Virtual Home Tour: The Girls’ Room and Guest Room

yay — I’ve been waiting for this tour! You guys did a great job. It looks fantastic! 

I would love to know the brands/names for the paint colors.

I would love the paint colors/brands too!  Beautifully done rooms

Mandi! Cutest thing ever. I love it!

Well written post with information from both sides.

Our now 13 year old son “disappeared” after his 15 month MMR vaccination. He stopped talking (he had 3-5 words at the time), didn’t look people in the eye as much, and would fixate on one thing and play with it for hours. He rejected all foods except beige ones, especially vegetables. This continued for several years. He continued to receive his scheduled shots until he was 7. He’s not had one since. I believe that due to some major changes in nutrition and lots of prayer, he is fine today. Our other two sons are partially vaccinated. Eventually we’ll catch them up. Maybe. If we do, it will be one vaccine at a time. No more 15 disease, 3-4 shots all at once. They will be healthy when they receive them (no colds/ear infections). We’ll give them something to boost their immune system further. The diseases that took children from us before vaccines were terrible. But the results from the vaccines can also be terrible.

I have fully vaccinated all three of my children because I believe the risks of vaccinating far outweigh the risks of not vaccinating.  I suspect that, although  I don’t have the science to back me up, it is far more dangerous to strap my kids in the car every day for the short drive to day care than it is to give them a shot.  

I do not believe that MMR causes autism.  I believe that autism manifests at the same age as the MMR vaccine, but timing is not causation.I believe that we are responsible not only for our own children, but the children of those around us as well, so vaccinating my children helps protect yours.Of course, everyone is entitled to their opinion and are perfectly capable of making their own decisions when it comes to the well-being of their own children. But please do consider how our choices affect others; regardless of how independent we believe ourselves to be, we do live in a social society and must interact with many other people daily.

This has been an interesting read! My children are all grown, and I did vaccinate them, as I thought that was the way to go. I would definitely do a lot of research now! 
On a little humorous side note: I am amazed at how many times I have been offered the flu shot in the past 2 weeks! I had to visit a pharmacy 3 different times and each time the pharmacist asked me if I wanted to go ahead and “take care of my flu shot”!

For anyone who is insterested, you can also have a blood draw done on your kids, it’s called titers, and it will show the current immunity levels in their bodies.  My son has Asperger’s, and while I don’t think it was caused by vaccines I have been taking a more cautious approach towards them.  I had his titers drawn a few years ago and he still had immunity to all of his vaccines from earlier years, so I didn’t give him the boosters.  I have our daughter on a delayed schedule.  I would like to get the vaccines individually, but our doctor’s office says they can’t get them that way.  I’m sure that’s not true, I think it probably just costs more.  Honestly though, compared to all of the people we know whose kids are fully vaccinated, ours are the least sick and tend to be very resistant to whatever is usually going around.

What I think needs more research is the affects of antibiotics.  My son started exhibiting his autism symptoms shortly after multiple rounds of antibiotics due to ear infections as an infant, and I will spend the rest of my life wondering if that caused a lot of his problems.

I think both sides of the vaccine debate need to not judge others.  As long as you are researching and doing what you think is best, that’s all you can do.

This is truly a battlefield area in parenting. I have seen belittling coming from both sides of the issue. One woman went so far as to say she hoped that the kids who were unvaxed died and it would serve the parents right for it happening! I sincerely hope that woman never loses a child to disease or accident or any reason. I would never wish that on anyone.
  Since my “baby” is eighteen years old, I’m most likely not going to have any more children. My eldest got his shots at the recommended times because I never thought to question what was in the vaccines. My younger son also got his shots –but I didnt  feel right in doing so. I felt pressured to vaccinate and I was patted on the head when I noticed a reaction. He shrieked like a rabbit being killed.  I watched him change into a stranger with vacant eyes. I’ll never hear the words Mama I love you in words from him. I see it in his face and his hugs. He’s one of the “lucky” ones. He only got autism and brain damage. Other children have much worse reactions, including death. But this is my story. What happens to my child  may not happen to yours. I stopped the vaccinations when my son was 6. I’ve done research and I’m happy with my decision. I despise opening a magazine and seeing the good mommy’s vaccinate ads, as well as meds that a person may or may not need. Vaccinations should never be a one size fits all thing. It should go on a child by child case and it should be done with great care, not as a money making venture. When all of the chemicals that are toxic and harmful come out of every single vaccine, I’ll rethink my position on them. But don’t belittle me for my decision and I wont belittle you for yours. In the end, we are all moms trying to do what is best for our children and families. Nothing more.

