Helen Saul CaseOrthomolecular Medicine News Service
Some folks are pretty appalled that my husband and I had our children vaccinated. People write and tell me that vaccinations are dangerous. They warn me about the side effects of this vaccine and that one. They share alternative, natural ways to improve immunity. What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate. I am sorry that I did not explain myself better the first time. (http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v11n09.shtml)
Let’s fix that.
Vaccinations can be dangerous
You don’t have to tell me this. I already know. I watched my child suffer a severe vaccine reaction before my very eyes. Seeing my 15 month old baby, screaming, trying to walk to me but not being able to because she was stumbling and falling over and uncoordinated, is a vision I will never be able to get out of my mind. It was horrific.
I also watched high dose, saturation level vitamin C return her to normal. I will never forget this either.
But why didn’t I just stop the shots right then and there?
“Choosing” to vaccinate
In the article I wrote: “My husband and I chose to have our children vaccinated.” We did. We could have chosen not to.
We could have said no to all shots by choosing a religious exemption stating that shots are against our sincerely held religious beliefs. We chose not to make this our religion.
Philosophical, personal or conscientiously held belief exemptions to vaccinations are not lawful in New York State where our family lives. We could have chosen to move to a different state where philosophical exemptions are allowed. But we chose not to move.
We could have chosen to just flat out refuse immunizations and go face to face against state government and school districts and child protective services. Ultimately, we chose to comply only with state mandated vaccinations, but just the ones required for school, and no more.
So yes, we chose to have our children vaccinated. Truly, though, we didn’t feel we had much choice. Nobody really does. “Choice” can be taken away in an instant.
Shots for every child
Pay attention: this is important. As states push stronger and more stringent immunization laws onto their citizens, mandatory vaccination is quickly becoming the rule rather than the exception. You can argue about the dangers of vaccinations, but I will just agree with you. That doesn’t change the fact that children are still getting shots every day. Vaccine reactions and side effects are a real danger. Doctors agree. This is the cold hard reality.
I do not agree with all of the shots recommended for children. I do not agree with the timing of shots for children. I do not agree that toddlers and babies and infants should be given shots so early in their life, so many at a clip, and three, and four, and five doses of the same ones over and over again. I do not agree that pregnant mothers of developing babies should be given shots. And I do not condone the fact that no medical or governmental authority instructs parents how to protect against vaccination damage by giving massive doses of vitamin C.
“A young child may receive 49 doses of 14 vaccines before age 6, And 69 doses of 16 vaccines before age 18. It is also worrying when you examine the various ingredients that are present in these vaccines. What does make sense is the use of bowel tolerance amounts of oral vitamin C to counter the toxic effects of vaccines.” – Ken Walker, M.D
My opinion notwithstanding, every year more than 10 million vaccines are given to children less than a year of age (1). Only somewhere between one and ten percent of vaccine reactions are ever reported (2). That one comes as no surprise to us. Our daughter’s pediatrician did not report her vaccine reaction. We did.
In most states, when it comes to vaccinations, you must become an extremist or you must comply. Parents in my state are not allowed to postpone shots for their children past state mandates without medical exemptions. We can only delay them and spread them out within these limitations. Saying yes to some shots and no to others is not permitted; the law does not allow families a “buffet” approach. As states look to tighten the screws on medical exemptions, eliminate philosophical and conscientious exemptions, and even try to (unconstitutionally) limit religious exemptions, it is becoming more likely than not: a needle is going into your child.
And we had all better be ready.
“I feel strongly that vaccinations have to be considered separately as applied to the individual and tracked for effectiveness. There will never be a good vaccine for every infectious disease. I would hope that many will heed the fact that high-dose C does wonders in reducing vaccine side effects.” – Ralph Campbell, M.D.
High dose vitamin C for everybody
High dose vitamin C safely prevents and treats vaccine side effects (3). This has been evident in our experience. We watched high dose, saturation level vitamin C bring our daughter back to health after a vaccine reaction. We watched high dose, saturation level vitamin C prevent vaccination side effects. We give both of our children saturation levels of C before, during (yes, right at the doctor’s office) and after immunizations. We don’t give the amount of vitamin C we think might work; we give enough to get the job done.
This is no small task. It takes determination like you have never had before to get your children to take very high amounts of vitamin C again and again, day after day. It also takes love, patience, understanding, praise, yummy “chasers” after taking vitamin C powder in juice, and when all else fails: straight up bribery.
Keeping kids as healthy as possible takes a great deal of effort. And it is worth it. Even our doctor marvels that our children only visit the office for wellness appointments and vaccinations.
I see it this way: when you are a parent and are breastfeeding or giving a bottle, you don’t just give up if your child doesn’t eat. You see to it that your baby gets the nutrition he or she needs. You do it until. That’s how we feel about vitamin C. It is that important.
No shots until my twenties
In my article I say “We (my husband and I) believe some immunizations to be worthwhile.” And I do. Two, in fact.
In in my twenties, I received a single tetanus shot after I stepped on a nail that went up through my foot while I was walking through an old barn. Horse dung naturally carries tetanus bacteria and can survive dormant in encased spores for decades (4). While the chance was probably quite slim that I would actually end up with tetanus, I thought it a “good idea” to get a tetanus shot under such circumstances. So did my doctor. I got the shot and took lots of vitamin C too.
I also received a single dose of an MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine years before I became pregnant. My doctor made a case for this one being a good idea if I wanted to have a family. Getting measles while pregnant can result in serious problems for a developing baby. We discussed if any other shots would also be worth the inherent risk. The answer was no. Again, I took vitamin C to bowel tolerance. I was spared any ill effects from the MMR inoculation.
So yes, this would mean I believe some shots are worthwhile. I, myself, have had two. But there’s more to it than that. I did not have a single shot as a child. My parents chose to use vitamins and nutrition as the answers to (and more often for the prevention of) our health problems. Not surprisingly, we were really healthy kids. I was raised all the way into college with no shots, and no antibiotics either. They used vitamins instead because they are safe and they work. But this was a very tough road for my parents and for me to travel. That road is even more difficult to navigate now with so much more pressure to vaccinate and more vaccinations to be pressured for.
We all want healthy kids
We must meet parents where they are. While we work to mandate vaccine safety, demand informed consent, and advocate for real choice, when it comes to whether or not to vaccinate, let’s minimize any chance of vaccine damage now. Children are powerless. We aren’t. Whether we have a choice to vaccinate or not, let’s choose to give them vitamin C and lots of it.
