I am the â70s child of a health nut. I wasnât vaccinated. I was brought up on an incredibly healthy diet: no sugar till I was 1, breastfed for over a year, organic homegrown vegetables, raw milk, no MSG, no additives, no aspartame. My mother used homeopathy, aromatherapy, osteopathy; we took daily supplements of vitamin C, echinacea, cod liver oil.I had an outdoor lifestyle; I grew up next to a farm in Englandâs Lake District, walked everywhere, did sports and danced twice a week, drank plenty of water. I wasnât even allowed pop; even my fresh juice was watered down to protect my teeth, and I wouldâve killed for white, shop-bought bread in my lunchbox once in a while and biscuits instead of fruit, like all the other kids.We ate (organic local) meat maybe once or twice a week, and my mother and father cooked everything from scratchâI have yet to taste a Findus crispy pancake, and oven chips (âfries,â to Americans) were reserved for those nights when Mum and Dad had friends over and we got a âtreat.âAs healthy as my lifestyle seemed, I contracted measles, mumps, rubella, a type of viral meningitis, scarlatina, whooping cough, yearly tonsillitis, and chickenpox. In my 20s I got precancerous HPV and spent six months of my life wondering how I was going to tell my two children under the age of 7 that Mummy might have cancer before it was safely removed.So the anti-vaccine advocatesâ fears of having the ânatural immunity sterilized out of usâ just doesnât cut it for me. How could I, with my idyllic childhood and my amazing health food, get so freaking ill all the time?
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My two vaccinated children, on the other hand, have rarely been ill, have had antibiotics maybe twice in their lives, if that. Not like their mum. I got many illnesses requiring treatment with antibiotics. I developed penicillin-resistant quinsy at age 21âyou know, that old-fashioned disease that supposedly killed Queen Elizabeth I and that was almost wiped out through use of antibiotics.*
