Autism Answer: Consider This - Questions, Vaccines, and Brand New Parents

I woke up to this text from myself -

Consider This: People aren't questioning vaccines to be assholes or conspiracy theorists. Instead, they feel obligated to protect children. And injecting them with lab grown viruses [often of unknown origin] toxic preservatives and adjuvants [even in small doses] even BEFORE little bodies have begun to get strong enough to maybe handle it, fills them with questions. Seems legit, right? 

Encourage questions that give you discomfort. That's where our heaviest answers have settled. Let's unsettle them, dust them off, [examine the dust] take them apart, and explore every inch. 

I guess I fell asleep before I could tell myself why I wanted to tell this to myself? I had been fighting the flu after nursing my nieces through it, and felt almost deliriously exhausted when I'd sent myself the text. It was, you know, the sort of thing you don't generally bother to share in a blog post.

But, you know me. I generally love sharing random messages to myself with you in my blog posts. 

So, here we are. 

Hi there. :D 

Now, the text didn't come out of absolute nothingness. The immune system, natural medicines, over the counter meds and prescription interventions, had been the issue of the week as children and adults were getting sick in a house that holds a six month old baby. 

Hence, we were immersed in a world of research and action, our desire to protect the children heightened and exposed. 

We are incredibly lucky that the baby (my granddaughter) is nearly entirely breastfed - we have formula for when her mom is working, my son is home, and pumped milk is gone - since being breastfed makes likelihood of the illness hitting her hard far less likely. Particularly because she hasn't been recently vaccinated. A recent vaccine would put her at high risk due to compromised immunity and mom's milk lacking precise antibodies. In fact, the one time my entirely breastfed niece got extremely ill as an infant was soon after a vaccine. The illness wasn't from the vaccine, but rather partially because of it. My sister's milk wasn't protecting her from the virus (since my sister wasn't exposed to the virus, only the baby was, and the baby wasn't merely exposed, it was injected into her bloodstream) so while trying to fight the illness herself my niece was vulnerable. Enter a new virus, and sick as she was she refused to eat the healthy helpful breastmilk. 

Now, this is the type of information we wanted to know in order to keep my granddaughter healthy while taking care of my sick twin nieces. This is also the sort of thing too many people get cruelly attacked for discussing. 

And I haven't even brought up much. This isn't even controversial stuff. This is mainstream already agreed upon info. 

Not only have I been taking action on building and bolstering immunities due to the flu, also my sons and their wives are new parents, researching for and caring about their young babies in the hopes of making their most informed and confident decisions as parents. (Oh, boy. Those of us who have been parents for long know how many surprises they're in for while they try to "get it right" as moms and dads! What a ride!)

Watching them navigate this new way of being, this new building of themselves and a family that is so much more than they imagined, is so darn lovely! 

Yet, everywhere they look there are cruel name calling images and "jokes" meant to make a parent feel horrible and even evil and the laughing stock of the world for various decisions. Most commonly, it seems, about vaccines.   

How terrible!

Parents. Are. Trying. 

It takes courage to ask questions that others deem unaskable. It takes courage to inject your child with a vaccine and it takes courage not to. 

If you choose to vaccinate and your child is harmed, how dare the world give you more guilt? Who does that help? (To be fair, most people who question vaccines are calling out companies and organizations, not parents, but some do.)

If you choose not to vaccinate and your child gets an illness for which a vaccine exists (aside: often it is believed to be healthier for the child and society in the long run if we do get some of these illnesses) and there is a life-altering complication, how dare the world pile on the hurt? (I confess, these are the cruelest memes I've seen, often claiming that parents who choose an alternate vaccine schedule, or no vaccines at all, are choosing to murder their children.)

Consider This: People are asking questions because people should always ask questions. That's how we work together to uncover answers. 

Yes, some answers hurt to discover because we are exposed as having been complicit in a crime we were unaware we were committing. But those answers are most necessary for us to explore. They hurt less the sooner we take time to explore them.

Do or don't vaccinate - choose a schedule that matches your family, your child, your movements around the world, your beliefs, and do this while asking questions and uncovering answers. 

In fact, you will for sure find out later that sometimes you asked the wrong questions or accepted the wrong answers (although, often they were right for you at the time) but more importantly you will become practiced in asking the questions that matter to you, discovering (or inventing) answers that work for you, and in doing so build self-confidence as a person and parent, and turn up the volume on your voice. Maybe only for yourself and your family, but that is enough. 

Your family, your tribe, your people, they are your biggest heaviest answer and you'll never be finished learning from or understanding them.

Encourage questions, for you and them. 

Hugs, smiles, and love!! 
Autism Answers with Tsara Shelton (Facebook) 

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To read a bit more about my personal experiences with vaccinations (heads up, my sons are all entirely vaccinated) follow this link to a guest post I was honored and invited to write: What Having a Weird Mom Herself Taught this Mama about Children's Health 

Autism Answer: Vaccines and Autism: A (Valid) Distraction

In the autism community there is a battle that rages. Well, there are a few, but none seem to be as emotionally charged as the vaccine wars. Are vaccines linked to autism? Are they the cause? Are they a trigger? Are they absolutely unrelated and a convenient scapegoat for those desperate for answers?

Well, I don’t know. What I do know is that the fighting has become a pretty useful distraction for those interested in taking away our right to choose and to educate ourselves freely.

It is not wacky or conspiracy conjuring to imagine why and how Big Pharma and even the CDC would want us forced into an intense immunization schedule. The amazing advances in medicine cost money, the millions of people employed in a system that saves lives costs money, there is the fear of polio, measles, mumps, rubella and meningitis, the habit of Band-aiding problems as they arise rather than admit to mistakes,  the money that can be made while medicating said problems, I get it. But that doesn’t make it okay.

