Just in case you didn't know, I am sort of weird. I breastfeed my kids, some of them until they were big enough to ask in complete sentences, some not so long. I have had three children without any medications. I had one of my babies at home, on purpose, without drugs, with a midwife, on purpose. Some of my children are vaccinated, none of them all the way.

Why, you might ask, would I do these things. (I am fully aware that the previous sentence needed more punctuation than I gave it, but I am not up to quotation marks and question marks today.) I do these things because I believe they are what is best for MY children. A friend sent me to the link below today. I was quite, well, I was angry after I read it.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071018/ap_on_re_us/vaccine_skeptics

I am NOT a vaccine skeptic, as the article implies. I am NOT using a religious waiver in some sort of underhanded way to get out of vaccinating my children. I see my pediatrician on a regular basis. It would be EASIER for me to vaccinate my children than to get a religious waiver for them, but I choose to do the hard thing!

My favorite statement was about the complete safety of vaccines and that studies conducted have shown NO LINK between vaccines and autism. Here come a conspiracy theory headline. Guess who performs the studies? Guess who funds the studies? Guess who APPROVES the vaccines for mass marketing? The companies who MANUFACTURE the vaccines also pay for the studies. I wonder what they will say! I think they will definitely say that their multibillion dollar products cause children to lose skills, to become withdrawn, to become unable to function in typical social situation, and that their vaccines should be pulled from the market immediately. Um, no? They didn't find that? I wonder what happened.

No I don't! Do I think vaccines cause autism? I think that in some cases vaccines can cause problems in certain children. Do I think that if I give MY children vaccines it will cause them to become autistic? Probably not.

However, do I think that injecting my TWO MONTH OLD with a variety of dead germs mixed with all kinds of chemicals to help combat 4-8 various diseases is a good idea, um NO!

Do I think that injecting my five year old with a vaccine that will MAYBE prevent him from getting one of the most innocuous childhood diseases in the world that will maybe last him 10 years, or maybe5 is a good idea? Nope! I say, let that kid get the chicken pox! Yes, there are children with compromised immune systems who NEED the chicken pox vaccine. The vaccine was developed for those children. However the company decided it could make WAY more money if ALL the kids in the US got shot so they didn't get chicken pox. I would much rather my five year old catch the chicken pox, take some oatmeal baths, watch some movies, then have life long immunity, thank you very much.

How about the new HPV vaccine that "prevents cancer." Um, the one that has been pushed so hard and now has almost 2000 reactions REPORTED in the few years it has been available. No thank you, I do not care for my child to be your guinea pig.

I know that God doesn't make mistakes. I know that my children are strong and healthy. I know that vaccines can do and have done good. I also know that I choose for MY children not to get them. Just because the church I attend doesn't have a banner stating that vaccines are evil, I am usurping the government by getting a religious waiver. Wow, personal freedom is shrinking each and every day.