Autism and Vaccines

G.,
We are doing selective vaccines with my little guy. We looked at all the shots and decided which ones we thought were really important and then spread them out so he only got 1 shot every 2 weeks. It was a lot of trips to the Dr. office, but I felt better about taking care of his health and being selective about the vaccines. I know one of the Sears boys has a Vaccine book out that recommends a selective schedule.
Hope that helps.
S.

It is wonderful that you are asking.
The link between autism and vaccines is a preservative called Thymerosol (sorry about the spelling). It is made with mercury (a nerve damaging chemical). Today almost all vaccines are made Thymerosol free. Ask your Dr. for a single dose vial - and double check that they are free of the Thymerosol. Spacing out vaccines is also a very good option - as long as you discuss all of this with your Dr. and make a plan and stick to it. Many of the diseases that we have vaccines for are very scary deadly diseases.
No matter what you decide know that you are a great Mom!

I'm immunizing my kids mostly on schedule but I'm separating the shots instead of having them receive multiple injections at one visit. Our pediatrician doesn't think there's any reason to do so but she isn't giving us a hard time about it either.

I didn't wait with anything regarding my daughter who is 6.5 years old. She's had shots that weren't mandatory also.

I'm pregnant now and I will give my baby all his/her shots on the regular schedule as well.

I don't believe that shots are linked to autism

I did a lot of research beforehand but decided to go with the full vaccine schedule for our son mostly because we travel to 3rd world countries regularly (starting when he was under a year) and I just felt the risks of exposure was higher than I might expect in my normal life here. If that hadn't been the case I would have elected to spread out the vaccines and do some delayed vaccinations but I still would have done the vaccines. If I had any family history of allergies or autism I would have rethought everything. The Dr. Sears book posters have mentioned is a worthy read.

This is false information that is creating undue anxiety to parents. It is unclear why autism is on the rise. It is thought to be multifactorial (maternal exposures, genetic and environmental.) There has been A LOT of research into vaccinations and autism and NO association has been found. Vaccinations protect your child from REAL ILLNESSES. I realize you will get a lot of differing opinions on this, so have a talk with your pediatrician and learn what the studies show rather than succumbing to fear .

I'm a big fan of the Dr. Sears book, "The Vaccine Book," too.

It would be advisable to make an appointment with your pediatrician just to discuss vaccinations, your questions, what brands they have, etc. If you wait until a regular check up for your baby, the doctor may likely be rushed for time, and you might be wrestling with a wriggly baby and unable to focus on the discussion.

I've pursued a modified schedule of vaccinations for my daughter. She's 11 months old now. I didn't want her to have four shots at a time, in case she did have an extreme reaction; I wanted to be able to tie a potential reaction to just one or two shots, maximum. It means more visits, and keeping track of what's been done, but it's been what I've been comfortable with.

G.,

I have read into several of the studies and counter studies about the autism / MMR link. I think that it is either coincidental or there is a possibly a genetic factor in a very small percentage of children that react to the MMR - like an allergic reaction.

Some things to consider about those studies are...
The 1998 study only had 12 children in it - way too small to be conclusive. In addition, the researchers suggested that MMR vaccination caused bowel problems in the children, which then led to autism. However, in some of the children studied, symptoms of autism appeared before symptoms of bowel disease. In 2004, 10 of the 13 authors of the 1998 study changed their minds and said that MMR vaccine and autism aren't linked.

Other larger studies have found no relationship between MMR vaccine and autism. For example, researchers in the UK studied the records of 498 children with autism born between 1979 and 1998. They found that the percentage of children with autism who received MMR vaccine was the same as the percentage of unaffected children who received it. There was no difference in the age of diagnosis of autism in vaccinated and unvaccinated children.

I read another example in my Pediatrician's office where parts of the UK stopped giving the MMR for a while due to the studies that said they were linked to autism. Eventually, children started contracting the diseases the MMR is there to prevent and the impact was so great (greater than anything related to autism) that they started giving them again.

So even if MMR's did cause autism, the MMR is the lesser of the two evils and shouldn't be discontinued by the general public. If you have a strong family history of autism or Asperger syndrome, you may want to forgo the shots under the "possible hereditary allergy" theory and hope that because most people get the vaccines they won’t pass it to your child. Otherwise, your best bet in protecting your baby is to give them the shots.

FYI - If you do decide not to get the shots, most pediatricians and schools insist that it is an educated decision; so do a lot of homework, know the facts and make sure you are confident of your decision before you go to the pediatrician and refuse the shots or go to register your child for school.

Congrats on the new little one,
S.

We made the unusual choice -- we didn't start vaccinating our son until this year, he's 5. He's just had a DTP and MMR and Polio and that's all, he had no shots as an infant. Our son was very healthy and this choice doesn't work for some people. We made this choice WITH medical advice. Our ped is board certified and something of a maverick, prefers natural remedies whenever possible. First certified male lactation consultant in the country. Proponent of co-sleeping. Advice that sometimes elicits hostile responses from other parents and doctors. But as you said it's a personal choice. http://www.drjaygordon.com/development/index.asp

Also in MN the law allows parents to conscientiously choose not to vaccinate at all, or not do specific vaccines. You just have to sign a form in front of a notary. But it's fine print law not well publicized, and you see a lot of posters about shots that kids "have to have" before school or certain ages. Not true.

