An Earthy Mother sharing her experiences in today's world....

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Childhood vaccination- fears, hopes and realities.


When we realised we were pregnant with our firstborn, one of the first topics to come up about parenting was vaccination. I lauched into all the information I had been collating pre-pregnancy about the risks associated with vaccines, the hours I had spent sourcing vaccine product pamphlets,  my concerns about vaccination. As it turned out, my partner had never been vaccinated- his parents had chosen not to vaccinate any of their children. It is a pleasant relief to discover someone with the same views as you! Taking into account vaccines, toxins, disease statistics and our baby's newborn immune system, it was an emphatic no.

I never realised how provocative this decision would be to almost every person I came across!

It wasn't until 3 months into mother's group that I let it slip that my son was unvaccinated- they asked about the Rotavirus vaccine, and I said "Oh, we don't do that." Her: "Do what?" Me: "Vaccinate." I've never seen someone look so shocked- or so concerned. I imagined she must be really uninformed! At the next mother's group, the other mothers visibly moved their children back when they rolled near my son, chastised their small babies for trying to play with my son's lovely wooden toys (obviously, they were diseased!). I was sure I was paranoid. But the next time I arrived, there was a posse of 3 standing on the footpath before the hall, waiting for my approach. They made it very clear I wasn't welcome. It was as simple as one of the mothers saying "Oh, we thought you might have noticed, we think it might be best if you don't come to our mother's group- some of the mothers are concerned that their kids might catch something." The other mothers nodded, and I laughed, waiting for the punchline. They all smiled and walked inside, locking the door behind them. No punchline, just a good social ousting.

I realised then that I had made a choice which was common sense to me, but which was difficult for the uninformed to grasp. It's difficult to inform people when they are essentially misled on the topic of vaccination.

For starters, here is an example. When you give a child a vaccine, you are vaccinating them. In Australia, our government calls it an Immunisation Schedule. However, vaccines don't necessarily provide immunity. In many cases, they don't provide immunity at levels which will protect a child from the disease. So why is it called Immunisation, when this is misleading?

My mother was appalled when she discovered that my son wasn't vaccinated (my dad had known all along, and kept it to himself). I've never realised how ignorant most people are until that day- my own mother, an intelligent woman, a CEO, a strong educated powerful woman, turned to me and asked "But how can you put your son and other children at risk like that!!" I tried not to laugh. Where do intelligent, intellectual people get such backward ideas?

If you believe that vaccination protects babies from diseases, then why would you fear an unvaccinated child- your child 'should' be protected, so what's the difference? 

So I started asking a lot of people about how they felt. "Vaccinating your child is REALLY important!" Why? "Because it protects them from diseases." How? "Because vaccines give your child immunity." Do they? More often than not, people told me they vaccinated their child because "That's what you do." Most people aren't aware of the real risks of vaccines. Most people aren't aware of the real risks of the diseases. Most people don't even know what is in the vaccines they are letting their children have, let alone what diseases they are being vaccinated for. Let's break it down.

Hepatitis B- most babies receive this vaccine at birth, 2 months, 4 months (+6 months if one dose missed)
Hep B is a blood-borne disease which is contracted through the use of intravenous drug needle sharing and sexual intercourse. Around 99.3% of the children in Australia are not at risk at risk of contracting Hepatitis B from a parent. The 0.7% of children who are born with a Hepatitis B positive parent or who have a family member who has Hepatitis B should consider vaccination or infection control procedures to prevent transmission. Worldwide, 5% of people have Hepatitis B.

*I'd also like to point out that many midwives are opposed to the Hep B birth vaccine as it causes side effects which interfere with bonding and breastfeeding- it can cause lethary, decreased appetite, fever, pain, gastric upset, excessive sleepiness and irritability. These can all dramatically effect a newborn baby and their breastfeeding relationship.

Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis, Haemophilus influenzae type b, Polio- vaccines at 2 months, 4 months, 6 months.
(Note these 5 vaccines along with Hepatitis B are combined into one injection- Infanrix. So your child receives 6 vaccines at once. That's quite an assault on an immune system.)

Diphtheria- The last outbreak of Diphtheria was a group of 23 people in an indigenous community in the Northern Territory. This was in 1991. One of the people who contracted it died, the other 22 recovered.

Tetanus- The last known case of childhood tetanus in Australia was in 1969. Tetanus is a bacterium called Clostridium Tetani. Clothridium Tetani lives virtually everywhere, but the human body doesn't provide the right conditions for the bacterium to grow- infection can only occur when Tetani are introduced to the blood stream deep inside the body- such as a deep cut or puncture wound. Good wound management is more effective in killing Tetani than post-infection vaccination.

Pertussis (Whooping Cough)-  Pertussis poses the highest risk to babies under 6 months old- yet vaccination does not cover them until they are 6 months old. Whooping cough is still prevalent in many parts of the world, but studies have shown that up to 84% of children who contract Whooping cough have been vaccinated for it.