The thing making me angry about the “vaccine debate” right now is insurance. For several reasons we are having to change insurance right after my son was born. Thanks to the new health care laws requiring insurance companies to cover all children without underwriting most companies are requiring the children to be up to date on the CDC’s vaccine schedule or they charge up to 200% for the child’s insurance fees. I plan to selectively vaccinate on an alternate schedule and it made me angry to have to give my child the Hep B vaccine in his first month or pay through the nose needlessly. The hospital and doctors in our area don’t even recommend starting that vaccine series until month 2, in fact they don’t normally offer it until then. So other parents out there beware if you have to switch insurance that you may have to catch up to CDC’s schedule…

Hi Katie,

I loved your post.  It was extremely well written and middle of the road.  It is so far to find middle of the road information these days.  I believe that there are terrible scare tactics on both sides of the vaccine debate.  

I am always in research mode when it comes to this subject.  As a child I only received my first few vaccines and was never vaccinated after that.  I came from a Chiropractic family.  My grandfather decided to become a Chiropractor after it helped him heal from Polio.  He did have polio and yet my family has always pushed against vaccines.  Once I entered college and asked to provide my vaccination records I instead supplied a letter that said that I opposed vaccines due to religious beliefs, the nurse at my college then instructed me that I would have to leave if there was ever an outbreak.  She then proceeded to tell me that, “there has never been one.” I never had to leave college by the way. 

Since I didn’t received vaccines as a child I was always interested in the subject and actually did my first research paper on vaccines in highschool.  I only wish that I still had the paper.  I now have two small children of my own and have read everything from The Vaccine Book by Dr. Sears to Rasing a Vaccine Free Child by Wendy Lydall and many other books on the subject.  As a skeptic of the government (because they do such a good job of running things) I have always had a lot of trouble reading anything that is put out by the CDC.  It is unfortunate that there is so much politics involved in our health care, but what can you do?  It’s just life I guess.  I really try to keep a very open mind on the debate knowing that there are horrible things that have happened to children who have received vaccines  as well as equally horrible diseases out there.  I always find myself teetering back and forth trying to make the best decision and putting lots and lots of prayer into it as well.  But, I have never felt comfortable vaccinating my children no matter how much research I have done on either side.  But as I continue to do research on the subject 

I find it such a difficult debate.  Especially since there is SO much emotion involved in it.  I mean who doesn’t want the best for their child?  I don’t want fear either way to be a motivator for me and I certainly don’t ever get in a debate with other mothers about it.  I’m an advocate of education.  I want people to be educated and stop making decisions just based on the fact that everyone else is doing it isn’t that what I should do?  That never got any of us anywhere.  I applaud the mothers who have decided to vaccinate after doing research and I applaud others who have decided not to vaccinate due to research as well. 

Wow, I could write forever but this comment is getting extremely long.  I find it hard to write such a short comment on such a difficult issue.  

We are on the GAPS diet as a family for my son who is autistic.  Correction: Was autistic.  This diet has been a Godsend.  In the GAPS book, vaccines are considered as the “straw that broke the camel’s back” on a compromised immune system, but not necessarily the cause of autism per se. 

Of course, antibiotics destroy bad bacteria along with the good gut bacteria (think probiotics), which further weaken our natural defenses.  That good gut flora makes up the majority of our immune system, so to bombard it with so many foreign proteins at once can be too much for those who don’t have strong immune systems to begin with (think young toddlers who may have already been on antibiotics or who have parents with poor gut flora). 

If I were to meet someone saying they would definitely be vaccinating their kid, first, I wouldn’t say anything (it’s not really my business), but should they ask my input, I’d suggest to have them done one at a time once the child is a little older with his/her immune system established enough to be able to handle the vax.

There is so much more to this, and I know I can’t do it justice… I
highly recommend reading Gut and Psychology Syndrome by Dr. Natasha
Campbell-McBride.  It literally changed our lives.

Great article, Katie.  Really balanced and helps one to think rather than being forced one way or another.  My first two boys were fully vaccinated by 8, I think although I’m not sure about varicella.  We home educate so school was never an issue, it was more Sunday school than anything else.  My five year old is not fully vaxxed and I’m done.  A little over one year ago we switched our diet to organic/grass-fed meat/pastured eggs/cod liver oil/probiotics and we went from being sick 4x per year to none since Sept. ’10.  My pediatricians were so great about my waiting and spacing out vaccinations.  One even told me that if we had a measles outbreak, to get in and get the shot.  Another told me she had just been to a vaccination symposium and was going to wait on her daughter’s schedule as well.  Now we go to a naturopath and will rely on her for future vaccination decisions.  I’m not opposed to either side, but I don’t want junk going into my children’s minds or bodies anymore so I will research it to death before I make another decision.  And we will never vaccinate for flu or sexually transmitted diseases.  And we know a family who has never vaccinated and their 4yo ds was recently diagnosed with autism.  Clean eaters and everything.  You just never know.  Thanks for the balance! 

