Less than 30 years ago, 40 million students attended public schools, yet fewer than 100,000 children were home-educated. According to the U.S. Department of Education, over 48 million students enrolled in public schools in 2005, while the number of children being homeschooled has been estimated at just over 2 million.

The numbers of homeschooled children has increased at the rate of about 7% a year, and more than 10% in some states, outpacing the growth of public schools, which has been about 1.3%.

Families homeschool for a wide range of reasons, but at the heart of the matter is what is best for each individual child.  Avoiding vaccines is typically not the driving force behind this big decision.  However, more parents are clearly opposed to the "mandatory" vaccine laws and understand that vaccinations are not the heavily promoted miracle cure-all that will keep their children from getting sick. Instead, they are seeing the truth: that vaccines carry the risk of serious side effects such as crippling neurological damage like autism and even death. 

For example, unexplained allergies and asthma are also on the rise. According to the brand new State of World Allergy Report 2008: Allergy and Chronic Respiratory Diseases, our zeal to reduce infectious disease has led to rapidly increasing allergic diseases that are becoming ever more complex.  

Could the increasing number of childhood vaccinations be part of the problem?

Absolutely!  

As one study published in 2005 by the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology found, unvaccinated children suffer lower rates of asthma and allergies than vaccinated children.  

Allergies and asthma can severely diminish quality of life and work productivity, and should not be ignored. So when we discuss the overuse of vaccinations, autism is not the only health hazard worthy of note and serious consideration.

Contrary to Popular Belief, Avoiding Vaccinations is Not a Sign of Ignorance 

As illustrated in this Clarion Ledger article, the topic of vaccinations is often emotional for both sides of the camp. People who have not done their research are quick to say that it is highly irresponsible and foolish to avoid vaccinations. However, this is quite the oxymoron because mothers with college educations and higher incomes are actually LESS likely to vaccinate their children than those with less education.

One 2006 study published in the American Journal of Public Health found that children whose mothers have less than a high school education are 16 percent more likely to have received vaccinations than toddlers whose mothers have graduated college.

Of course, anyone, regardless of education level or income, is capable of making an educated decision about whether or not to vaccinate their children. But college-educated women are perhaps more likely to have read articles questioning vaccine safety -- or at least to have heard about such controversies.

The trend toward not vaccinating has been growing for some time now. Close to 70 percent of physicians say that the number of concerns from parents have increased significantly in recent years.

And rightfully so.

Vaccines given to newborns contain an array of potentially toxic chemicals including:

• Formaldehyde
• Aluminum phosphate (toxic and carcinogenic)
• Antibiotics
• Phenols (corrosive to skin and toxic)
• Live viruses and various other components

The Insanity of the Recommended Childhood Immunization Schedule

I published Dr. Donald Miller's excellent article, A User-Friendly Vaccination Schedule in 2004. At that time, 12 different vaccines were given to children before they reached the age of two.

As of 2008, the Recommended Childhood Immunization Schedule put out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), that number has risen to 14 in the first 24 months, plus the meningococcal vaccine, which is to be administered between the age of two and six.

Infants and toddlers aged 0 to 6 years of age are now given vaccines to prevent the following diseases:

If your child is vaccinated according to the CDC's recommended schedule, by the time your child starts kindergarten he or she will have received 48 doses of 14 vaccines.  Of these, 36 doses will be given during the first 18 months of life.

And now consider this: one vaccine injected into a 13-pound, two-month old infant is equivalent to 10 doses of the same in a 130-pound adult. Where is the common sense in these guidelines?

Would any adult concede to being injected with 360 doses of vaccines within a couple of years’ span; equal to one injection every other day for two years?

Public health officials have NEVER proven that it is indeed safe to inject this number and volume of vaccines into infants. What's more, they cannot explain why, concurrent with an increasing number of vaccinations, there has been an explosion of neurological and immune system disorders in American children.

There are Other Options

As the trends indicate, many parents are so concerned about the potential dangers of overloading their children with this massive load of vaccines that they resort to home schooling. However, not all parents have the ability to make that type of commitment.

Fortunately, if you are unable to home school, you still have other options.

As I’ve stated before, I’m not anti-vaccine, but rather pro-vaccine safety. I also believe it is extremely important to have the right to choose; to be allowed to make informed consent decisions about what you want to inject into your child, and yourself, and when.

