I was sitting at our car dealership this morning while my car was being serviced reading a recent issue of TIME magazine. I usually find this magazine to give completely biased opinions on the stories they cover, however, the feature story for this issue dealt with the safety of vaccines, so it sparked my interest and I decided to take a look. Much to my surprise, it was actually an interesting article.
This topic has certainly been a hot issue lately causing much debate. I have always been one to follow the doctor's order's so I have always been religious about taking medicine and getting vaccines. In all honestly, I never really thought twice about it until I had Caroline. Then the debate seemed to always come up as to whether you should give your child the plethora of vaccines or not.... Well, I have consistently gone with my gut and Caroline has received all of her necessary vaccines with no issues arising. She has yet to receive her MMR vaccine due to the fact that she had not had eggs at her 12 month check-up and that is a requirement in order to receive the shot. (The MMR shot has a variation of egg in it and if the child has not been exposed to egg it can cause an allergic reaction). Caroline will receive this shot in September and after reading the TIME magazine article as well as an article on Foxnews.com, I have no qualms about it.
The follow paragraph was from the TIME article and it really reemphasized the importance for me to immunize my daughter. "Parents of these unimmunized kids know that as long as nearly all the other children get their shots, there should not be enough pathogen around to sicken anyone. But that's a fragile shield. Infectious-disease bugs continue to travel the globe, always ready to launch the next big public-health threat. Pockets of intentionally unvaccinated children provide a perfect place for a disease to squat, leading to outbreaks that spread to other unprotected kids, infants and the elderly. Ongoing measles outbreaks in four states are centered in such communities; one originated with an unimmunized boy from San Diego who contracted the virus while traveling in Europe—where the bug was thriving among intentionally unimmunized people in Switzerland. Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), says, "We are seeing more outbreaks that look different, concentrated among intentionally unimmunized people. I hope they are not the beginning of a worse trend."
The follow paragraph was from the TIME article and it really reemphasized the importance for me to immunize my daughter. "Parents of these unimmunized kids know that as long as nearly all the other children get their shots, there should not be enough pathogen around to sicken anyone. But that's a fragile shield. Infectious-disease bugs continue to travel the globe, always ready to launch the next big public-health threat. Pockets of intentionally unvaccinated children provide a perfect place for a disease to squat, leading to outbreaks that spread to other unprotected kids, infants and the elderly. Ongoing measles outbreaks in four states are centered in such communities; one originated with an unimmunized boy from San Diego who contracted the virus while traveling in Europe—where the bug was thriving among intentionally unimmunized people in Switzerland. Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), says, "We are seeing more outbreaks that look different, concentrated among intentionally unimmunized people. I hope they are not the beginning of a worse trend."
I could live with a child who was autistic, but if my child was to contract such an awful disease like rubella or measles and die, I could never live with that! There have been very little to no evidence that these vaccines are what is causing the increase in autism in this country. I know this topic will continue to be a debate and it is certainly a personal choice. I know my decision will be to listen to my child's doctor, who I trust more than anyone else when it comes to my child's health, and she will continue to get the necessary vaccines so she stays healthy.
6 comments:
I agree with you Leanne. I have always done what the Dr. recommends, without second guessing thier opinion-along with the opinion of thousands of other Peds. I have a friend whose little boy has Autism and she is convinced that the vaccines have and do affect him and is on a different vaccine schedule- that was given to her by thier allergy Dr. -, which might be a good alternative for people who are on the fence about it. I believe that the children get the same vaccines, eventually but start them much later. My thing is, I would be worried to not give them at the young age as thier bodies aren't as strong to fight the diseases as when they get a bit older. I think you are right, you have to go with your gut, and listen to the Dr. that you have trusted on so many other things! Thankfully we are up to date on all shots. Mara got her last round at 18 mth and I think Sam gets the booster this year, but other than that, I think Tetnus is the only thing we have to look forward to in a few years. Thank goodness. Shots are no fun!
I definitely agree too. I hate to watch Cate get shots (which is why it's Eric's job to hold her hands), but it's definitely in her best interest.
Hi there Leanne,
"I could live with a child who was autistic, but if my child was to contract such an awful disease like rubella or measles and die, I could never live with that!"