Haemophilus influenzae type b- Also known as Hib, is incredibly rare in Australia- however some cases are still reported in Indigenous communities. In Africa, 0.06% of children contracted Hib before vaccination was introduced. In Australia, the chances are even smaller. The most fatal strain of Hib is not covered by the Hib vaccine.

Polio- Polio is most prevalent in India, where in 2009, 741 people contracted it. The population of India is 1,147,995,904. This means that in the country where Polio is seen as dangerous, the percentage of people who contract it is 0.000006%. In Australia, the last case of Polio was seen in 1986.

Measles, Mumps, Rubella- Which of these pose a real risk to a child today? They can pose a risk to a woman who is pregnant and her unborn child, but so can chickenpox. Why should we vaccinate small children for these diseases which are merely skin rashes? Some people will argue that Mumps can cause sterility in males, but only 15-30% of men who get Mumps will get Orchitis- and sterility is a very rare side effect of Orchitis, occuring in only 2% of men. The Rubella vaccine is grown on Human Fetal Diploid Lung Fibroblasts. (That's a revolting froth of fetal parts.) This vaccine is one of the most dangerous, as it is a live vaccine, not a dead strain. This is why they wait until 12 months to vaccinate a child, as this vaccine is an enormous assault on a child's immune system. Putting aside suspected links to Autism, what is the point of this vaccine?

Then of course we have new vaccines, like the ones for Rotavirus. Rotavirus is basically Gastroenteritis.  Interestingly, exclusive breastfeeding a child protects them against Rota Virus more than any vaccination ever could.

I don't agree with vaccination for many reasons, but here are a few of my own personal reasons (I will stop after a few, as this blog is becoming very long, and has been typed out twice!):
(1) Vaccination doesn't guarantee immunity. There has never been specific antibody testing to determine how much immunity anyone will develop as a result of a vaccine.
(2) Every time you vaccinate a child, you are also injecting them with vaccine additives- antibiotics, formaldehyde, viruses grown on human foetal cells, animal products, surfactants, preservatives (some vaccines contain thimersol, which is 48% mercury), aluminium, sorbitol, yeast, ammonium sulfate, MSG, sodium peroxide.
(3) Contracting illnesses in childhood is how we develop life-long immunity. Vaccines only provide short-term immunity.
(4) A healthy child has a better chance of fighting any illness. Vaccinating a child damages their immune system, attacking and weakening it before it has developed properly. We are supposed to be exposed to smaller viruses before we are exposed to larger viruses so our immune system can develop and strengthen. Vaccinating a newborn child is an assault on their immune system.
(5) There is no harm in delaying vaccination until a child is older. You can wait until your child is 1, 3, 5, and still vaccinate your child if you feel the need.
(6) I believe that vaccination poses a larger risk to my child than the diseases the vaccines are supposed to prevent. I know children who have had huge vaccine reactions. I know a child with vaccine-induced brain damage. I have seen bright-eyed children become duller, slower, less intelligent after vaccination. 
(7) I am not concerned that my children will get incredibly ill from any of the diseases they could be vaccinated for. I would rather take the slim >5% chance my child might get an illness than take the 100% chance of my child being injected with toxins, viruses, chemicals, antibiotics and additives. I would rather support their immune system than attack it.
(8) Many children who have been vaccinated have no immunity to the diseases they have been vaccinated for. Why should I expose my child to a vaccine when it may not provide any immunity?
(9) I live in Australia; where clean water supply, good medical care, infection control and adequate nutrition means that my children are at negligible risk of getting seriously ill from any disease.
(10) The antibiotics used in vaccines aren't recommended for use on children under 6 months old, nor are they recommended for intra-muscular use. Why are they in vaccines?
(11) SIDS has been linked to vaccination. In Japan, they made the decision  to raise the vaccination age to 2 years of age, following a link to SIDS.
One of my children has had a needlestick injury at a park, and despite not being vaccinated at all, he did not contract anything from his needlestick injury. Neither of my children have contracted a vaccine-preventable disease. As a matter of fact, none of the unvaccinated children I personally know (who number around 50) have EVER contracted a vaccine-preventable disease. On the other hand, I know many vaccinated children who have contracted pertussis, measles, rubella.

One thing that always stuck with me was this: you can always delay vaccination until you inform yourself properly about every vaccine. There is no harm in waiting to vaccinate your child. However, once you do vaccinate your child, you can't take back the vaccines that you've injected in your child. You can't undo the damage that vaccination does to a growing child's body and immune system.

If you want to research more yourself, consider looking up some links like this:
http://www.avn.org.au/
http://www.whale.to/

It is also a good idea to look at the manufacturer's pamphlets from companies such as Merck who produce and distribute vaccines. Simply looking at vaccine ingredients and finding out what they all are can be a powerful lesson to us all.