Also if/when you do vaccinate, make sure the vaccines don't have thimerosol (sp?) as a preservative. It's mercury and is widely acknowledged to be unhealthy even if the autism link is controversial. It's been removed from most shots now, but apparently it's still on the shelf in some vaccines so you have to ask.

I actually have. I have a friend whose son developed autism at the age of 5, following the pre-kindergarten shots visit. For her (and to me) the correlation was obvious. He literally turned into a different child immediately, not just in personality but in weight gain, etc.

I have 5 children, and the first 4 I did immunize as told, but always feared them and questioned the doctors, who ignored my concerns. After my friend's experience I decided not to immunize #5, until she is older and bigger (bigger than 5 years old!).

we've taken a middle of the road approach. i believe in being a good public citizen and that means vaccinating, AS LONG as it is healthy for my child. we're dealying the MMR, and have spread some of the others out and opted out of a couple. i HIGHLY recommend the new dr. sears book "The Vaccine Book." i found it at the public library. here's the book's website:

http://www.askdrsears.com/thevaccinebook/

i think he gives good, balanced information and recommendations.

Up until 2002 there was an overall annual 30% rise in the incidence of Autism linked to Mercury in the multiple vaccine that was introduced in 1986. This vaccine was banned in 2002. You can Google on the subject and find all kinds of information.

I would suggest waiting for another reason: your baby's immune system has it's own ability to develop. Early shots lead to chronic ear infections and a host of other illnesses that will send you to the doctor's office often. This is because they suppress the developing immune system.

When I was a kid, shots were routinely given at 5 years, just before kindergarten. Moving up immunizations was something that started in the 70's and, in my opinion, to bad effect.

Once a child is 5 years old, their natural immune system has developed. Shots then bolster their immune system instead of overriding it.

Mothering Magazine has dozens of articles on immunizations and babies. I strongly recommend this magazine as a resource. Go to the library and order back issues that contain these articles - you will not be disappointed.

Incidentally, my kids were not immunized as babies and were almost never sick with more than a runny nose.

Do your research and know your rights. Our daughter is a little over 5 months old and we have decided to hold on all of her vacinnations at this time. I work with children with autism and have heard from paernts that they had a normal developing toddler before the vaccination and came home with a child that was not him/herself. There are risks in vaccinations, so understand the risk that you and your child are undertaking. Doctors know that 1 in 100 children have the likelyhood of developing autism, and that is no big deal. But when you are that 1 in 100, it's a very big deal. Not all children who get vaccinations develop autism, but do you know anyone with autism that hasn't gotten their immunizations? Also know that you do have every right as a parent to decline any and all vaccinations. Our expereience was that the pediatricians and pediatric nurses that we talked to strongly recommended us to get the vaccinations (one of us even told us that it was illegal to send our kids to public schools without their shots). We had to defend ourselves to decline the vaccinations and find a pediatrician that was sympathetic to our values.

Here's an excellent, well-researched, well-balanced article exploring this issue. There is controversy, but all of the peer-reviewed medical research has concluded that there is no connection - although there are questions about whether further, more specific studies are needed.

http://www.brainchildmag.com/essays/spring2008_weston.asp

The article mentions a book from the Dr. Sears clan which offers an alternative vaccine schedule - your child is fully vaccinated, just not all at once. There is some credible medical speculation that any issues, when they arise, may come from these little bodies responding to many vaccines (and the other ingredients in vaccines) all at once, and that spreading them out can mitigate any possible problems. This article also points out that the credibly-linked issues are mostly allergy/asthma related, rather than developmental.

The autism/vaccine issue came out of questions about thimerosol (a mercury preservative) which is no longer in any childhood vaccine (after 2002, I believe). It is, however, in *some* flu shots, you just have to ask your doctor for one that's thimerosol-free. (And there's no need to worry about the mercury in your adult flu shot - your blood-brain barrier in your fully mature brain won't allow the mercury into your nervous system, your body will eliminate that tiny amount of mercury as easily as it would the mercury from a serving of fish.)

There is a lot of emotion surrounding this issue, obviously. But this is a time to look for good, solid medical evidence, and to consult with your pediatrician. No matter what decisions you make, you want to be on the same page as your child's doc.

I did fully vaccinate my son. I'm considering the alternate vaccine schedule for my second.

Good luck with your research and with your decision!

Hi G.,
We were worried about the same thing and decided to go on a "selective" vaccination schedule for our daughter Amelia (she's 15 weeks tomorrow). We follow the schedule recommended by Dr. Sears in his book "The Vaccine Book" (an excellent read and not very expensive). It consists of breaking up some shots, not getting others, delaying some, and being picky about which manufacturer of serum you go with--- different manufacturers make shots using different components.
What worried us was the heavy aluminum content. Most shots don't have mercury in them anymore, which is great, but they're LOADED full of aluminum. Some people think that autism is showing up more and more because of heavy metal loads. Our generation got a good dose of it with vaccinations and growing up in a polluted environment, and as mothers, our babies are formed using our cellular components so they automatically come into the world with heavy metals loads. THEN, we give them a ton of shots with it in it too.
Don't let your pediatricain bully you into doing something you're not comfortable with. You're the parent, not them. AND, they DON'T always know best. I think it's better to be safe than sorry, and if that means annoying some doctors along the way, so be it! :)
Good luck!