I Answer a Reader's Question About My Vaccination Stance

In the comments section in my recent post about vaccines shedding and what doctors say about that, if anything, a reader, Susie, wondered if I worry about diseases that vaccination is supposed to prevent. She wondered if non vaccinated kids are more at risk for catching those diseases, and wondered if that was a worry for me. She wrote,

Susie said...

Hey Laura,
I'm new to this topic. I've got an almost two year old who has been vaccinated on the recommended schedule. Her doctor is great (she's my doctor as well) and did give us information on side effects and when to not have the vaccine (during illness,etc.).
I've heard of the Dr. Sears method where you space out the shots given to your child,etc. But, how does not vaccinating your child work? Are your kids at a greater risk of developing some of these viruses,etc. because they haven't been vaccinated? As a daycare provider I'm sent letters every year that update me on what dangerous sicknesses are spring up around the state, and children in past years have even died from some of these random illnesses.
So...that was a lot of rambling :) Sorry! I'm just curious about whether you worry about your kids getting sick and how you deal with all of those worries or fears. Or..maybe you don't have them at all!! Thanks!

April 2, 2009 12:57 PM

The big answer to all of that is no, I don't worry. However, I do proactively do things that strengthen my kids' immune systems and that I think fortifies them against disease. Not that they may not catch a disease, they might (as might a vaccinated kid--the vaccines fail all of the time) but that their bodies will be able to clear a virus, or snuff out a cold easily and quickly.

I had no invasive prenatal testing. I didn't have a single ultrasound. I gave birth at home without any kind of drugs. I held my babies almost constantly and breastfed them on demand for years.

We eat very little sugar. We drink raw milk. We eat organic foods as much as possible. We eat meat from grass fed, pastured animals. We use coconut oil in smoothies and in cooking. We eat raw honey. We don't take allopathic medicines of any kind.

My son has never had antibiotics--no medicine from a doctor ever. My daughter and I both had antibiotics once together when I had a breast infection and we were both sick. That was over 7 years ago and no one since that time has had any kind of medicine from a doctor. We're not Christian Scientists and if we ever needed to take something, we would. But, we would first find out how to support the body to heal naturally. It seems to be working for all of us.

My kids do not have asthma. They have no food allergies. They have no skin ailments. They rarely get sick, and when they do they recover quickly. I think they have robust immune systems partly because they've not been tampered with.

As a pregnant woman with my first child, I knew I would have a homebirth. I already knew I would breastfeed as my mother had done. I knew that if I had a son, he would remain intact. I also knew that I didn't want to inject any chemicals into my kids.

Realizing this, I knew I should research and learn what I could and as much as I could.

What were the diseases that had vaccines? What were the current rates of infection? How were these common childhood diseases treated in the past? What were complications in these diseases? How were they treated? What was the risk of complications?

If my kids got sick, in general, how would I care for them? I read Dr. Robert Mendelsohn's book, How to Raise a Healthy Child in Spite of Your Doctor. I read with great interest the areas about fever. I found out that that's the body's way of burning off a bug. The body increases in temperature and the invading bug can't survive. It's curative. I knew then that I wouldn't try to treat fevers, I wouldn't ever give Tylenol. If It got crazy high, I might. But, it's never gotten crazy high in either of my kids. They get warm, briefly, and the next day they're fine.

I read Neil Z. Miller books, Vaccines: Are They Really Safe and Effective? and Immunization Theory Vs. Reality Expose on Vaccinations which both showed graphs, obtained from Vital Statistics from the government, that showed the precipitous decline of diseases, before the introduction of vaccines. Hmmm... That was very interesting to me. I saw other graphs that showed a low incidence of death from measles, scarlet fever, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus well before the onset of vaccinations. Interesting.

I read the almost completely unreadable book by Viera Scheibner, Vaccination: 100 Years of Orthodox Research Shows That Vaccines Represent an Assault on the Immune System that showed through orthodox research published in mainstream journals like JAMA and Lancet that vaccines are ineffective and are recognized as an assault on the immune system. Scientific studies showed this, but those are not what's quoted by the AAP, the American Academy of Pediatrics. These studies are also not what doctors look at. They're busy looking at patients. They're not scientists--never were--they treat patients with what they know. What they know is what they learned back in medical school. The medical school curricula is written by pharmaceutical companies. I find that interesting also.

Years later, after both of my healthy kids were born, I came across Dr. Sherri Tenpenny. As a conventionally trained doctor, Dr. Tenpenny has turned around on her understanding of routine vaccination. She has conducted thousands of hours of research into disease and vaccination and has produced an informative video explaining her change in thinking. She used to believe that vaccinations were a panacea, an answer to all that ails...she no longer believes this.

If you have some time, please view this video and see what you think.

As Louis Pasteur said on his deathbed, "The germ is nothing the terrain is everything."

No, I do not worry.