Not gonna do it. Wouldn't be prudent at this juncture.

Tim and I attended Dr. Mayer Eisenstein's "Don't Vaccinate Before You Educate" seminar last night. We've been hemming and hawing over whether or not to give Jackson vaccinations. This is something we've been researching and pondering since I was pregnant. We've read books, researched articles, watched videos, gone to seminars, discussed it with our parent friends, talked about it with our doctors, thought about it some more, prayed about it, researched the CDC statistics...when we found this seminar, we decided that after this one last tidbit of education we would force ourselves to come to a conclusion. It's been an ongoing research project for about a year now! On one hand, there's the disease protection. And on the other hand there's...a slew of really good reasons to avoid the vaccines altogether.

Some of the reasons are just gross. Like the fact that some of the vaccines were sourced from aborted fetal tissue. Ew ew. Some of the reasons are chemical. Like the vaccines contain some chemicals that I'd rather not inject into my son. Mercury and preservatives, oh my! Some of the reasons are logical. Like, more people die from adverse reactions to the vaccinations than actually die from contracting the illness the vaccine is meant to prevent. It's a lot to consider!

There is nothing, not one single thing, that I do with respect to my son's health that I take lightly. When he was born, we researched birthing methods (decided natural was best, but we were unable to avoid a c-section), circumcision choices (we decided: his foreskin, his choice. Far be it from me to decide how he wants his body to look. We left him intact). There's really a lot to decide.

Last night in the seminar, there was a mother present who had partially vaccinated her oldest son. He is now autistic and she fully blames the vaccinations for this. I guess statistically, autism shows up in 1 in 166 children. However, in an unvaccinated population, that number is greatly reduced. Of the over 20,000 unvaccinated children in the Homefirst practice, only 3 are autistic. While this "evidence" is greatly anecdotal, it was enough to sway me. It was the one final little opinion-making push that we needed. Imagine being that mother with a high-needs child who will be impaired for the rest of his life. And now imagine thinking, believing with your whole heart that his problems are a direct result of a choice you made. I couldn't live with myself. It would hurt my heart every day to think that I did that to my baby.

We've determined that we're going to claim the Religious Exemption as allowed by the State of Illinois (a Religious Exemption is available in every state, some states also provide for a philosophical exemption). We believe that babies are created in the image of God, that we are fearfully and wonderfully made and that God's creation must not be tampered with.

So, let's review: I cloth diaper, co-sleep, baby wear, would have breastfed for an extended period if a milk supply ever came in, practice attached parenting, don't circumcise, and don't vaccinate. We buy and eat organic, compost and recycle everything we can. Even our pets eat organic pet food. Who ever would have thought that I'd end up being such a tree-hugging hippie?

Pardon me, I need to go apply some Patchouli.

Hey man, is that Freedom Rock? WELL TURN IT UP! ;)