Monday, August 31, 2009

Get your mumps out of my face.

Last night, while chatting with the hubs and sister-in-law, and then while perusing the 2010 Ikea catalog (many earmarks were made, let me tell you) - I half-watched the Dateline special called "A Dose of Controversy" about vaccinations, autism, and the he-said she-said war of who's right.

A statement given by the American Academy of Pediatrics to Dateline pretty much sums up why I WILL be vaccinating my child. Specifically:
While it is likely that there are many environmental factors that influence the development of autism, vaccines are not the cause of autism. We know this because many careful and repeated studies show no link between vaccines and autism. Specifically, numerous studies have refuted Andrew Wakefield’s theory that MMR vaccine is linked to bowel disorders and autism. Every aspect of Dr. Wakefield’s theory has been disproven.
Don't get me wrong, I am concerned about Autism and the possibility of my child developing it. However, it's sounding more and more like a genetic defect (which one study says possibly develops sometime in the 2nd trimester) and at this point, may be unavoidable. In the meantime, since almost all studies show that there is NO LINK between childhood vaccines and Autism, I will have my kids vaccinated. It's more important now than ever to have your kids vaccinated since so many parents are NOT vaccinating their children, exposing EVERYONE to the possibility of any number of diseases and infections that haven't been widespread for years, like whooping cough and measles.

It's a very sensitive subject with parents, and one I would probably leave on the shelf among strangers (like religion and politics) because people's mind's are usually pretty made up on the topic. I will not try to convince someone otherwise if they choose to not vaccinate. I WILL protect my child from those people's children by vaccinating them.

In less controversial news, I'd like to give a shout out to my sciatic nerve for ruining my day.

3 comments:

  1. Hey! We must have the same sciatic nerve! What a coincidence. Mine must have taken a vacation to visit you today as I have felt just dandy, but I am sure that tomorrow when I am working and actually trying to get something done it will show up again. lol....

    Anyway, I agree with you. I did not see the special but I hope to soon. I have never been convinced that vaccinations led directly to the increase in autism, however I did have some concern. Then I thought about the things I vaccinate myself against and think it is silly to deprive my own child of that health prevention if I am willing to protect myself. Even more so now that those old diseases are coming about simply because people are not vaccinating their kids. Thanks for a great post today. Hope your sciatic nerve settles down.

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  2. I watched that shiz too. WTF dude? Just separate the three and let the debate end already. And my Sciatic gives your Sciatic a "Holler."

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  3. We'll be vaxing too. Because we're moving to china.. with visas & the whole omgchinayikes thing, we don't have quite as much choice as some other people have.

    While I don't have a huge particular trust of doctors or medicine in general, i have yet to be convinced of the link (honestly i've read about a link with autism & pitocin which has me more convinced than with vax...) enough for that to be our reason not to vax. I might selectively NOT do a few, but not just because of that. While doing my research I've found a lot of what's in that stuff.. and YIKES/WTF. The serious ones, okay, worth it in the long run (YAY for us not having polio any more, yes?).. but some of them.. i'd really rather the kid just have the chickenpox than that shot!

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