Vaccinations

DISCLAIMER: You should know before reading this post that these are my personal feelings and some or many of you may not agree with them. I fully believe that everyone has the right to their own opinion. But this is my personal blog, full of my personal thoughts and I will post I how I feel about things on it. 

This is not a something that is always easy to talk to other mothers about. We all have our opinions about what is best for our kids and what isn't. I am only writing about this today because of a Law & Order that I watched recently. In this episode a young girl dies from measles because she played at a park with a kid that hadn't been immunized and passed on the virus unknowingly. I believe that vaccinations are important. I have had my kids immunized for everything except chicken pox. I spoke to my kids doctors and I spoke to other parents before I made this decision. Chicken pox are something that I feel like all of us went thru as a child. Chicken pox become more dangerous the older we get and doctors cant say for sure that after someone gets the vaccine that wont still get the virus. When Carolina was born it was only one shot, but by the time Laney was born it had changed (a couple of times actually) to kids needing a booster after a couple of years and possibly another one in adulthood. I worry about my kids not getting chicken pox as kids and then it always being something that looms over them. What if their kids get chicken pox. They wont be able to be 100% sure that they wont get sick. Where if they had gotten it as a child themselves they would be immune. I know there are bad cases of chicken pox, but as a child you itch and have a bit of a fever and then its gone right? As an adult it can kill you. 

But now there are other more dangerous and deadly diseases showing up all the time now that were supposed to be completely wiped out. I recently heard of actual cases of whooping cough! Whooping cough for Pete's sake. I don't feel like I have the right to tell other parents what is and is not right for their kids, but I do believe that my kids have the right to be safe. Measles kills... especially kids under 1 year that are to young to have been vaccinated for it. If I go to a park or to pick my kids up from daycare with my baby in tow I shouldn't have to worry that my baby is going to get sick and die from something that was preventable. What is the point of buying organic foods and working so hard to make sure there are no poisons or pesticides in your foods or in the materials that make your clothing if you are going to open yourself up to a deadly deceases that are a whole lot more dangerous then some parabens "could" be. I myself buy organic as possible and I try to give my kids healthy foods. We as parents already have so much to worry about. Do we really need to add to that by inviting these viruses into our lives when the medical world has found a way to protect us and our kids? What I really want is for my kids to be healthy. I don't know very many people that would go into a third world country without getting vaccinations or would even drink the tap water there because they know the risks of getting sick are high. By parents choosing not to vaccinate they are raising the risks of our kids getting sick here at home. 

In the same breath I will offer that I don't agree with "telling" a parent that they have to do something with their kids. And taking away their personal choices about raising their kids. I do however believe that they should have to FULLY understand the consequences of their actions. Why do vaccinations feel like something that just happens to our kids? Why is there not more time spent teaching people about them before kids are born? When did they become something so scary that parents would rather face the chance that their babies could contract these HORRIBLE diseases instead of getting them a shot in the arm? If there was a shot that could make your child immune to HIV or AIDS would you elect not to get it for them? If there was a single shot that would completely wipe out cancer from the world, would you not give it to your kids because there is a million in one chance that they could have an adverse reaction? Or even a one in a thousand chance? I'm sure I'm not the first to ask this question. But I would like to know what you think. Am I missing something? Is there some reason why making our kids unsafe and putting other kids at risk makes more sense? Or is this all more about not being told what we will and wont do with our kids? Is this more about not being told what to do? Is our pride really worth that???