vaccine question-looking for opinions

[Alyssa2483]

so i have read all of jenny mcarthy's books and have enjoyed all of them. for those of you who arent sure of where i am going with this, jenny mcarthy has a son who is autistic and she believes that his autism was caused by vaccines. she has also done research and learned that a childs diet can help with autism, and has changed her son's diet so he now has fewer autistic behaviors.
so since reading her last book i have been doing some more research about vaccines and have come to realize that there are parents and doctors who feel that kids shouldn't have all of their vaccines due to reactions the children can have and also some materials found in the shot....i am not saying i believe this, but i am interested in learning more about it.....i think this is due to my pregnancy, all i do lately is read pregnancy and parenting books :)

so i am just curious if anyone else has any thoughts about this that they would like to share? please?

[fuzzy]

I know somewhere on these boards there was a lengthly debate about this:)In case you are interested...In my opinion I don't believe that the vaccines cause Autism;The MMR vaccine at 18 months is the one that some parents believe cause it.Before I was a SAHM I was an Autism support Worker and Have seen my fair share of parents who believe the needle was the cause...I believe it's coincidence! See at 18 months alot of children hit these certain Milestones and become more social beings and when parents of Autistics see their children aren't hitting these,of course they are concerned and have them evaluated and when autism is diagnosed they want something to blame they blame the needle cause it's all in the same time frame...I believe that to an untrained eye autism and it's wide spectrum can go undetected for years which is why so many parents say my child was normal until 18 month and the needle;but someone who was trained to detect early signs may be able to see the difference between an autistic 6mon old vrs a normal 6 months old....I have a friend,whom I am very close to;when her son was 16months old I noticed according to the "child development inventory scale" was falling in the 9 months(quite a bit behind)but because he was a preemie they said not to worry about it,Then at 18 months..I remember going into her house and seeing him rocking back and forth banging two blocks together and no matter what i did i was unable to get his attention(this worried me)the more time I spent there the more autistic tendancies I aw..He had his needle at 20 months!At 2 yrs I had "the talk" with her and she was in denial(Ok I can't push anyone)Then when he was 3 and still had no language,food issues,no social skills,no toileting,Oh the list goes on...She talked to her dr and got put on a waiting list..WEll he's now just turned 4 and has been diagnosed autistic and Is finally getting the proper therapy:) but she blames the needles..you ask her and she'll tell you that the her Son was a different boy the day she let the doctor give him that needle but...Her son was honestly not normal from the beginning and I knew it;but if blaming the needle makes her feel better than "to each his own"...wow,I kinda rambled a little,I hope you can understand my comments:)
Melissa

[cay8099]

I have to agree with Fuzzy on this one. Many parents need something to blame, and vaccinations tend to take the blame because of the time frame. I honestly believe that it is something else that causes autism. I don't have no theories on what does cause it, but I don't believe that vaccines are the cause.

[kare.bear]

I am personally concerned about a resurgence of diseases like whooping cough and even polio due to parents who choose not to vaccinate their children. Whooping cough, in particular, is going around our area this year and can be deadly to young children. This is extremely preventable with vaccines, but the autism scare has kept so many parents from vaccinating their children that many childhood illnesses that were virtually wiped out in the U.S. are being seen in growing numbers. I am DEFINITELY vaccinating my children. I see far more scientifically supported evidence proving the benefits of vaccinations than not. In fact, most "evidence" against vaccinations is anecdotal and has little or no scientific studies to support it.

[brandie1127]

Parenting Magazine ( I think) just had a fantastic article on this! The article sited that of the 14 or 15 doctors that first linked Vaccines to autism 13 of them retracted their part of the document. It also said that there IS NO scientific proof that link vaccines to autism. I too was worried about this. The only risk that has been proven is when a child is given multiple shots in a small period of time their immune system has not been built up to sustain the immunizations. So many people are breaking up the MMR and other multiple shots. The number of people that are immunizing their children is going down do to fears of Autism yet the Autism rates are staying the same. The very small link to Autism was linked to the preservative in the vaccines - which they no longer use.

