Divided and Confused.

I'm learning this natural living path has quite a few stumbling stones, and I've recently encountered one that made me trip. Hard. Face first into a pile of confusion.

Vaccinations.

I will start by stating this. I am not a medical professional. I am not making any recommendations for you or your family. I will not sit here and pretend that I am an expert on vaccinations. I will simply agree to confess this:

I am confused.

Vaccinations. This one seemingly innocent word carries a heavy load and has the power to stir up heated disagreements amongst the closest of friends. Most people, I'm learning, are divided into two political-like camps - extremely for them or extremely against them.

I'll be honest. Prior to several months ago, I never thought twice about vaccinations. It was a part of our routine pediatrician visits and I never missed any of my kiddie's scheduled appointments.

Here's my stumbling stone now. When Daniel turned four, he got his four year vaccines, just as planned. I was convinced I was doing the right thing. He received the scheduled:
DTap
MMR
IPV and
Varicella

They were supposed to protect him from pertussis, tetanus, diphtheria, measles, mumps, rubella, polio, and chicken pox. Sounded like a good thing.

However, Daniel had severe reactions from them. Weeks after his vaccinations, he began developing allergic symptoms that worsened. It began as the sniffles and watery eyes, but then he developed a severe cough. His cough got worse and they began testing different medications concerned his cough was lasting longer than three months. He started losing weight and developed black circles under his eyes. The doctors couldn't figure out what was going on. They began testing allergy medications, but those didn't work. Then cough medicines, but those didn't work either. And for the first time in his life, he developed chronic ear infections. They placed him on antibiotics which only made him more sick. He couldn't eat and was complaining of stomach cramps. He would wake up in the morning and vomit. Stressed beyond belief, we began seeking other doctors' opinions and finally found a regimen of natural supplements that have helped Daniel's health incredibly.

I won't claim that the vaccinations caused Daniel's severe reactions, but I will claim that I now question everything that goes into my children's bodies. Everything. I can no longer give a green light to everything that is routinely offered until I have thoroughly researched it. Does that make me a Moderate? Am I allowed to consider the vaccines, research them, and then decide if we'll go ahead with this one or that one?

The reality is, there is too much to question, to not question. I want to know if some of these ingredients are harmful, like formaldehyde and mercury or thimerosal. I want to know if my children have related allergies. Or if there is a co-relation to learning disabilities.  Just recently, the Center for Disease Control released its latest findings that 1 in every 6 children in the US now has a learning disability. 1 in 6. Scary!

It took a bad experience to get me thinking about vaccinations. And although I don't have all of the answers nor do I claim to know what the best ones for us are yet, I do know this:

We have options.
We have options and this Moderate momma is going to dig her way out of this pile eventually.