With our family well represented in the medical professions,  we were raised with the traditional vaccines — until one of ours had a reaction to his first DPT. Five kids later, all grown, we now have grandkids. One daughter did loads of careful research and their family is doing a modified schedule spread out more and starting later. Breastfeeding provides some coverage many kids don’t get. Got that covered!! We also rarely had kids in any form of daycare, the most exposure was in church (and we didn’t use the nursery for young ones — they were with us in class or worship). Some internet research will turn up modified schedules. We also chose to use non-fetal-sourced vaccine cell lines. Sadly, those aren’t as available now.

Thank you for providing a voice to those of us who are somewhere in the middle of the vaccine debate.  Although we haven’t felt too pressured either way, it can be a confusing and difficult decision making process to figure out what is best for our kids. 

Being vaccinated does not mean you will not get the disease.  I was fully vaccinated but managed to contract whooping cough and not only spread it all of the children in my one room school but also to my newborn baby sister who had not yet been vaccinated.  I personally do not get flu shots, after taking them for several years and ALWAYS getting the flu I stopped and have not had the flu since.  Coincidence  Maybe, but for me no more flu shots.  I get the old standby’s for my great granddaughter who I am raising but will not be getting some of the leatest and greatest without a lot more information and their being on the market longer so that the side effects can really be studied.

Sometimes I wish I was of my mother’s generation never knowing to question, got the vaccines, had no ill effects and lived marvelously in the clouds. I feel like there really is no right answer in this issue. I don’t want to subject my child to the risks of vaccines, but I want them to benefit from herd immunity (which I do believe in as far as the argument if almost everyone is vaccinated there’s no one to get sick and give it to my kid), but it’s pretty messed up to ask someone else to subject their kid the risk. Also in super hypocritical fashion I don’t want to be hanging out with unvaccinated people in the event they do get something they can give to me (I’ve had 6 MMRs in my life and ALWAYS tested with a low titre, hence the additional shots).  It’s just a hideous circular argument of no choice is really safe. UGH!!! My preemie is fully vaccinated though on a modified schedule. My full term baby is fully vaccinated. I didn’t feel good about it, but I decided at least I can have rage against the system if something goes wrong, but I can’t live with letting my baby die of something as stupid as measles or pertussis when I could’ve prevented it. We did have local outbreaks of both those diseases.

I originally planned to do a selective schedule.  I wasn’t going to do pertussis, because it isn’t all that protective.  (The recent outbreaks have all been in vaccinated kids — and they’re beginning to say the vaccine defends against a different strain than the one currently in circulation!)  And I wasn’t going to do polio unless I heard of an outbreak or we planned to travel, since there have been no outbreaks in the US in 20 years.  And we can’t use any that have aborted tissue in them.

But then I talked to my husband about it, and he was adamant that we don’t do any.  He knows two kids that developed severe autism immediately after their vaccines.  Later I came to agree with him as well, after reading all those stories on the Think Twice website about babies with severe reactions.  The worst were always those who received their vaccine (usually pertussis) and screamed at the top of their lungs till they finally fell asleep that night.  In the morning, they would be dead … and the cause of death would be written down as “SIDS.”  Terrifying.  We may give our kids some vaccines later, especially if they do not get the childhood illnesses they should, but for now, our son is fully unvaccinated and our new baby will be as well.

I object to the idea that I am coasting off the herd immunity of others.  I would prefer that others not vaccinate either, unless they have a specific risk.  That way, my children could get their usual childhood illnesses while young, instead of having to choose between a vaccine or risking complications from getting it when they’re older.  In cases where we really needed to build up a herd immunity — like if there were an outbreak of polio or, God forbid, smallpox — I would get the vaccine for my kids like everybody else.  I did not make a choice that I wouldn’t be happy with everyone doing.

I have three children and they have all been vaccinated differently. My older son who is 12 had all vaccines until he was 6…he has food allergies, excema, learning differences and random swelling in his hips that completely immobilizes him that his doctor said was caused by the chicken pox vaccine relocating into his hip joints..kind of like arthritis. My second son, he is 10, had vaccines until he was 6 months because I stopped when his brother began having all those problems. My daughter has had no vaccines. She is 8. She is in perfect health, has never even been on antibiotics because she never gets sick. She is by far the healthiest child I have and I don’t know if it is because her immune system hasn’t been ruined by all those vaccines or if she is just lucky. I don’t have the answers for everybody, I just had to do what I thought was best for my kids. My poor oldest son will have to live with these problems for the rest of life and I feel pretty crappy about that. I must admit though, I will give each of my children the meningitis shot as they reach the age of 11. Their Dad has a job that exposes him to the possibility of bringing home that disease and I think the vaccine for that is worth it. 