The BEST part I found about the article is it sited that there was a Mumps outbreak last year I think and it affected something like over 300 children. ( Sorry I don't have the article in front of me) anyway it said that something like 99% of the children affected where not given the MMR on purpose do to their parents being afraid of Autism. They could have totally prevented such a serious happening yet CHOSE not to!

I am all for a natural approach to parenting so I did my research on this subject and this is my decision - the risk of my child developing a SERIOUS disease that could have been prevented far outways the risk of developing Autism.

... its taken me ALOT of research to feel that way believe me I am a total organic chick on alot of things!

Besides how many of us were immunized ... ALL of us. I even had the Chicken Pox vaccine as a kid and guess what my baby is free of the risk of Pox until she is 9 months because of my immunities to it! Awesome!

[lena241]

Im with Fuzzy. I also do not think that vaccines cause autism. If you look at the number of people who were vaccinated, in our generation (Generation X) vs the number of those who were diagnosed with Autism from our generation, it just doesnt add up. I dont know of anyone in my family or group of friends, all who are vaccinated and all who have children who are vaccinated that have a child with Autism.

It may be something genetic or something environmental. Maybe they should screen the parents and see if there is a link. Maybe they are all health nuts who eat organic all the time, take way too many vitamins, eat tofu, and drink those health drinks or Soy Milk are to blame. I see alot of connection between a change in eating habits, and what we should and should not expose our children to and an increase in Autism over the last few years!

Autism is the new ADHD. In a few years the blaming will stop and there will be a new disease and a new reason for everyone to be scared out of what we as Americans have known for years as "Good for us". Maybe it is even a Taliban plan to get us away from vaccines so they can use Germ Warfare against us. As for me and my children, we will be vaccinated.

[mommabearto3]

I'm going to disagree with everyone else on this one...
I definitely understand why most people feel the way they do about vaccinations and I believe doctors mean well in their recommendations to vaccinate, but for many reasons, I (and many others), have come to think that they have missed the boat on this one.
We used to vaccinate our 3 kids on schedule until about 1 year ago when I started really doing a lot of research and found that I just did not feel comfortable vaccinating anymore. My husband agrees so we have chosen to stop permanently. Many things have led to that decision. One of them was understanding that vaccines aren't really as effective as they are touted to be by the medical community. We tend to think (and are told) that if it were not for vaccines, we would still have huge epidemics of all the childhood diseases they now vaccinate against. Seems like that would make sense at first glance, but when you research it, you find that almost all those diseases were in massive decline PRIOR to the vaccines becoming mainstream. The reason for this decline is mainly due to better sanitation & nutrition which has a huge impact on our immune systems. Here are some graphs showing this trend:

You can read more about this info at:

http://freelearner.typepad.com/free_learner/2008/05/why-do-people-read-time-in-the-first-place.html

Also, one of the most informative things I did was to watch the video I linked to below with my husband. It is made by a very well respected doctor who was pro-vax for a long time (she was the head of an ER at a hospital) but then started researching it for herself and found much to be concerned about. She says most doctors are very well meaning but the education they receive is very one sided and they simply don't have time to do the research for themselves and/or don't even know/want to really question the vaccine policies. Here's the link:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7018835240451107552&q=

It's a video by Dr. Sherri Tenpenny called "Vaccines: The risks, the benefits, the choices." It was a couple of hours, but walked through each vaccine and gave a ton of helpful info.

For us, after all the research, we just couldn't see taking the risk of injecting some potentially very dangerous chemicals for very little payout in the end (since vaccines are not nearly as effective as they seem to be at keeping our children from getting the diseases they are supposed to immunize against in the first place!)

Again, I sympathise with how hard of a decision this is. It kinda feels like "damned if you do, damned if you don't" (pardon the language:) sometimes, but just do the research and make the best decision you can for your family. Good luck and take care!

