The vaccination brochure known as Forbes.com ran this silly piece on doctors firing patients declining vaccines. Since my comments have been in moderation (or whatever vaccination.com calls it) for twelve hours, I've decided to share them here:
Doctors can't "fire" patients because they didn't hire them. All doctors can do is quit. And as more doctors quit, more parents will realize they were unnecessary in the first place. Childhood is not an illness and as such should not be spent in the doctor's office. Yes, kids will no longer get unnecessary antibiotics for conditions for which those drugs are ineffective, but hey, that's just the price they'll have to pay. And I wonder, are these docs "firing" families in which the parents are not up to date as well? They too could “endanger” kids in the waiting room. Perhaps we'll have to wait for the adult-vaccine push to progress further to hear that talking point emerge.
So quit away. We'll learn to live without the unnecessary and overdone well-baby visits - a brilliant ritual in which the healthy are brought into contact with the ill and infirmed. And we'll learn to weigh and measure our kids without your help.
Great Post! So true! Haven't been to a traditional western MD in years. So far, their services have no longer been needed since now living an organic/healthy lifestyle!
ReplyDeletePeople think I am crazy when I say that we dont have a pediatrician. Just today someone asked me "how is that going for you?" I replied that my perfectly healthy, unvaxed almost 2 year old is possibly the healthiest child I have ever met.
ReplyDeleteMDs are trained to diagnose and treat illness and injury. "Well baby exams" should be called what they are, vaccine exams, and if you don't want the vaccines, you don't need the exam. I don't need an MD telling me that my daughter should start eating solids at 4 months. Anything beyond the scope of what they learned in medical school is opinion. I don't want your opinion on my sleeping habits, parenting choices and what I do in my home. Thank you very much.
Though my daughter has been seeing a chiropractor since birth!
Well said, Robert! My eldest saw the Ped for about the first 8 months of his life. She was cool with "delaying" vaccines since he was being breastfed. I wonder how she would have felt if we had stayed long enough to approach the "are you ready to vaccinate", stage? Luckily we moved and have never looked back. We see urgent care docs, or my NP for really complicated problems. Both boys are unvaccinated and healthy as can be, because we chose to stay away from Pediatricians.
ReplyDeleteThanks, kat1anne
ReplyDeleteRachel, we're like you. We did one or two well-baby visits then realized they were a waste of time. I always focused on nutrition with our daughter and she was almost never sick as a child. Really only one time when she had strep throat as a teenager.
My sons are 2 and 3 and both are vax free. We have been "fired" from 2 separate pediatric clinics do to my freedom as a parent in the US to not vax. One doctor told me I was putting my kids in extreme risk of death. He also went on to inform me that I should have my children taken from me because of my choice to not get the Chicken Pox vaccine....because according to the all knowing doctor 1 in every 5 children that get Chicken Pox die! Wow...if that's the case I would have been burying a good portion of my classmates growing up. Im sorry doc your scare tactics may have worked for some..but I happen to have made my decision based on good ole research and common sense! Anyways. I love what you are doing..and I have been glued to your blog all day. :)
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