I have 2 children and a third on the way.  I vaccinate.  I worked for a pediatrician for several years and we were happy to work with patients who want to space out their vaccinations.  I see no problem with that.  But I can tell you I’ve seen first hand the results of kids who weren’t vaccinated.  During a flu outbreak we had several patients who were hospitalized and they had not been vaccinated.  The flu vaccine does not prevent the flu but does ease the symptoms and every patient that came in that had been vaccinated was able to go home and recover in a few days rather than be in the hospital for over a week.  In all my time giving vaccines I only saw one reaction.  It was in a 12 year old girl and she had a few hives around the injection site.  It quickly disappeared and did not cause any more problems.  I will continue to vaccinate.  The risks of not being vaccinated are too high.  I would much rather risk my child possibly getting a slight rash at an injection site than exposing them to the risk of hospitalization and all other risks.  I can tell you the pediatrician I worked for was very willing to listen to a parents wishes.  He also took great care in researching each vaccine before giving it.  It was not a quick decision to add more vaccines to the list.  Those that are recommended are such for a reason.  As for the autism issue, I am saddened for those that this disease has affected, including my own family members.  But a lot is not known about what autism even is.  The research correlating it to vaccinations is bogus.  I think it is more likely that the children simply start slipping into the autism around a certain stage of development that correlates with the ages that vaccines are given.  A sad coincidence. 

I haven’t read all the comments but did anyone know that when you or your child gets a tetanus shot that it also contains the pertussis booster?  They started combining them because when an adult gets hurt the first thing they give you is a tetanus shot so it became easy to make sure adults were getting vaccinated.  BE INFORMED!  Ask questions.  That’s all you can do and ultimately, its your personal choice.  There are shots that I have refused and shots that I firmly believe in.  I always tell parents that ask me for advice to do their own research and homework and make an informed decision.  If your doctor is pressuring you, change doctors.

Jenny,
It is SO tough to be a mom nowadays! And you’re very welcome; I’m pleased to see the conversation on this comment thread. Katie

That’s incorrect.  In the ED at the hospital I work in, the tetanus shot is the Td vaccine (tetanus and diphtheria).  It could also be Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, and acellular pertussis), or DTaP (diptheria, tetanus, and pertussis).  It is, however, next to impossible to find a tetanus shot that is only that single disease. 

I was a “status quo” parent. Vaccines weren’t discussed much 19 years ago. At least not in the group of other moms I got together with.  You just got the vaccines because that’s what you were supposed to do, right? My son had his vaccines on a regular schedule and had no problems.  However, just recently when I read another article about vaccines I very seriously got sick to my stomach when I realized without question we had allowed our daughter to be part of a study. I thought it was kind of exciting being “chosen”. How incredibly naive of me (and I’m not a young mom!) They were just starting, at that time, to give the “cocktails”. How I thank God that our daughter had absolutely no adverse reactions and today is a beautiful, healthy, almost-17-year-old young woman. But now when I read what COULD have happened? And what others have gone through? Oh my gosh, it makes me sick. 

My husband and I are agreed on absolutely no Gardisil – and yes, it’s been heavily suggested by both my ob/gyn and my daughter’s pediatrician. We’ve also opted out of chicken pox and meningitis. Regarding the Gardisil? we were told that we may teach our daughter about abstinence and purity but it doesn’t mean that her future husband won’t have been sexually active….All the more reason to be praying for our future son-in-law (and daughter-in-law)!

I am grateful that we don’t have to make those decisions about infant vaccines any more. However, I will study up for whenever I’m to be a grandma and can lovingly and prayerfully offer advice

Let me back up a little and say to explain my ignorance regarding vaccines, etc.  that it’s just within the last couple years or so that I’ve begun changing the way we do things in our home. Reading blogs (like this one!) and gaining information and knowledge.  Cooking has almost always been from scratch (because I love to cook) but now it’s even more so. Drives my daughter crazy as I continually try to find homemade alternatives to her best-loved store-bought snacks/treats , cleaning…laundry… my extended family lovingly rolls their eyes when they ask me about something and I give the natural version of how something should be done/made.  I figure when they’re ready for change they know where to start to get the information