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For all those new mommies out there, vaccines seem to be the big controversy. (See Jenny McCarthy.)
I understand why some women are becoming anti-vaccine activists. There
is a lot of un-evidence based information available on the internet. I
agree that vaccines should be "green" and not contain mercury. It has already been taken out of almost all
vaccines available.
I have talked to many doctors about this and
believe that a huge part of this trend is that autism is diagnosed and
recognized much more than it was several years ago. I don't feel as
though the number of cases has increased so much as the number of kids
being diagnosed. It is also more of a coincidence that signs of autism appear around the time kids are vaccinated.
I am not a doctor and so obviously I could be totally off on some of this, but this is just my opinion on the matter.
My
issue is with not vaccinating at all. This is a very dangerous
situation. The risk of a child having an adverse reaction to a vaccine
is less than then getting hurt in a car accident. There have been
outbreaks of measles all over the US and the source of these outbreaks
is actually the UK where they have shunned vaccines longer than it has
been popular to do so in the US. Delaying vaccinations is also dangerous as it extends the amount of time a child can be exposed to one of these diseases which also makes it dangerous to younger kids and infants who are exposed to that child.
I think it is very selfish and
unwise to totally avoid vaccinating your kids. While I hate to push my
opinion on people. Usually, I do what I feel is right and don't care
what other people do. This is different because it could affect my
child. Since the MMR vaccine isn't given typically until the 12 or 15 month
check-up, infants are susceptible to these diseases until then. If people
aren't giving their kid the MMR vaccine it could potentially affect younger, unvaccinated babies. There is no proven treatment for measles, only a proven
prevention. It is potentially fatal, especially to infants.
It
may seem like a kid would be safe from measles if they aren't traveling
to third world countries or even just around other kids once or twice a
week. Not true, if a friend's parent travels to the UK, their kid could
be susceptible which could put your kid at risk even if they are just
around each other once or twice.
This is rare and chances are good that it wouldn't happen, I just don't understand why someone would put their child and others at risk.
Luckily
I have a great pediatrician who answers all my questions
with an informed decision approach. She talked at length with me about
vaccines before my son was even born and I was very comforted to know
that she held my same beliefs.
Today my son had his first set
of shots. While I absolutely hated seeing him in pain and I hope he
doesn't feel bad today and tomorrow, it is totally worth the protection
from dozens of diseases that it will provide. Some feel that there are
too many vaccines given at one time. There is a reason doctors do this
vaccine schedule. They don't just pull it out of the air.
A
study done in 1998 linking the MMR vaccine to autism is what got a lot
of people riled up about the situation. What isn't mentioned a lot of
the time is that 10 out of 13 of the researchers on the study retracted their position on it in 2004 because there was no causal link between the MMR vaccine and autism.
Again,
I hate pushing my opinion on people. That's why I love the blog, if
people are offended..stop reading! This just hits a nerve for me
because it could potentially harm my little man. To me, not vaccinating
is like putting a kid in a car without a carseat. Not unlike what I saw
at Wal-mart the other day. My husband had to hold me back before I said
something to the lady.
While I hate to offend anyone, I just had to get my thoughts out there. I have many mini-soapboxes and this is just one that came up today!
