Aloha! This is certainly a controversial topic, especially for new moms. Remembering when I first gave birth to my first born son, who is now 12, I was living in Japan and had no access to information from other moms with experience, and the internet was not as it is now. My first concern, as with every new mom, was to make sure my baby had the best medical attention available! There was no question in my mind about vaccinating. Having grown up in Iran as a child, my mother went through great pains to get the 'best vaccines' for us from her dear friend who luckily for us, worked as a head nurse at the American military base in Tehran. I still remember those nights when my 'Aunty' would come over with her little dreaded medical bag and have to have every member of our household chase each one of us little rug rats (there were 5 of us) around the house until she jabbed us with her goodies...oh the pain was awful and the fevers to follow even worse! So as a new mom, I was determined to find the one Western minded medical clinic in Tokyo where they procured vaccines from the U.S. and made sure I was on schedule. I was so anal about this that I remember making all the appointments for vaccines at my babies first pediatric appointment for the whole year, clutching hard to the tiny piece of paper I'd been given by the U.S. Embassy which listed the 'recommended vaccines' and the schedule 'good mom's' adhered to! My baby was vaccinated and I was validated! I remember being very proud of myself and being shocked to hear that my older sister, who lived in NYC no less, the cesspool of cities, wasn't vaccinating her son! 'What the hell was she thinking, did she want that child to die of some awful disease' I'd ask myself and others? 'How irresponsible' I preached! Well, it turns out that my older sister is much wiser than me, and boy did I learn my lesson in under estimating her, she's one of the smartest people I know.
My little boy was the smartest little boy in the world. Being a first time mom, I'd sit around play groups watching him play, interact and count his vocabulary words! I even remember doing flash cards with him at the breakfast table...it's a wonder he survived, really! The list of words he knew was much larger than the other kids...gloat, gloat, gloat! Yup, I can admit it now because I've been humbled, as all moms are after surviving 12 years of landmines as a parent! Well, after his MMR vaccine, I noticed he developed a very high fever and was aching all over; the poor little chap was inconsolable! While he recovered from his fever, I noticed his behavior changed! It was so slight that I questioned whether I was imagining it, but I can say now, without a doubt, I was right. My little boy started struggling to sit down quietly, his temper was irradic and his whole being was different, though it was subtle. He didn't have anything definable, but he was different. He needs extra help at school, he's on the spectrum of dyslexic, disgraphic, has autitory processing difficulties and has had extra classes by every specialist you can imagine.
It's hard to quantify that this was a results of only vaccines. In fact, it took me about 6 years to establish a possible link myself. What tipped my curiosity was when my two good friends in Japan had two kids at the same time who each had the same learning difficulties. While my son was my first born, my friend's son's were both their third child. They went on to have 4 kids each, but their third born and my first born, who were all born at the same time (within a few months), at the same hospital, with the same doctor (the only doctor in Japan to administer epidural...so naturally we all went to him, not to mention he spoke English) and all three had the same pediatrician and, I believe, were all given vaccines from the same batch. While none of their other children exhibited any learning difficulties, our three little boys have all had to have a lot of learning support, physical therapy, etc...
So should kids be vaccinated? Well, I didn't vaccinate my second child as I did my first born. I began to question the vaccination system all together! Why, for example, would any child living in a first world country, privileged, born in a nice hospital, need the Heptatitis B vaccine 12 hours after being born? They were not born in a brothel, are not children of the sex trade, are not living in a country where Hep B is an epidemic? When babies are born perfectly healthy and their nervous systems aren't even developed, why do we put something so toxic, a virus like Hepatitis B, into their little systems? Unless you specifically request that hospitals don't do this, it's commonly done within twelve hours after the birth of a child. If you're going to vaccinate, why not wait until your baby's nervous system is functioning and strong before adding something such as a virus into their perfect little bodies? Given my personal experience, I have learned through trial and error! It's a tough question and no one can make it for you, you just have to do the research and choose for yourself. Here is a great website with lots of information about vaccines, particularly Heb B, as well as a lot more alternative medical advice!
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/07/07/60-things-that-can-go-terribly-wrong-with-hepatitis-b-vaccination.aspx
Living in the modern world and having access to the web and so much
I'm writing to you from beautiful Hawaii so Mahalo...thank you for reading my blog!
My big sister & me in Hawaii on a hike!!!
