Something that a few of you may know, but many may not, is that we don’t vaccinate. I have 6 children, and 3 of them have never been vaccinated. The older 3 have had some vaccinations, but that was before I did my own research, back when I did whatever the doctors told me to without question. My oldest daughter, Syra, had a few vaccinations before we decided to stop them. She was under a year old when we stopped vaccinating, which made my boys 6 and 3 when we stopped. I remember my fear of registering my oldest for school for the first time. I was always told that children MUST have their vaccinations to go to school. Sadly, I was misinformed. The truth of the matter is that there are exemptions available in all 50 states and vaccinations are not required.

I just looked up what the school said for vaccinations in CT, and yes, they use the phrase “requirements”. It peeves me to no end! They make parents think they have to get these shots for their kids, even if they don’t want to. Connecticut allows for both medical and religious exemption, vaccinations are NOT required. Why do they use the term “requirement” then? Why don’t they tell parents the truth?

According to our school’s website here in NY, they say:

The following immunizations are required by New York State Law:

DPT – 3 Doses
Polio – 3 Doses
MMR – 2 Doses MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) OR 2 Doses Measles and 1 Dose of Mumps and Rubella
Hep. B – 3 Doses
Varicella – 1 Dose if born on or after 1/1/98Hib – 3 Doses (Headstart and Pre-K students only)

When again, they are NOT required, and surely not by LAW! As a matter of fact, NY CLS Pub Health § 2164, section 9 states “This section shall not apply to children whose parent, parents, or guardian hold genuine and sincere religious beliefs which are contrary to the practices herein required, and no certificate shall be required as a prerequisite to such children being admitted or received into school or attending school.” so the TRUTH would be for the school to state “Children are required to have vaccinations OR exemption form on file.” Why do they omit the exemption part?

If you notice the “required” vaccinations from NY, it ends up being 15 shots, which is actually more than 15 vaccinations. Let’s go over the ingredient list for each of those “required” vaccinations, shall we?

DPT – Depending on the brand that is used, can be any of the following:

• DTaP (Daptacel) – aluminum phosphate, formaldehyde, glutaraldehyde, 2-Phenoxyethanol, Stainer-Scholte medium, modified Mueller’s growth medium, modified Mueller-Miller casamino acid medium (without beef heart infusion)
• DTaP (Infanrix) – formaldehyde, glutaraldehyde, aluminum hydroxide, polysorbate 80, Fenton medium (containing bovine extract), modified Latham medium (derived from bovine casein), modified Stainer-Scholte liquid medium
• DTaP (Tripedia) – sodium phosphate, peptone, bovine extract (U.S. sourced), formaldehyde, ammonium sulfate, , aluminum potassium sulfate, thimerosal (trace), gelatin, polysorbate 80 (Tween 80), modified Mueller and Miller medium, modified Stainer-Scholte medium
• DTaP-IPV (Kinrix) – formaldehyde, glutaraldehyde, aluminum hydroxide, Vero (monkey kidney) cells, calf serum, lactalbumin hydrolysate, polysorbate 80, neomycin sulfate, polymyxin B, Fenton medium (containing bovine extract), modified Latham medium (derived from bovine casein), modified Stainer-Scholte liquid medium
• DTaP-HepB-IPV (Pediarix) – formaldehyde, gluteraldehyde, aluminum hydroxide, aluminum phosphate, lactalbumin hydrolysate, polysorbate 80, neomycin sulfate, polymyxin B, yeast protein, calf serum, Fenton medium (containing bovine extract), modified Latham medium (derived from bovine casein), modified Stainer-Scholte liquid medium, Vero (monkey kidney) cells
• DTaP-IPV/Hib (Pentacel) – aluminum phosphate, polysorbate 80, formaldehyde, gutaraldehyde, bovine serum albumin, 2-phenoxethanol, neomycin, polymyxin B sulfate, Mueller’s Growth Medium, Mueller-Miller casamino acid medium (without beef heart infusion), Stainer-Scholte medium (modified by the addition of casamino acids and dimethyl-beta-cyclodextrin), MRC-5 (human diploid) cells, CMRL 1969 medium (supplemented with calf serum).

Are you disgusted yet? I know I was! That is only ONE of the “required” vaccinations! Let’s move on to the rest!

Polio – 2-phenoxyethanol, formaldehyde, neomycin, streptomycin, polymyxin B, monkey kidney cells, Eagle MEM modified medium, calf serum protein

MMR – vitamins, amino acids, fetal bovine serum, sucrose, sodium phosphate, glutamate, recombinant human albumin, neomycin, sorbitol, hydrolyzed gelatin, chick embryo cell culture, WI-38 human diploid lung fibroblasts

That one confuses me a little. It says it contains “vitamins” but doesn’t list which ones, why? I want to know what vitamins are included.

