We got a letter in the mail from our pediatrician this week saying that they would no longer see our children and we needed to find a new doctor.
Why?
Because we refuse to vaccinate our three children.
We are, I mean, we were the only family at this particular practice who refused to vaccinate. Every single family at this doctor’s office vaccinated their children except.for.us. No pressure. They allowed us to still come under the condition that we wait in our vehicle until our exam room was ready so that we would not be exposed to anything or expose anybody else to anything in the waiting room. We obliged. My husband would wait in our van with our kids while I checked them in at the desk and then I’d run out to the van to help him get them rounded up when our room was ready. It wasn’t bad. It wasn’t convenient, but it was definitely manageable and we respected their wishes. We never “preached” against vaccines to them or tried to convince them of why we choose not to. We just said that our reasons were personal, left it at that, and respected their wishes for the visits.
I want you to know that it is not easy to stand by something that so many in our nation believe to be selfish, ignorant and neglectful. Parents like my husband and I are painted as being these conspiracy theorist, uneducated, worry warts who don’t know anything about science or medicine.
We’ve had to endure a lot of fear mongering from this pediatrician. He told us a lot of horror stories trying to make us go against our convictions. We stood there and nodded out of respect for him, but it was frustrating because there are horror stories on both ends of the vaccine spectrum. Unfortunately, only the horror stories of non-vaccinated kids get publicized and validated while the vaccine-related tragedies are swept under the carpet.
Don’t get me wrong, he is a great doctor and I do respect him. I believe that he truly did want what was best for our kids. But there’s more to healthcare than just vaccines.
What I want you to know is that many of the parents who are NOT vaccinating their children are the ones who HAVE done the most research. It is not wrong to question the safety of vaccines and the quantity at which they are given to children.
And that leads me to one of the saddest truths about this controversy: It seems that we are not even allowed to question the safety/necessity/efficacy of vaccines. All things related to our children come under the fiercest scrutiny: cribs, car seats, what you put in the cribs, bottles, breastfeeding, what you eat/drink while pregnant/breastfeeding, toys – plastic, wooden or metal?, etc…
…BUT GOD FORBID anyone questions vaccines – even though they are filled with questionable chemicals that are being directly injected into the bodies of small children at greater and greater quantities.
It doesn’t make us idiots because we want to investigate what is being put into our kids instead of blindly accepting the medical rhetoric.
A couple of great resources (there are many) about vaccines are the National Vaccine Information Center (www.nvic.org) and a documentary called “The Greater Good” which you can view online for free. It is not “anti-vaccine,” but is pro-vaccine safety.
I respect you and your parenting decisions. I’m only asking that you respect mine too, and trust me when I say that I’ve done valid research and conclude that I believe the risks of vaccines outweigh the benefits for my children.
For now, we’ll be looking for a new pediatrician.
What I want you to know about not vaccinating our children
What I Want You to Know is a series of reader submissions. It is an attempt to allow people to tell their personal stories, in the hopes of bringing greater compassion to the unique issues each of us face. If you would like to submit a story to this series, click here. Today’s guest post is by anonymous.