Why are parents who dare to ask vaccination questions so openly painted as bad parents? Often accused of risking the death of their child for fears of disability, chronic health issues and more? Should parents not be applauded when they question what is being forced into their little ones? It's not (usually) a fear of autism or other specific disability that has them questioning the shot schedule and ingredients, but rather a natural protective parenting instinct. Almost always they are asking for safe vaccines, not no vaccines.

And why are parents who wait patiently in waiting rooms in order to vaccinate their loved ones often treated as uneducated sheep, following the herd? Though pro-vaccination is the bigger camp, it is still true that parents who believe in keeping their children safe by following the recommended vaccine schedule often find themselves looked down upon by moms and dads who feel "better than" or "smarter than" for having done all kinds of research, digging deep into science and studies, to come to a different conclusion. 

Like most great distractions, the links between immunizations, inflammation, immune disorders, seizures, autism etc. need to be explored; with honesty and integrity. However, the question of whether a body of others—government for example—has the right to tell you that you must stick lab baked viruses, preservatives and human tissue (along with its DNA) into your child, or yourself, is where the conversations narrative should be centered.

*An Honest Aside: I am neither for nor against vaccinations. I believe that both choices carry risks. I am for safe vaccines even if they are more expensive. I am for freedom and transparency. Lofty goals? Why yes!

When my mom, who is an international brain expert specializing in autism, was interviewed on a morning show in Uganda, the host nearly fell out of his chair after she revealed that the kind hearted volunteers he had mentioned were injecting viruses in the children. He was under the impression that it was a drug. Had he been lied to? Had he just misunderstood?

Again, I don’t know. But I’ll bet it wasn’t explained clearly because people who love children, and love helping, felt a need to save the little darlings. The end justifies the means.

I am of the opinion that we should not be lied to, and that we should have the freedom to make our own choices, even if those choices are perceived by others as dangerous. Yes, even if your choice may put me in danger. I like laws and rules, but a bare minimum. Ask my boys!

My Vaccination Story: When I was a young mom, taking my boys for their shots felt wonderful and very "mom" like. I didn’t even wonder what was in the vaccine. I had always believed that introducing a bit of virus to our immune system so it could study the enemy seemed brilliant and all natural, which was enough for me. I truly just loved playing the part of responsible mom. No part of me feels guilt or shame for having vaccinated my boys then. I chose it with pride!

When my youngest son was born they wanted to vaccinate him straight out of the womb. I didn’t like it, but chose to ignored the little nagging I felt. I’m not comfortable with confrontation and it was easy to assume they knew what they were doing. My son soon began to avoid eye contact, was sensory challenged, vomited constantly, had seizures, and still has a struggling immune system. I never wondered about the vaccine connection out loud, after all he had been moments old when he received the shots so there was no reason to assume things would have been different without them. However, the thought bounced around my brain a bit.

But that’s not the climatic (to me) event in my vaccine story. It was a few years later, when I was told that my boys had to get a shot for chickenpox if I wanted them to continue in school. Everything in me screamed no. Chickenpox? Most of us have been through it and our bodies have become so much stronger for it. And the intermittent exposure we adults have to kids with the virus acts as a natural booster, protecting many of us from shingles. How will we get our natural boosters if no one has chickenpox? Also, by this time I had grown-up enough to know better than to see these man-made concoctions as "all natural". This vaccine was new, and I was very uncomfortable. My gut turned and I didn’t feel right. However, I took my boys and did what I was told. That day it was I who avoided eye contact. With my children, with the nurses, with my family, I choked back tears and looked away for fear of seeing me in their eyes. It wasn’t so much about the varicella shot, in truth I knew nothing at all about it, or the potential benefits and dangers. It was because I felt trapped and afraid. It’s my "vaccination story" because I hadn’t been willing to risk dirty looks and confrontation, I didn’t feel educated enough to argue any points, I had been told that it had to be done or I would be reported to Family Services, and saying no because I was uncomfortable (or because I didn’t know enough to say yes comfortably) is frowned upon. This is a painful memory because I hadn’t stepped up and taken care of my kids my own way, but rather failed them by fearing the judgments of others.

So I ask that we not look down at people who remember a time when hand washing was considered ludicrous, when ‘night gasses’ were believed to cause malaria and mosquito nets were for loons, who remember when GMO’s were a potentially safe solution to the hunger problem, or when smoking Tobacco was being touted as safe by the CDC. Parents who have seen that just because smoking causes cancer in one person and not another, while still others get cancer that is completely unrelated to cigarettes at all, does not mean that smoking doesn’t cause cancer.  I ask that we not treat them as though they don’t have the right to ask questions, and consider all options, when it comes to what they do-- or do not-- consider healthy for their child.

And I beg that we continue to see how amazing we are as humans—having created vaccines, life -saving medications, cellular phones and espresso machines —and to remember that it’s only with freedom and a curious nature that we will continue to surprise ourselves and make advances of such import.

The vaccines and autism connection is a worthy distraction, but let’s please remember that it is a freedom to decide for ourselves that we need to keep our eye on!  The freedom to choose and learn the truth.

“If the people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.”  -Thomas Jefferson  

"I'd rather live in a world that often allows the criminal to remain free, than one that often locks away the innocent. There are mistakes on every side, I'd rather live with the mistakes of freedom."~Tsara Shelton (me!)

Hugs, smiles, and love!!!
Autism Answers with Tsara Shelton (Facebook)