Vaccination is a big subject and the decision to vaccinate or not to vaccinate your child is one that shouldn’t be taken lightly.
I often get requests to write on the subject of vaccination but I’ve never felt qualified to do so. You see, my kids were vaccinated. It’s not because I believe that vaccination is the best choice. It’s simply because when my children were infants 10-12 years ago, I wasn’t interested in natural alternatives. I was fresh out of nursing school where I was told that vaccination was the only way to, well, not die of a horrendous disease. Had I known what I know now, I don’t think I would vaccinate, or I would probably at least do a delayed schedule.
My overall view on vaccines is that I don’t believe the concept of vaccination is a bad thing, but I do believe that in 2014 we should be able to produce vaccinations without toxins and be smarter about the dosing on such young children.
Recently, Sarah Pope of The Healthy Home Economist was interviewed by The Daily Show on the subject of vaccination. Even though she knew her words would be twisted and she would be made to look like a crazy-hippie-uneducated-blogger, she decided it was more important to bring this issue to the spotlight.
Sarah is my hero. As a blogger, we take our fair share of criticism, but to choose to be put in the national spotlight knowing she’d be criticized? The gal deserves a freaking medal in my opinion! She held her head high while knowing her story wouldn’t fully be shared.
There’s definitely more to the story than just that. Sarah isn’t just some hippie (though what’s wrong with that, eh?). She’s an incredibly well-educated woman, with 20+ years of health research behind her. Her father, an internal medicine doctor, taught her to question everything—even modern medicine.
Want to hear Sarah’s experience on The Daily Show (the side nobody saw), and hear her well-researched take on vaccines? Click here.
Kit says
September 2, 2014 at 12:00 pmHi, I love your blog, but I feel like I should voice my opinion on this. My children are vaccinated, and I’m so grateful for that. My son jumped off the trampoline and landed on a pitchfork that is used to clean out the hen house. He got a nice puncture wound on his foot, that we cleaned out and put antibacterial cream on. We called the pediatrician to see if we needed to bring him in for tetanus, but because he already had his shot we were OK. I imagine that had he not had his tetanus shot it would have been a very different story. I would encourage people to look up the diseases that they are being immunized for and ask yourself if you are willing to risk your child getting one of those. Are you willing to see your child’s throat swell so bad that they can’t breath, or their jaw lock up and have permanent kidney/liver damage?
I do believe in healthy eating, but the real question is that do you trust others who are not immunizing their kids to live a lifestyle similar to yours so that their kids are protected? or are they just choosing not to immunize because that’s the popular natural choice?
Leslie Mandic says
April 5, 2019 at 3:51 amI support the tetanus vaccine for sure but to be clear, if you son had this terrible injury and he had NOT been up to date on his shots, getting the vaccine within a couple of days would have been sufficient. It takes tetanus, 3 days to 3 weeks or more to incubate. Furthermore tetanus is so rare that its quite possible he wouldn’t get it anyway. None the less Its one of the vaccines I recommend and believe in for any person as long as they are not too young for their first set in each series.
Every 10 years for tetanus, though if it was a really dirty wound like this rusty dirty pitchfork I would get a booster if it had been over 3-5 years. I am glad your child is healthy.
Mike Henderson says
July 24, 2014 at 3:46 amI think that it is fine not to get flu shots. But childhood vaccinations are a MUST! Any parent that refuses to get their child vaccinated should have to provide medical evidence to support their position. Just because Jenny McCarthy says that vaccinations are bad doesn’t make it so.
Phil says
July 17, 2014 at 6:53 amHippies. What are the “toxins” that are in these vaccines? What about the fact that vaccines have eradicated small pox?
erica says
July 10, 2014 at 5:23 pmThe fact that they think we would drink a soy latte is funny to me! They could have made it better by saying raw goat milk..
DaNelle Wolford says
July 10, 2014 at 8:56 pmHaha, yep!
Leah D says
July 14, 2014 at 11:25 amJust shows how little they know about the other side! Gotta laugh or I would be angry by this offensive portrayal of people not going along with the big plan….
Amanda G says
July 10, 2014 at 2:27 pmThis bugs me because they didn’t focus at all on the words those on the anti-vac side are saying. They’re listening to a doctor who as well hasn’t heard these things. Google is helpful because it will lead you right to people who have had personal experience with vaccine injuries. Sarah Pope needs a good pat on the back. She’s very brave to stand up for what she believes in, even on BS shows like that one. Thanks for sharing this DaNelle. I don’t have TV so I wouldn’t have seen this-at the same time though I’m glad I don’t!