One thing you really can’t do is tell parents how they should and shouldn’t raise their kids. They’re just not going to hear it, unless they specifically ask for advice — and even then it’s not a sure thing.
Everybody has a different way of doing it, and generally speaking, as long as no harm is coming to the kids, no way is really more wrong or right than the others. But what constitutes harm to the kids is more debatable than you might expect for some folks.
Shanelle Cartwright isn’t a name known to many in North America, but she’s sure becoming famous in Australia.
The 20-year-old is married to a rugby star, but she’s made headlines in her own right recently for some very public anti-vaccination comments she made in a Q&A with fans on Instagram .
Shanelle and her husband, Bryce, say their 13-month-old son, Koa, hasn’t been vaccinated and they don’t plan on vaccinating him, either.
They’re also expecting a second child who they don’t plan on vaccinating. As The Mirror reports, Shanelle convinced Bryce to abandon the idea of vaccinations.
“I remember he was so defensive when I first brought it up and got angry at me for even suggesting that we shouldn’t vaccinate,” she said.
“And then he read a package insert and a few pages of one of Dr Suzanne Humphries books and saw vaccines under a different light.”
Both Shanelle and her husband were vaccinated, and she says they both suffer from “allergies and auto-immune disorders.”
“We now obviously don’t vaccinate ourselves and are in the (slooooow) process of healing,” she said.
However, she balked at the idea that she was against vaccinations in general.
This really confused a lot of people, and stirred a bit on controversy — how can one be against vaccinating their children, but not anti-vaxx?
And so she had to clarify that point.
“I am not ‘anti-vaxx,'” she said, according to news.com.au . “I have many mama friends that vaccinate their kids and I RESPECT their decisions.”
“That’s what they felt best for their families and there is no room for parents to judge parents — we are all doing our best for our own kids.”
She made a point to explain that there’s no judgement coming from her family onto any other family, “No hate from us over here,” she said.
Shanelle also says that even if schools require vaccinations, she won’t be swayed.
“They can go to school (so far),” she said. “If the law changes, I’ll home school before I vaccinate.”
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Asked how they keep Koa healthy without vaccinations, Shanelle said it came down largely to diet.
“We nourish and support his gut health with wholefoods and probiotics,” she said, as well as recommending “exclusively breastfeeding for six months.”
Shanelle’s stance has been roundly condemned by concerned medical professionals.
It’s an important reminder that the science on vaccines is clear. As the World Health Organization website says, “Vaccine hesitancy – the reluctance or refusal to vaccinate despite the availability of vaccines – threatens to reverse progress made in tackling vaccine-preventable diseases.
“Vaccination is one of the most cost-effective ways of avoiding disease.”
“It currently prevents 2-3 million deaths a year, and a further 1.5 million could be avoided if global coverage of vaccinations improved.”
And, of course, other large, national health bodies concur.
The U.K.’s National Health Service says that “Because of vaccinations, we no longer see smallpox, and polio has almost been eradicated.”
“No wonder vaccination is considered a modern miracle.”
“Vaccination is one of the greatest breakthroughs in modern medicine. No other medical intervention has done more to save lives and improve quality of life,” they said.
And the CDC says that “Like any medication, vaccines can cause side effects.”
However, “the most common side effects are mild. On the other hand, many vaccine-preventable disease symptoms can be serious, or even deadly,” they concluded .
How do you feel about Shanelle’s reasoning?
Did it change your mind at all about the importance of vaccinations?