My thoughts exactly. Vaccinations never bothered me but I was taken in by the scaremongering surrounding the MMR vaccine and its link with autism.
Having had 4 children under the age of 5, I had a path worn to the doctor's surgery for jabs. The MMR, now that was a different story. I decided against giving it to them until I was happy with their development and speech. The girls got theirs when they were over the age of 2 as I had no concerns about their development.
My third child, a boy, didn't get his as his speech was slow to develop. He was diagnosed with autism a year ago..Murphy's Law at its best. I am, however, glad he hadn't got it because the way my mind was working I would surely have blamed the MMR.
Then I had to decide if to give it to him at all. It took words quite similar to yours to wake me up and get him vaccinated, which I did at the same time as his younger brother a couple of months ago and no problems..thank god.
http://www.thinktwice.com/ploys.htm
For me, I am not convinced one or the other. I don't believe that our society promotes or encourages a healthy parenting image and standard - we are controlled by fear, a by-product of so many factors, and we have been reduced to an over-medicated society. The idea of all those viruses coursing through my little baby's body makes me cringe. There are two sides to the public heath question - preventative or natural, and I must say that my camp is with the latter.
Most developed countries do not give these vaccinations and their children are FAR healthier than American kids. It's a joke to my European friends that they offered a hepatitis vaccine to Nadia in the hospital (which we declined). I think they may have postponed the MMR until age 5 in japan - and they are the healthiest people alive. The medical system in this country is just one giant, powerful, lobbyist monopoly and I feel strongly that until we recognize the corporate structure of every traditional aspect of human civilization, we are in jeopardy of being reduced to a dollar sign. Nadia has had one vaccination and we are planning on waiting until she is 3-4 for the rest. I feel that she is safe.
just to add my comments to this, we are planning a spaced-out vaccine schedule, as was mentioned above. dr. sears' "vaccine book" is a great resource. it doesn't take a stance either way, but details each vaccine (ingredients, side effects), the disease it is meant to protect against (how common is it? how dangerous is it?), and any cautions or warnings. i learned a lot from that book. basically, with a spaced-out schedule your baby is only receiving one aluminum-containing (there have been problems with the aluminum in vaccines in some children) vaccine at a time, and dr. sears does suggest holding off on MMR for a little while.
while i completely agree that there are significant problems with the medical establishment, i do not take lightly the public health responsibility of vaccination. here's a quote from dr. sears about his revised schedule:
"The main difference in my suggested alternative vaccine schedule is it spreads the infant vaccines out over the first few years of life, instead of bunching them all up in the first 18 months. It gives fewer vaccines at a time, gives the most important vaccines first, and slightly delays the less important vaccines. But ultimately the end result is the same - a fully vaccinated child. What are the benefits of my alternative schedule compared to the standard one?
By only giving two vaccines at a time (instead of as many as 6), I decrease the chance of chemical overload from grouping so many vaccines chemicals all together at once. This allows a baby's body to better detoxify the chemicals one or two at a time.
I give only 1 aluminum-containing vaccine at a time (instead of the recommended 4). Overloading on this metal can be particularly toxic to the brain (See Resources, page ___ of The Vaccine Book to view the research on this).
I give only one live-virus vaccine component at a time to allow the body's immune system to better handle the live viruses in these vaccines.
Giving fewer shots at a time may decrease the side effects, in my experience.
Giving fewer shots at a time also makes it easier to figure out which vaccine a child is reacting to if a severe reaction occurs."
of course, bad reactions to these shots are rare, so i understand just going ahead with your MD's recommendations, but to me, it is worth it to space them out a bit (especially as my baby will not be in day care so will not be exposed to tons of other kids).
as both myself and my husband are hep b negative, we are also declining the hep b vaccination at birth, though she wil probably receive it later in life. it doesn't make much sense to me that a baby would be inoculated against a sexually transmitted disease at birth.
--katie
So funny because this has been on my mind recently. We have been getting vaccines for years why all the sudden could it now be the possible cause for autism? I don't get it. Is it just the MMR they are talking about? Is this a relatively new vaccine? Is there mercury in it? There really should not be mercury in vaccines I guess that is my main concern.
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