Government websites can also be a good place to start, as they state many interesting facts without actually backing them up. They discuss the dangers of specific diseases but fail to tell us what the actual risk that the disease or the vaccine poses to our child.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Fluoridated water and questioning the lies we are told.........

As a child, I grew up in areas where fluoridated water is the norm. My parents were convinced- and still are- that fluoridated water is the primary reason that we have such strong teeth. It wasn't until I hit my 20's that I started to wonder why fluoride was added to the water. I started to research it, and it was rather confronting to discover the reality behind fluoridated water. Did you know fluoride is used as a rat and cockroach poison? Fluoridated drinking water doesn't actually help your teeth. This seems really strange when you first consider it, because if fluoride isn't helping your teeth when it's in drinking water, why is it there?


One of my first questions was simple: where does fluoride come from? Firstly, there is no chemical compound called fluoride- it's called flourine. It's a gas. When it is used in manufacturing processes, this gas captures certain molecules, and it becomes fluoride in different forms. It's added to our drinking water, it's in most toothpastes, dentists use it as a dental treatment.


All the fluoride used in water fluoridation is inorganic, artificially derived forms of fluoride.
The three forms of fluoride used are:


Okay, so where do these fluoride come from? It comes from fertilizer manufacturers. It's a byproduct created when they manufacture phosphate fertilizers. It's not manufactured specifically for use on our teeth. It's also a toxin, and it is so toxic than companies trying to dispose of it have only a few choices- sell it or pay to dispose of it.


Where else is Fluoride or its derivatives used? Sodium flouride is used in different insect and rodent pesticides (here's a list of a few http://scorecard.org/chemical-profiles/pesticides.tcl?edf_substance_id=7681-49-4), it is  one of the components in Sarin Nerve Gas ( O-isopropyl methylphosphonofluoridate), it is used in many medications and anaesthetics,  Prozac's medical name is fluoxetine hydrochloride and it contains 3 molecules of Flourine. 


Fluoride might be beneficial to teeth; some dentists are firm believers in fluoride and use it regularly, others are opposed to fluoride because it has never been scientifically proven to help teeth. Sodium Fluoride may assist in forming Fluorapatite, which is a component of tooth enamel- it stregnthens teeth. (Fluoride treatments might strengthen weak teeth, but prevention is better than the cure. Maintain good oral hygiene,  brush your teeth, drink water after a meal to help remove debris from teeth, floss daily.) Dentists tell us to spit out and rinse our mouth at the end of a fluoride treatment. The toothpaste packet also states the same- not to be swallowed. If it is so toxic, why is it in our drinking water?


How does fluoride in our water help our teeth, when it only comes in contact with our teeth for a few seconds at best? The other interesting thing about fluoride is that it actually causes some yellow and white blotches on teeth.  So why is fluoride in whitening toothpaste? Isn't it counter-productive?


Fluoride was first used in Jewish ghettos and in concentration camps in Nazi Germany.
The first occurrence of fluoridated drinking water on Earth was found in Germany's Nazi prison camps. The Gestapo had little concern about fluoride's supposed effect on children's teeth; their alleged reason for mass-medicating water with sodium fluoride was to sterilize humans and force the people in their concentration camps into calm submission. (Ref. book: "The Crime and Punishment of I.G. Farben" by Joseph Borkin.)


Sodium Fluoride has been linked to many diseases and illnesses and shortens life span.


Fluoridated water causes a build up of fluoride in the body- it accumulates in the pineal gland, in bones and in brain tissue. Fluoride facilitates aluminum uptake in bone tissue, weakening bones and resulting in increased bone fracture and osteoporosis.


Fluoride has been banned from drinking water by countries as Finland, Germany,  Sweden, Holland, France and Japan; even Britain has suspended it's use. The Netherlands banned it in 1973. The Czech republic decided against it in 1993. So why is it being introduced into more Australian cities?What choice do we have as consumers?


You have some options, but not because our government is providing them. You can buy water without added fluoride from any supermarket (I buy Noble's Pureau because it comes in  a cask bladder and I'd rather not buy water in plastic because of leeching of chemicals and the environmental cost of plastics). You can buy a reverse osmosis water system which removes fluoride and heavy metals.


The sad fact is that the majority of Australians don't know the truth about fluoride, and that's exactly how the government would like us to remain. When you aren't aware, you don't complain. People forget that when it comes to making money, ethics are often left by the wayside. Putting fluoride in our water disempowers us all- we can no longer make that choice for ourselves or our children. We cook our vegetables in it, wash our fruit in it, eat pasta and rice bloated with fluoridated water, bathe in it. We are exposed to fluoride everywhere in our homes, and we simply don't have a choice, unless we want to install an expensive filter at our mains tap.


I minimise as much fluoride as I can in our home, but I can't stop the flow of it into my home and our lives. Most people simply shrug their shoulders and say "Well, the government adds it to our water, so it must be good."


All that springs to mind right now is a quote by Hitler himself, a proponent of great evil.


"Tell a lie long enough and loud enough and the masses will come to believe it"