Published: 20:54, 25 March 2015
When I first became a Mum, I never questioned getting my children vaccinated. It was just what you did when you have children – you do what your doctor tells you, because they know best.
Out of our six vaccinated children, our 16, 12 and 10-year-old have moderate to severe Autism, our 25-year-old has ADHD, our 14-year-old has a severe language disorder, and our 20-year-old has severe mood swings.
They also suffered from chronic ear infections, bronchiolitis, asthma, eczema, psoriasis, urinary infections, gastrointestinal and autoimmune disorders, allergies, chemical sensitivities and intolerances.
We tried genetic testing to look for answers, but no reason was found for our children’s afflictions. So I started looking for answers on my own. I read books, went to seminars, read all the scientific studies I could get my hands on and that’s when I discovered that our family was not the only one.
There were many other families suffering from the same issues as ours.
This realization led us to not vaccinate our five and eight-year-old old and they have thrived because of it. Out of all their siblings they should have been the most susceptible to genetic problems considering that I was in my late thirties when I had them and was overweight.
Yet our two youngest never had to suffer through the many illnesses that their brothers and sisters did.
Not because they had never been exposed to illness because like all preschool and school children, they had been. But they had a resilience that had been taken from their siblings.
They have never had or needed an antibiotic in their lives, but more importantly they had none of their sibling’s disorders.
This was an especially bitter sweet realisation for me, as I looked at them and realised just how much my other children had lost because of me.
I had to come to terms with the fact that my ignorance about what I allowed to be put in to my children’s bodies had caused at least two (possibly three) of my children to NEVER be able to have the chance to be independent, fall in love and have a family. That when I die, they face the possibility of living with strangers who don’t love them the way they deserve to be loved.
People need to realise that vaccination is not one size fits all, that there are families in your community that are struggling with the harm that vaccines have caused.
Have we so quickly forgotten Saba Button, Lachlan Neylan [both toddlers were left severely disabled following flu shots in 2010 and 2012, respectively], and Ashley Epapara? [who died a day after receiving a flu shot in 2010] This is why vaccination must always remain a choice – otherwise we are saying that some children matter more than others.
This issue has been thrown in to the spotlight once again by the tragic loss of four week old Riley Hughes to Whooping Cough. My heart goes out to this family – no parent should ever have to suffer through the death of their child.
Unfortunately a few journalists have seized on this tragedy to create more hatred and animosity towards innocent children and their families.
They are recklessly setting parents against each other and in the process they are doing a great disservice to this family and to the other families that are not aware of the shortcomings of this vaccine.
In 2009 a fully vaccinated nurse is suspected to have infected four infants with Whooping cough in a maternity ward in Sydney, as well as several studies since then that show that this vaccine is not providing the protection that our children deserve.
n 1991 we had a 71 per cent vaccination rate for Whooping Cough, yet there were only 347 cases, but in 2011 with a vaccination rate of over 92 per cent, we had over 38,000 cases. How can the unvaccinated be to blame?
Pregnant women need to be aware that vaccine product inserts say that the effect of this vaccine on the development of the embryo and foetus has not been assessed. Vaccination in pregnancy is not recommended unless there is a definite risk of acquiring pertussis.
The attacking of parents whether they vaccinate or not needs to stop, because at the end of the day we all love our children dearly, and we all want what is best for them and for all children.
Divisiveness is not the answer and it never will be, we will only find real solutions when the fighting stops and open discussion begins.
Tasha David is president of the Australian Vaccination-skeptics Network.