Having seen all the recent stories on anti vax people Ill tell you a bit about my own decision to stop getting shots for Rowena. With my son Zachary, it never occurred to me not to follow the usual shot schedule. He never had much more than a slight fever or hurt arm in reaction to his shots. He had plenty of other health issues to be sure, but he never had a single issue with his shots. Id heard all the usual scary stories that were becoming popular when he was getting older but I dismissed them. Crazy people looking for someone or something to blame.. that was what I thought at the time. Years passed and I was lucky enough to fall in love with Michael and we had our girl Rowena almost 5 years into our marriage. Despite all our fears that she would have some of the same heart conditions that her brother Zach did, she dodged them all. However, she had serious bilirubin problems that caused her to get ill and end up back in the hospital not long after we took her home. When we finally were able to take her back home with us it was with special blanket that had blue light and eventually all was well according to her doctor. Michael and I also decided to hold off on any milk products for her for the first year since Zach has a milk allergy and just before she had the illness that landed her in the hospital Id been feeding her a combination of my breast milk and regular formula. So we switched over to soy and all went well. Im giving you all this pointless detail since I still dont know what was important and what wasnt with her health. But she never did as well with shots as her brother had. She always got fevers, and big red spots and the crying... it broke your heart. I knew she just wasnt coping nearly as well with them. Then came her two year shots.. it was a nightmare. She got so sick. She stopped talking back to us in her little babble. She would just start screaming out of the blue. Awake, asleep.. it didnt matter. Those eyes would fly open and theyd be unfocused on anything in the room and shed just howl. It was scary and nerve wracking and I felt so helpless.. She didnt want to sit up or roll over much.. it was the scariest thing to watch. My daughter was just not herself any more. I called the doctor at one point and he said it was just a simple reaction and I was over reacting and to give her some Tylenol and let her sleep. I know the brush off when I hear it. So onto the internet I went. I ignored all the crazy What the government isnt telling you!!! kind of sites. I wanted real information, not scare tactics. I started looking at studies, mostly from outside the US, and found one that really got my attention. It showed a connection between children from parents with a family history of Learning Disabilities and Depression and other mental disorders as having a higher than average risk of problems with immunizations. ( I have tried for years to find this study again but I never have. It seems to have vanished into the internet fog.) Well, Im dyslexic and ADD. And one of my sisters in law has an autistic child just a bit older than my Rowena. I took my concerns to my daughters doctor at her next appointment and told them no more shots and explained why. This time I got a bit of a surprise and the doctor was understanding. She said she understood my concerns and personally wouldnt risk it if she was in the same situation. So here I am. Im very pro science and Id never begin to tell you what decisions you should make on this issue with your own children. But I would like some folks out there to stop thinking all of the anti vax folks are crazy nut cases and realize that some of us made a decision for our kids not because of some Celebrity or whacked out website, but because we saw what was happening with our kids. My Rowena is 10 years old now and despite some learning issues, shes doing pretty well. Shes dyslexic like her mommy and if I took her for the full work up, shed likely be somewhere on the autism spectrum. Odds are that she would have been there shots or no in those early years just based on family history. But I have no real idea. Now you can call me nuts or whatever youd like. But I stand by my decision and dont regret it for one second. And I do suggest that most parents that dont have my familys kind of history get their kids their shots. I think its a fairly limited pool that should avoid them. I just happen to be in that pool myself. But please, think for yourself and dont just write off one side or the other. Thanks for reading. Tracey Rodell.
Posted on: Fri, 21 Mar 2014 16:52:00 +0000
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