Green Our Vaccines

Going Green is a word we're all hearing quite a lot in present day, but one thing you may not think of greening-up is our infant and children vaccinations. Since my little guy is still receiving vaccinations, this is a hot-topic issue each time I visit the doctor's office.

I made the controversial decision to slightly delay both of my boy's vaccinations. I will only allow, at maximum, two shots at a time. They push for the standard four and I simply put my foot down. With my first child it never occurred to me that I had the final say over what happened at the doctor's office. If the doctor said, "She needs four shots today." I silently disagreed, but went along with his decision because I assumed he knew best. After doing exhausting research, reading views from both sides of the vaccination debate, I have decided that not vaxing is not an option, but neither is vaxing on the standard schedule.

I found a snippet from a website that explains fairly well why I am joining the movement to green-up our vaccinations. It is explaining the harmful chemicals found in MANY brands of vaccinations.

(http://www.vaccinationdebate.com/web5.html)
Some of these chemicals and elements include formaldehyde which is commonly used to embalm corpses and is a known carcinogen (capable of causing cancer), thiomersal, a derivative of mercury which is a toxic heavy metal, aluminium phosphate which is a toxin used in deodorants. Other toxic ingredients include phenol (carbolic acid), alum (a preservative), and acetone which is a volatile solvent used in fingernail polish remover.

In many children, the retention of vaccine poisons within the body may not cause any acute or noticeable symptoms, but it will cause a lowering of the child's vitality, which in turn, weakens and impairs it's intellectual, creative and imaginative powers, it's physical energy and strength, and all of its internal metabolic functions and immune activities. What this means is that the child will operate at a level well below its true potential.

Medical professionals and some scientists continue to convince us that there is no link between autism and vaccinations; considering they are hand in hand with the pharmaceutical companies makes me wary of believing them. How can pumping this amount of chemicals into our INFANTS at such young ages cause absolutely no harm or change to their little bodies? I'm not buying it.

(http://www.gulfwarvets.com/kids.htm)
Since the 1930s, when children often received just one vaccination, many immunizations have contained a 49.6 percent mercury preservative called thimerosal. Most children today receive 33 doses of 10 vaccines by age 5, generally receiving several vaccines per visit on their immunization schedules. Reports surfaced in 1999 that infants being vaccinated using multi-dose vials, such as hepatitis B and MMR (measles, mumps and rubella), with thimerosal can receive 62.5 micrograms of mercury per visit. This is 100 times the exposure federal Environmental Protection Guidelines consider safe for the average-sized infant, as mercury is known to cause neurotoxicity and brain damage that mirrors the symptoms of autism. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, is encouraging the development of thimerosal-free doses and has withdrawn its recommendation that infants receive the thimerosal-containing hepatitis B vaccine at birth. However, the CDC maintains that mercury in vaccines never has caused an adverse reaction and is not pulling thimerosal-containing vaccines off the shelves.

If this isn't cause for concern, then what is?

With my fears overwhelming me, I took my little guy to our favorite place to get immunizations... our county health department. The nurses there are simply wonderful. They have more information to share on a variety of topics as compared to the nurses at our Dr's office that simply tend to shrug and say, "Umm..I really don't know."

I spoke with two nurses when I went to get one of Samuel's shots a few weeks ago. We talked about how he had four immunizations he needed and I explained to them my fears, especially taking into consideration one was the MMR. (Measles, Mumps, Rubella) We talked about what brand of vaccines they use there and what ingredients they contain. They admitted they had no idea... but they did assure me that the health department ONLY buys thimerosal free products. They offered to get the ingredient information for me the next time I came in.

Yesterday was the next time I was there, and true to their word they had pulled the ingredient lists for two of the vaccinations I was possibly getting for Samuel that day. We reviewed it together and I was delighted to see that this brand was completely preservative free. The nurse said that that wasn't surprising to her because, "these immunizations have a very short shelf life, and we have to be extremely careful with the temperatures they're kept in and how they're handled." THANK YOU HEALTH DEPARTMENT! Samuel received his two big mean shots and we will go back in a month or so for one more, and I will possibly delay his MMR until next year. More research on my part will help me decide.

So, you might be wondering, why don't all doctor's offices buy the same kind of vaccines as our health department?

The answer: money and convenience. Would you want to buy a cheaper, longer lasting product that requires less caution when handling, or a shorter lasting, more work on your part product?

Thankfully, many responsible doctor's offices are signing up to go as green as possible with vaccinations.. but you need to be sure your doctor is one of them. Simply ask for the ingredients list off of the vaccinations your infant/child needs. It is really that easy. This easy request could potentially make a difference in the overall health and life of your child.

If you are interested in a delayed vaxing schedule, Dr. Sears and Dr. Cave both offer them. (Dr. Sear's site is linked on my site.)