Dr. Donald Miller is a cardiac surgeon and Professor of Surgery at the University of Washington in Seattle and a member of Doctors for Disaster Preparedness. His more sensible vaccination schedule, which I published back in 2004, is worthy of being revisited at this time.

His guidelines can help you devise a more appropriate vaccination plan for your child – a schedule that takes the best interests of your child into consideration rather than what biased government planners cite as being best for society. His is a far better approach than the "one-size-fits-all" dogma foisted on Americans by the CDC panel.

Devising a Sensible Vaccination Plan for Your Child

Your brain has its own specialized immune system, separate from that of the rest of your body. When you are vaccinated, specialized immune cells in your brain, the microglia, become activated.

Multiple vaccinations spaced close together over-stimulate the microglia, causing them to release a variety of toxic elements -- cytokines, chemokines, excitotoxins, proteases, complement, free radicals -- that damage brain cells and their synaptic connections. (The damage caused by these toxic substances is sometimes referred to as "bystander injury.")

In humans, the most rapid period of brain development begins in the third trimester and continues over the first two years. (By then, brain development is 80 percent complete.)

From a risk-benefit perspective, there is little doubt that the risk of neurological and autoimmune diseases from vaccinations at this stage far outweigh the benefits of avoiding the childhood infections that they (supposedly) prevent. (One exception is the hepatitis B vaccine, IF the mother tests positive for hepatitis B.)

As a more sensible, “user-friendly” vaccination schedule, Dr. Miller advises the following:

1. No vaccinations until your child is two years old.
2. No vaccines that contain thimerosal (mercury).
3. No live virus vaccines.
4. The following vaccines can be given one at a time (not as a combination vaccine), every six months, beginning at age 2:
   •  Pertussis (acellular, not whole cell)
   •  Diphtheria
   •  Tetanus
   •   Polio (the Salk vaccine, cultured in human cells)

And that would be pretty much it as far as vaccinations. Your pediatrician will not like this schedule, but if you have reviewed the evidence and still feel your child should be inoculated to a certain degree, this is a far safer alternative to the standard vaccination schedule.

How to Avoid the Vaccinations You Don’t Want

Remember, although exemptions for religious beliefs are becoming harder to obtain in some states like New York. All 50 states have vaccination requirements but all states provide exemptions for medical reasons while 48 states allow exemptions for sincerely held  religious beliefs. Another 18 states allow parents to opt out for personal, conscientious or philosophical beliefs as well.

Mississippi and West Virginia only allow exemptions for medical reasons. In some states medical exemptions written by a licensed M.D. or D.O. must conform to CDC contraindication guidelines or public health officials will challenge them.

Maryland, despite their handling of the issue, also still offers the right to opt out for religious beliefs. My previous article, How To Legally Avoid Unwanted Immunizations Of All Kinds, spells out how you go about practicing this right.

Remember, you need to educate yourself on the dangers of the vaccines that your doctor or pediatrician insists on administering., as well as the vaccine laws in your state. 

I have numerous articles detailing the dangers of various vaccines on this site, and you have the entire internet at your disposal in addition to what I have documented through the years.

There is also an entire chapter in my book Take Control of Your Health devoted to this very topic, including what you should know before vaccinating, and what to do if you decide not to.

Support the NVIC -- Support Vaccine Safety Reform

The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) is the American vaccine safety watchdog. They are currently being flooded with vaccine reaction reports and parents reporting that their vaccine exemptions are being pulled or they can't get one. I highly recommend you make a donation to the NVIC to help support them in their efforts to raise awareness about these vital issues and implement vaccine safety reform. Funds are urgently needed to: 

1. Launch a national education campaign about vaccine risks and wellness alternatives to vaccination
2. Continue to work for vaccine freedom - protect and expand state vaccine exemption laws
3. Expand counseling services for parents reporting vaccine reactions, injuries and deaths
4. Hold the International Public Conference on Vaccination Oct. 2-4, 2009 in Washington, D.C.
5. Educate Congress about the need to separate out the vaccine safety monitoring mechanism from federal health agencies responsible for developing, regulating, making policy for and promoting mass use of vaccines, and make the agency reportable to Congress