“So here are my 3 takeaways:
1) Let’s stop putting medical professionals on a pedestal. Because we don’t know jack about vaccines. I mean it…we are not taught ANYTHING about them. Even my dad, who is one of the sweetest and smartest doctors I know and is very pro vaccine even admits that he had “maybe an hour” of vaccine education in med school.
2) Research until you are 100% confident in your decision…whether it’s to give your kid every vacccine, or only a few, or none…but whatever your choice is, OWN that decision. You should not vaccinate out of fear, that is not being an empowered parent…it simply means you have not done enough research. If you’re saying “Oh my little one’s shots are coming up and I don’t know what to do! I’m scared to give them and I’m scared not to give them” That means you have NOT done enough research because you are not confident in your decision…keep going until you reach a place of confidence but in the meanwhile, dont’ vaccinate…you can always vaccinate later, you can’t unvaccinate.
3) Lastly, don’t give up on people. Keep speaking the truth. There is a time and a place to share what’s in your heart and there’s also a right and a wrong way to share it…but don’t stop sharing. When my children were babies, if ANY of my friends had come up to me and said “Amy, I know that you think vaccines are safe, but if you haven’t looked at the ingredients in them, I really think you should”, I would have listened. I may not have agreed with the person right then and there, but it would have planted a seed that “holy crud, there might be ingredients in there that aren’t safe?” and I would have researched.
And yes, you will get people who think you’re crazy. That’s ok, just move on. There are people out there who are searching for the truth and will know it when they find it..but if you are not speaking the truth, they may never hear it.”
**edited to add per request: if you have read this far and would like to share, that is fine by me!
