4 VITAL Q's to Ask Your Pediatrician
Before Injecting Your Child with Anything (or yourself, for that matter, especially if pregnant)
As a parent myself, a certified Integrative Health Coach and licensed Speech/Language Pathologist, I understand the critical importance of assessing the implications of any substance we allow into our bodily systems. Anyone who knows me knows that I take extra caution with what enters my own and my child’s body and advise other parents to do the same. We all want what’s best for our children and must make risk/benefit decisions for them all the time—from what they eat to what products they use. While few decisions in life carry no risk at all, there are some that carry more weight and deserve a much more critical analysis before making a choice. Of utmost concern for me are substances and products injected into the body.
Here’s why:
The body employs numerous defense mechanisms to prevent the intake of harmful substances. These include filtration systems and barriers such as skin and mucosa. These defense systems are bypassed and cannot do their jobs when a substance is injected, entering the blood stream directly and circulating throughout the body.
For this reason, we should be especially careful about what is injected. Particularly for the vulnerable developing bodies and brains of fetuses and children, we want to make sure the risks/benefits of the substances injected are appropriately evaluated and available to us. As parents, we have both the right and the responsibility to request and consider this data when making any drug product decisions for our kiddos.
Here are three questions I recommend respectfully asking your child’s provider prior to allowing injection of any substance into your child’s body:
Question 1: Can you please show me the independent, double-blind, placebo controlled clinical trials—peer reviewed, long-term studies and data on this pharmaceutical product compared with the control group who did not inject the product (or any other product)?
This is a no-brainer. Without this there is no way to make an accurate risk/benefit analysis (we may still have to make a choice without this information if it is ultimately unavailable or doesn’t exist, but understanding that choice is a crap-shoot, rather than a carefully considered, properly informed one is important). Do studies exist showing the synergistic effects of injecting more than one product simultaneously or within a window of time? We have ONE body, and taking responsibility for what goes into it (again, especially for developing children, who are especially vulnerable) is of the utmost importance. Insist on seeing data (and have someone who is qualified review and interpret this data if necessary) before making the decision to inject. Once injected, this act cannot be undone.
Question 2: Can you please show me the independent, double-blind, placebo controlled clinical trials—peer reviewed, long-term studies and data on the delivery system of this drug and if applicable, adjuvants?
In addition to the drug product, might there be concerns regarding the delivery system of that drug and adjuvants (other substances included with the delivery of the product to the body) that should be considered before injection?
Question 3: What liability does the company or provider carry if my child is injured by this product?
When injecting a product into the body, there is almost always some risk, minimal or not, of injury. Who will help your child and your family obtain, pay for and administer treatment and therapies if injury occurs? Some may be shocked to realize that in many cases, this may be you. It’s helpful to remember that, while sometimes useful, pharmaceutical products are just that—products—that may cause serious harm. Who will pay for that harm if it happens? Most people know that for emergency use products and pharmaceutical products recommended on the vaccine schedule by the CDC (for children and adults including pregnant women), these companies are protected from all liability and that you will be on your own. Is the individual promoting and administering the use of the product willing to sign a legally binding document accepting legal and financial liability should something happen?
Question 4: Can you please show me the scientific data regarding my child’s likelihood of injury or death from what this injectable product claims to protect against?
Your job as a parent is to weigh the risks of injury from the injectable product and the product’s efficacy (effectiveness) against the likelihood of injury from the condition the product claims to protect against. To do this, you must have access to and accurate interpretation of reliable data for all three factors. We must have access to this data and analyses ourselves, as providers are sometimes paid kickbacks or are offered other incentives to prescribe products (recall for instance that Pfizer paid the largest criminal fine in history—2.3 BILLION—in part due to providing kickbacks to providers to entice them to prescribe particular products and that providers are sometimes paid for the percentage of caseload compliance regarding injection with particular products). In addition to provider incentives, marketers of products often play on perceived rather than actual risk to maximize product usage. This is why we must insist on examining actual data and accurate data analyses. Consider, for instance, that many childhood conditions can play important roles in strengthening the immune system with little to no threat of permanent injury or death. In this case, the risk of injection of a product may outweigh the benefits and may possibly impair the development of natural immunity.
Can’t I just Google the safety of injectable products?
Not if you want accurate information. Anyone can throw up an article on the internet and make it look official, including those marketing their own products. The pharmaceutical industry pays huge money to lobbyists and others to promote their products. Additionally, corporate interests such as these control much of what is “Google-able” (and censorship is real), resulting in much of what we see online basically amounting to no more than advertisements.
Although academic science isn’t perfect, nothing replaces good old independent, double-blind, placebo controlled clinical trials and peer reviewed, long-term studies and data. They’re the gold standard for a reason.
Ask for or look up product inserts and search PubMed.com, a database for biotechnological scientific research, for related studies. Scour legitimate scientific journal articles. Look at who funded the studies. Did they have any conflicting interests (this information is provided in the research article)? Ask yourself and others “why?” if data is not readily available.
Don’t underestimate a “gut feeling” when making decisions in general.
While I would certainly not offer specific advice on what decisions to make for a family regarding the wide variety of offered injectable products, I would definitely advise collecting your own information and respectfully requesting/demanding appropriate data from your provider, who, if recommending these products, certainly should be able to provide you with this information. This is your child. Don’t let anyone pressure you. Take your time making these decisions as they cannot be undone; your child deserves your utmost attention and consideration before you make these extremely important choices for them.
Please see this very informative interview regarding the history and basics of vaccinations:
YES, inDeeD ChriSTY!
~&~ S000 TrUe!! : )
***3 CheersSs!!!
~wiLL0w~