Vaccines and Autism Connection

My 4-year-old daughter is on the spectrum of autism and we truly believe that vaccines have something to do with her diagnosis. I recommend that you read, “What Your Doctor May Not Tell About Child’s Vaccinations” (by Stephanie Cave). This book gives you all the details about each shot and their possible side effects. It also provides a vaccine schedule so you are not giving all the shots at once. I wish we had read the schedule prior to vaccinating my daughter however it has been very useful information for our infant son. I hope this is helpful for you.

As a nurse and a mother of 4 children I've gone from giving all vaccines to my now 12 year old to not vaccinating my 1 year old at all. My pedritician agreed with me about my concerns with vaccines. He said they believe there might be a link with the MMR vaccine & autism. I'm not saying that we won't vaccinate our little Peter; however, we are trying to make a very well educated decision. Right now our decision is to wait until he's a few years older before pushing these vaccines in his little body.

Ironically, he is getting over the chicken pox right now. I didn't vaccinate any of my children for varcella-zoster, but after seeing what our baby just went through we did rush in and get the other 3 kids shots. I felt fine with it because they are all a little older.

Vaccinating is a VERY difficult decision for many parents. NO, we don't want to harm our children by exposing them to diseases, but we also don't want to harm them by supposedly protecting them. I would do a lot of research. That is what we are doing. Good luck!

Unfortunately, at this time their is not any conclusive information. At one point, the CDC strongly argued that their was no link between vaccinations and autism. They had a sudden change of heart last fall when they announced that they would devote more resources to look further into it.

The preservative thimerosol contains mercury, and that is the component that many people are linking to the onset of autism. Many of the vaccinations they are administering do not contain thimerosol.

We chose to hold off on giving our son the MMR. He has had all other vaccinations in line with the typical "shot schedule" that most doctors go by. We will probably wait until he is two years old before we allow them to administer the MMR. In addition, many flu shots contain thimerosol, but they are available "preservative free." I called up our doctor's office and requested that he receive the preservative-free dosage. You just need to be sure to let them know ahead of time so they can since they cannot keep them on hand for a long period of time.

Be sure to talk to your son's doctor about your concerns. Typically they do not agree with the link between vaccines and autism. But the important thing is that they support your choice to hold off on vaccinations. They should be willing to discuss what vaccinations contain thimerosol and which do not.

go out and buy the 'vaccine book' by robert sears. (i don't get any kick-backs, i promise). he goes through each vaccine in detail, the pros and cons and the evidence behind any issues. the nice thing is he doesn;t tell you what to do, he just lays out all the info for you to decide.
the thimerisol/mercury issue is really a non-issue since several studies have disproven that association, and for many years now, most of the vaccines have not contained it.. the only one that still does in the multi-dose flu vaccine and your kid can get the single dose-thimerisol free one. the other is the multi-dose tetanus, but that is just the booster shot for adults, not the one the kids get.
the other controversy is whether the 'inflammatory response' triggered by vaccines actually sets off a course of events leading the kid to have autism.
autism is extremely complicated and i don't think 'vaccines cause autism' but who knows if in someone who is genetically predisposed to have this disease, whether an environmental trigger (such as a vaccine, or even a bad naturally occurring illness) can set it off, make it occur earlier, or make it worse than it would have been otherwise.
the jury is still out.
now i am a physician and a toxicologist and i am vaccinating my kids, but i am doing it on a modified schedule...stretching things out a bit. the kids will still be fully vaccinated, and with the most important things first, but like the first response we are waiting a bit on the mmr. you can also split up the mmr and get each one separately. some people advocate this anyway, irrespective of the autism debate, since it is thought that you develop better, longer lasting immunity when the body only has to deal with one thing at a time.

get dr sears' book, i think it will help you understand alot.