Standing Up

Jacob turns ONE tomorrow! I cannot believe it...my little baby has grown into such a handsome, strong, sweet soon to be toddler (he's cruising, so hopefully the walking will come soon!) However, while I could go on and on about how adorable and awesome he is, my point of this post is to talk about Jake's one year well visit tomorrow with his pediatrician.

My previous "Mother Warriors" post was primarily made to remind me to be strong for Jake tomorrow at his doctor visit. While I respect and absolutely adore his pediatrician, she is of course, very much pro-vaccines and well, I'm not so sure I am anymore. Nothing has specifically happened to change my views, but when I think back to the issues both of my boys have/had, it makes me wonder. It's also not that I'm afraid of autism. What I've come to fear are all the chemicals that we, as a society, inject into our tiny babies and growing toddlers. It's the allergies, ADHD, asthma, and increasing number of intestinal issues that our littles ones are developing that has me worried. Both my children have had severe acid reflux and oral aversion/texture issues with food. While Luke has overcome this (mostly!), I'm just now going through it with Jacob and it is no picnic. It's hard and trying and frustrating--for both of us. Jake took things one step further and developed a dairy/soy allergy at just 2 weeks old. While his little body has overcome that recently too (thanks in part to a very special formula), there is NO doubt in my mind now that the Hepatitis B vaccine that he received as a 12 hour old infant caused this allergy. It makes me sick to think that I could have prevented his pain if I had just done a little more research.

I was always VERY pro-vaccine. I mean, I'm a germaphobe, of course I am supposed to support vaccines. And admittedly, I will likely always vaccinate my children against the flu and H1N1 and believe me, if there were a vaccine for the stomach virus, I'd be the FIRST person in line! However, I do not see a need to vaccinate infants against a sexually transmitted disease at 12 hours old, unless the mother (or someone the baby lives with) is Hep B positive. I also do not believe that injecting our babies/toddlers with chemicals, such as aluminum, is safe or beneficial for their immune systems. As such, I will be very selective as to which vaccines my children get from here on in.

I blame myself for not researching the information, from BOTH sides, until now. When I had Luke, I was overwhelmed as a first time mom and just thought that vaccines were absolutely necessary and my doctor would never steer me wrong, blah blah. With Jake, I was so very tired and worn down with all his issues (the allergy and reflux, not to meniton the colic) and the newness of balancing life with an infant and a toddler, that again, I just went with the flow. But not now. Now I have researched and will continue to do so and I will stand my viewpoint, while continuing to respect our pedicatirician's. After all,, she is simply stating her very smart, very well trained and experienced opinion. I, on the other hand, only have my mommy intuition and gut to go by. It has been proven right before and so I will follow it.

Where was this intuition when I had Luke? I just don't know. Luke has been fully vaccinated. The relux is gone and as I've stated, we've mostly combatted the food texture issue, and have replaced it with the picky pre-schooler attitude. Jake up until this point, has also followed the schedule. However, we will no longer be doing that. The MMR will be postponed until he enters school and everything else will have it's own time and place that I will determine.

I also want to add that I would always respect whatever choices other parents make when it comes to vaccines. I don't believe in blaming or making judgements towards any parent--after all, they and only they know what it best for their children. I guess that is my whole point here. Sometimes, parents know best; not doctors and the pharmaceutical companies. And again, I want to stress that I'm not jumping on the anti-vaccine, let's blame it all on the shots wagon. Rather, I'm trying to eliminate as many unnecessary chemicals as I possibly can from my children. Yes, they are everywhere, but whatever I can do, I will. And while we cannot afford to go completely all organic, we will make sacrifices for the really important stuff, that my family eats alot of, such as apples, berries, and lettuce; for this, I will always try to do organic. We will be investing in a garden for the first time this year and I'm really excited about that. I am not going to be a crazy mom who won't let her kid eat pizza, cake, or Chick-fil-A (Heavens, no!), but when I can do better, I will do better for them and for me. But I must confess that french fries (albeit, organic if possible!) and chocolate will always be on my menu and likely on my children's menus as well...after all, life would not be nearly as enjoyable without them!