No, not fewer brains, I don't think.

Those with those high qualifications and degrees are experts at learning. They pride themselves at being 'right' about alot of things.

Everything that most people are taught about vaccines is that they are good, harmless and beneficial.

IMO, the truth about vaccines involves alot of 'unlearning' and coming to terms with the amount of outright lying that is involved in the whole thing.

As we all know, learning is much easier than unlearning, and IMO therein lies the problem with most people, esp those who techincally have the grey and white matter and should be able to understand the situation best.

lisa

[charmarty]

I was in the same boat as Celestial. Had no idea there were any reasons to question vaxing,until it was too late for us......It was here where I had found the information I needed to help us through leaps and bounds.God Bless You all!



Now it is my DUTY to educate people I come across.Young and old alike.

[charmarty]

Hey Hilary~
I have wanted to pm you.......How are you??????
Things are on more of an even keel right now woht the girls.We have taken this oppertunity to house hunt in a small town so life has been busy!As far as less intimidating,well I dont think it will ever be less of anything.Its still pretty overwhelming.Now is the time for mom to have her meltdowns KWIM?I shall pm you when I can.......

[Brayg]

As far as I know, I don't know anyone that has been "damaged" by vaccines. I, too, started researching this when another mama I knew of online didn't vax. Then I met another and wondered about it. We had only one child at the time and he was fully vax'd. When I got pg w/ds #2 I started researching immediately. I was Sad and angry We have chosen to not vax the baby. But I feel bad that ds #1 had to endure not only the pain of shots but he has to live with possible side-effects of them. Fortunately he is very healthy, but I question every illness he's ever had and wonder if it's because of the vax's he got.

[Raven1]

I had heard that there was a debate on the issue, and decided to investigate further, but had not done so by the time my first child was “of age” for his first vaccines. So, I “decided” (actually postponed the decision to have him vaxed until I could do further research.
He experienced a severe reaction, which motivated me to finally look into it. Had he NOT reacted, yes, I most likely would have continued vaxing him, concluding that 1) he had no problems and 2) his health must be dependent upon the shots. Maybe not; I tend to question things in general.

Allison wrote,
>>I've been thinking, maybe instead of pushing for people to see both sides of the immunization issue, maybe there should just be a push for informed consent. That no one should get a shot, whether they want one or not, until they can fully understand the good and bad sides of it.

Logically, I know this would never work, as the whole push is to vaccinate when we are babies, and most babies don't have the understanding they would need to be informed. Or the ability to sign anything.<<<

Yes, but that is why babies are born to PARENTS. The parents are the ones who are empowered, by Nature/God, to make their decisions for them until they reach an age to be able to do so for themselves. The current conflict I see on informed consent/choice is whether parents should retain the right to act on behalf of their children, (wrt vaccinations and other medical treatments/interventions, education, religion and other beliefs imparted, and, indeed, custody in general).or whether “experts”, “professionals”, “government”, and “society” at large should take over that function. JMHO.

Kimberly, mom to Forest, 11 and Lily, 3

[Katana]

I'm really encouraged after reading these replies that there are a lot of people out there who have researched vaccinations for reasons other than as a reaction to an injury.

Not that there's any right or wrong reason to research, but it's really nice to see that people are thinking for themselves.