Is all this true?

[LKRA]

http://www.cafemom.com/group/4388/forums/read/748025/Choosing_not_to_vax_is_a_LIFESTYLE

 

This is my fear. IS it a lifestyle? If I choose not to vaccinate my daughter, and we keep living our lives the way that we've been living them, are we going to make her sick? Are we going to hurt her?

[Leslillli]

i think it is a lifestyle, but one for the better. the suggestions in that post are good suggestions just to live a healthier life. so if the lifestyle you are living now is an unhealthy one, you may want to consider some changes. but remeber you also need to be healthy to be able to fight a vaccine shot and a vaccine will not help band aide over an unhealthy lifestyle issues.

 

[jellyphish]

Making healthy choices is a lifestyle, not vaccinating falls under that lifestyle.  If you eat fast food all the time, if you drink soda all the time, if you smoke and smoke around your kids, if you don't get adequate sleep, if you hang out around people you know are sick, if you hang out around people when you are sick, etc... you're more susceptible to disease and spreading it whether you vaccinate or not.

You can still live a totally normal life and not vaccinate.  Vaccinations do not create a sterile bubble, unvaccinated does not mean diseased. 

There are plenty of ways of preventing disease without shots, society tends to view shots as a quick way to fix it up.  That's where the lifestyle comes in- we need to work to make sure our kids are healthy, but truth be told people who vaccinate should be doing that too.

Keep reading and asking questions, you'll get there.

[Kayere]

It is a lifestyle. But its more towards being informed and aware in my opinion. You learn how the immune system works. You learn that sugar hurts the immune system so you shy away from it. You drink water. You give probiotics and any other suppliments you feel your kid needs. I only give my son probiotics and Fish oil. You make what food you can yourself, if you can buy organic. You are not going to hurt your kid by not sticking to this lifestyle

This of it in the way of chemicals. There are chemicals in everything. In vaccines. In food. In products we use. In the air. Taking out vaccines simply cuts back on chemicals which can never be a bad thing. Its just taking something bad that is hintering the immune system out. You just take the things you can out of your kids body.

The immune system is a perfect, wonderful thing. The more extra crap that gets put in it, the more muddled it gets. Look up what % of chance vaccines actually work. Look up how many vaccinated children still get these diseases. Look up how many of these diseases the vaccinated kids get that are mutated BECAUSE of the vaccine. Vaccines in alot of cases do not make diseases better, they make them worse when a child gets them. Look up how many years it takes for the immunity to wane on these vaccines. When was the last time you got a booster? Vaccines all wane within about 7 years.

[ladysavage]

I don't think you'll find anyone on this board who would say "Oh... you don't do X? Oh well maybe you SHOULD vaccinate then..."

(X could be breastfeeding, eating organically, etc..)

As well intended as that post may have been, it does come across in the wrong way (as in if you don't do all these things then you shouldn't be a non-vaxer), and I can see why you may have got the wrong idea.

I think that post was to just suggest what that particular person thought was the right thing for everyone to do - and that's fine if they want to do all those things, but it's not that easy for everyone.

There is no reason to change anything just because you choose not to vaccinate - we sure didn't. I do breastfeed anyway, and we eat healthily ( not ridiculously so though) - but organic where I am = bloody expensive and we don't go out of our way to buy anything organic.

We are also big on dairy produce in our house.

Those things on that list are all very good ideas to stay healthy in general - but if they are not things that you do normally - then you don't HAVE to change anything, it's just good advice intended to help others.

I would not for a minute consider vaccinating my daughter just because I don't follow somebody elses ideas though  - I believe that not vaccinating is one of  the best choices any kind of family can make - no matter where they are what they drink and eat and how they feed their baby.

 

 

[Kari78]

IMO, there's really nothing out of the ordinary in that post.  What is it that you do or don't do that's mentioned there?  You said you breastfeed.  Does your kid drink water and eat fruit and veggies (if old enough)?  Do you smoke, and if you do, do you keep the smoke away from the kid(s)?  Really the only thing I see there that stands out as something many people can't do all the time is organics.  If that's the only thing, it's MUCH safer to eat conventional foods and still not vax.  There's no point in compromising your immune system even more with vaccines. 

That's basically standard info on how to be healthy...eat right, drink water, exercise.  BUT even if you don't do that...we live in a very healthy country, generally speaking.  We have universally clean water, we have good hospitals, we have working sewer systems.  There are a lot of places where even these things aren't true.  But as it is, IMO you can do basically anything here (including eat pizza and drink beer every day), and still be healthier unvaxed than vaxed. 

HOWEVER, if you have information about how to be healthier, and if it doesn't cost you anything (or much beyond what would be affordable), why not do it?  Kids don't need to drink soda all the time, etc. in order to have fun and be kids.

[kk_bella]

I believe it is all true, but I do not believe that if you fail to adhere to some of them that means you should vaccinate your child.

Both of my kids drank breastmilk but for no longer than the first 5 months of their lives. I still do not vaccinate. I know it would have been better had I continued to breastfeed them, but I stopped and what's done is done.

Yes, not vaccinating is absolutely a lifestyle, IMO. It means taking responsibility for your own health, knowing a little bit of medical information, etc.

[happytexasCM]

An immune system needs to be strong to deal with vaccines as well. I don't see how adding vaccines to an unhealthy lifestyle will benefit the recipient.

[Kari78]

I think the post is misleading, as well...it's good info, but it doesn't follow that you have to do all those things (or any of them really) in order to be better off vaxed than unvaxed.

Anyway, I think LKRA left the group...I searched for her name and it's not there.

[milfalicious08]

I'm not incredibly active in this group...I prefer to read, and educate myself.  Since i'm still in the education process, I don't feel I have enough to add that isn't already known, however I did want to chime in here.

I know you're a BF advocate so let me try to explain this to you in terms of BFing.

While it's best for both mom AND baby that a BFing mom doesn't smoke or drink, it's determined that one or two drinks on occasion is okay.  Smoking and BFing is still better than smoking and FF. 

So in terms of vaccinating, it's still better to live a "normal" life and not vax, than it is to continue that life AND vax. 

I hope that made sense. 

The post you're speaking of made me think I would do more harm than good to my child if I chose not to vax, but the more I read on here, the more I realized that not EVERY non-vaxing parent lives this way.  And after reading it several times, it made me think "how ELSE can I keep my family healthy?"  I joined a "Green" group to learn more.  I think that is the point of the lifestyle post.  To give other ideas on how to be as healthy as possible.  You don't have to do all of it, and let's face it, organic food is super expensive, but ever little bit that you DO do helps.