I don’t usually write about the deaths of children, especially babies, but this time I am making an exception. I don’t usually write about these events even though many parents falsely blame vaccines for such deaths. The thought of doing so has always felt wrong and cruel. People like Larry Cook of Stop Mandatory Vaccination have no problem exploiting the deaths of these children for profit. Even though I make zero money off my posts, writing about them still felt wrong.  It bothers me that parents wrongly blame vaccinations for these deaths and I know them doing so does causes harm, usually by convincing other parents to stop vaccinating for no reason, but I don’t want to be the one to take the focus of their anger and sadness away, even though they are directing it in the wrong place. I chose to make an exception this time for a couple of reasons. One reason being that this child died over a year ago. Even though I know this mom is still hurting, and always will be hurting, writing this a year later seems more acceptable. The second reason is because there are conflicting accounts of what occurred and I think people should know this. Not because I am accusing the mother of anything, well other than being mistaken, but because I hope other parents will notice this and realize this is a mother who is grieving and not a mother who is understands vaccinations or should be listened to for advice. My heart goes out to the mom. I can see the pain in her face and hear it in her voice when she discusses what happened in a Facebook video. I don’t think she did anything wrong or caused the death of her child. I wish she could find a cause if that would help her come to terms with losing her baby, even if that cause were vaccinations. I see this mom as a victim for losing her daughter, and as a victim to the anti-vaccination community. I believe those in the community have preyed upon her grief and loss for selfish reasons. I know anti-vaccinationists often target grieving parents and I can imaging how vulnerable these parents are during the hardest loss of their lives. I don’t agree with this mom, but I don’t blame her either.

As parents we have probably said it a hundred times, maybe even a thousand times; we would gladly take a bullet for our kids. If given the opportunity, we would sacrifice our life for theirs. If we could, we would take away their heartache, disappointment, and failures and lay it on our shoulders. As parents we also say that we would gladly take away their suffering and make it our own. I only know of one type of parent that isn't willing to end such suffering, the anti-vaccinationist parent. For these parents, watching their children suffer, even watching them come close to death, is not only acceptable, it is often times sought out.