Hep. B – Again, depends on brand used:

• Hep B (Engerix-B) – aluminum hydroxide, yeast protein, phosphate buffers.
• Hep B (Recombivax) –yeast protein, soy peptone, dextrose, amino acids, mineral salts, potassium aluminum sulfate, amorphous aluminum hydroxyphosphate sulfate, formaldehyde.
• Hep A/Hep B (Twinrix) – formalin, yeast protein, aluminum phosphate, aluminum hydroxide, amino acids, phosphate buffer, polysorbate 20, neomycin sulfate, MRC-5 human diploid cells

Varicella – sucrose, phosphate, glutamate, gelatin, monosodium L-glutamate, sodium phosphate dibasic, potassium phosphate monobasic, potassium chloride, sodium phosphate monobasic, EDTA, residual components of MRC-5 cells including DNA and protein, neomycin, fetal bovine serum, human diploid cell cultures

Hib – Depending on brand

• Hib (ActHIB) – ammonium sulfate, formalin, sucrose, Modified Mueller and Miller medium
• Hib (Hiberix) – formaldehyde, lactose.
• Hib (PedvaxHIB) – aluminum hydroxphosphate sulfate.
• Hib/Hep B (Comvax) – yeast (vaccine contains no detectable yeast DNA), nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, hemin chloride, soy peptone, dextrose, mineral salts, amino acids, formaldehyde, potassium aluminum sulfate, amorphous aluminum hydroxyphosphate sulfate, sodium borate

Want to know the best part? The Measles, Rubella, Varicella, Oral Polio, Flu Mist, AND Rotavirus vaccines are all made with LIVE viruses! This basically means that by getting the vaccination, you are getting the virus that you are trying to prevent. The sad part is, with proper care and attention, none of these are deadly, they are merely a nuisance. A few days off from school and work, some extra vitamins, soup and a warm blanket and you are back to normal.

You can find the types of exemptions allowed by your state on the National Vaccine Information Center‘s site.

Chicken Pox (Varicella) has officially started in our house, and we caught it from my mother, who had shingles recently. My daughter was having fun with it all day LOL “I’m gonna HUG YOU!” and started tiptoeing toward her siblings and they would all run away. It was so funny. She started running a fever at around 5pm and decided she needed a nap, but was up again at around 7, joking and laughing again. We are treating her with Epsom salt baths and dabbing tea tree oil on her spots, along with some Sleepy Time tea before bed. I am not giving her anything to reduce her fever, because she is acting normally and fever is there for a reason, which is to help flush the chicken pox out of her system. By lowering her fever, symptoms could last longer and she would become miserable because of it.

While I don’t feel that vaccination is best for my family, I don’t take issue with others who do vaccinate. I do wish that more parents would do their own research on the issue though, and not just vaccinate because their doctor tells them they need to. Check into it more, find out what exactly those diseases are that you are trying to prevent, find out how to treat them if you were to get them. Not only should you know how to treat them if you decide to not vaccinate, but even if you do. Vaccines are not 100% effective to prevent against catching diseases, they aren’t even close to that number and can even cause you to contract the disease, so you will still want to know how to treat it if you decide to vaccinate. Look into the ingredient list, don’t take my word for it, ask for the inserts when you are at the doctor’s office, read them over for yourself; both the ingredient list and the side effects. Check out the laws in your state regarding vaccinations and public schools. If your doctor told you it was best to keep your child’s head shaved until they were 18, to avoid lice, would you do that, or would you look into the reasoning behind it? Would you rather treat the lice when you got it, or prevent it at the expense of your child?

I understand that not vaccinating isn’t for everyone, all I ask is that you make your decision based on true informed consent. As you can see, by the wording from the schools and the actual laws, parents are not given all the info, we have to find it and decide what is best for our children based on all of the info we have.

At this point, I want to introduce you to The Greater Good Movie. THE GREATER GOOD is an award winning character-driven documentary that explores the cultural intersections where parenting meets modern medicine and individual rights collide with politics. The film offers parents, doctors and policy makers a safe space to speak openly, actively listen and learn from one another. Mixing verité footage, intimate interviews, 1950s-era government-produced movies and up-to-date TV news reporting, THE GREATER GOOD weaves together the stories of families whose lives have been forever changed by vaccination.

They have offered to give away one of their DVDs to a reader. I recommend this film, whether or not you agree with vaccinations. I found that it gave a really good view of both sides of the argument and even some in betweens; and I am honored to have been asked to work with them on this giveaway.