One week after deciding to defect from the antivaccination camp, a Canadian mom got all the proof she needed that children need to be vaccinated [1]. Tara Hills vaccinated her first three children on an alternative schedule but decided against vaccinating her youngest four because she was "scared and didn't know who to trust." But after all seven of her kids age 10 and under were diagnosed with whooping cough last month, she's a firm believer in vaccines.

Writing from quarantine on The Scientific Parent [2], she says, "For years relatives tried to persuade us to reconsider through emails and links, but this only irritated us and made us defensive. Secretly, I hoped I would find the proof I needed to hold the course, but deep down I was resigned to only find endless conflicting arguments that never resolved anything."

But after a family game night where her brother-in-law arrived with a cold, her kids developed a cough unlike any she'd ever heard. "My youngest three children were coughing so hard they would gag or vomit. I'd never seen anything like this before," she wrote. "Watching our youngest struggle with this choking cough, bringing up clear, stringy mucus — I had heard of this before somewhere. My mom said I had it when I was a kid. I snapped into 'something is WRONG' mode."

A Google search later, she discovered her kids — including her 10-month-old son — had almost all of the symptoms of whooping cough, and they could have passed it on to her 34-week-old nephew in the NICU. She reports that her oldest kids are recovering well, but the youngest ones are struggling.

"Right now my family is living the consequences of misinformation and fear. I understand that families in our community may be mad at us for putting their kids at risk. I want them to know that we tried our best to protect our kids when we were afraid of vaccination and we are doing our best now, for everyone's sake, by getting them up to date. We can't take it back . . . but we can learn from this and help others the same way we have been helped."

Hills says that she is sharing her family's struggle in hopes of convincing other antivaxx families to reconsider their decisions. We wish them all a speedy recovery.