[wright1212]

To add to the mix, I am a mom of a child with autism...
I KNOW vaccines didnt cause my son's autism. It is CRAZY to think otherwise. Vaccines dont cause it-mercury (before 02) cause some children to have heavy metal poisening which can be easily tested for and treated. It my 5 years of very extensive research on autism I strongly believe there are different types of autism: 1. poisen related 2. health condition related 3. environmental related. These kids have a predisposition to have it and something triggers it. This accounts for the regressive types. It also accounts for related disorders like my son who has seizure ADHD and autism. Their is also a strong link to some who have allergies in common. A group of kids with autism have a gluten and wheat allergy and are releaved-not cured- of symptons with diet control. I could go on and on with this but back to the vaccines....
Mercury was removed from all vaccines in 99 2000 and off all shelves by 2002. There is still a tremendous increase in autism this would NOT account for. ALSO my ped treats a large family of 5. The oldest 2 had vaccines-no problem. Mom decided no vaccines for the triplets and they all 3 got autism!!!!!!!!!!! Now account for that???
I do think we have gotten vaccines happy over the decade and give too many now and too close together and at too young an age. I personally like the green/vaccine method and will consider with baby #3, especially if a boy. Its the same vaccines just started later and spread out. Its much safer than the cocktails given.
I also think Jenny McCarthy is full of it and is NOT a medically trained professional and speaking alot of hot air. She preaches about curing her son and we should all do it. Doesnt she think we tried? If it worked there would 1. be a decrease in autistic behavior from our children 2. a decrease in diagnosis cases..but there is not.
Sorry to ramble this is a touchy subject to me that I speak to groups on frequently. A small b-t-w chicken pox vaccines doesnt prevent..it only means when they get it, they only get 15 or so bumps and only sick for 1 or 2 days!! Much better than when I had it.

[Jill_at_StorkRadio]

So, this is obviously a hugely controversial subject but we just talked with a pediatrician about it and he said something that made a lot of sense. He basically said that in the past 10 years the medical community has done a ton of research about the vaccine-autism connection and they have proven that there is not one. It is not that the evidence does not exist but even that they have been searching for it. Everyone has to make the decision that is best for them and their child, but it made sense to me.

I also think that the reason why we do not have a lot of the diseases we currently do is because of vaccines, if people keep not vaccinating we are going to see a rise of mumps again like someone else said already happened etc. My uncle had polio when he was little and there was no vaccine and it was terrible. It would have changed his life to have it. But it is hard b/c we all want to do what is best for our kids and at the end of the day there are somethings that we can control and some that we can't.

[H.Starr]

From Parenting themselves, in their "Stinky Diaper Awards"


The Whatever it Takes to Get Ratings Award
Eli Stone

As Teletubbies can attest, TV is far from factual. Even so, we were outraged by the season premiere of this ABC show, in which a mom nabs a $5.2 million verdict after alleging that a vaccine caused her son's autism. The controversy over inoculations and autism is frighteningly real, despite the fact that stacks of studies from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, and the American Academy of Pediatrics have failed to expose a link. "Many people trust the health information presented on fictional television shows," then AAP president Ren¿e R. Jenkins, M.D., said in a plea to the network not to air the episode. The show went on, and we'd hate to think that it dissuaded even one parent from vaccinating her child.


Thank you Parenting! Vaccines causing autism = FICTION.

[nhouseholder]

As a teacher (and first time pregnant lady) I would encourage you to do a lot of research and soul searching when considering to vaccinate your child or not. Remember, it's not just YOUR child you are putting at risk by not getting him/her vaccinate...you are putting EVERYchild yours comes in contact with and al of the teachers and everyone else at risk as well.

[lismom2]

As a teacher (and first time pregnant lady) I would encourage you to do a lot of research and soul searching when considering to vaccinate your child or not. Remember, it's not just YOUR child you are putting at risk by not getting him/her vaccinate...you are putting EVERYchild yours comes in contact with and al of the teachers and everyone else at risk as well.

If vaccines work the way they are supposed to, you are not harming anyone else with your decision to either delay or not vaccinate. Take your time, research your choices, and do what is best for your family. This is a choice only you can make and it is only between you, your child and your doctor.

[nhouseholder]

Vaccines don't always "take". I found out a month ago that my MMR vaccination didn't "take" in me. According to my obgyn, this happens in about 10-15% of people. So, yes, I am at risk for getting some of these diseases.

[lismom2]

True, you are at risk, however, an unvaxed child is not going to harm you.