Since we've made the rounds with baptism & circumcision... The next topic... some friends are insisting on ordering preservative free shots. Well, our pediatrician doesn't offer them. If these things are so important, then why are the docs so unwilling to offer them? This of course is related to the possibility of mercury causing or contributing to autism. Help/opinions greatly appreciated.
I would guess that since it's not proven that preservatives in vaccines cause autism, doctors are not all going to make the effort to stock them. Also, I don't know anything about this, but will insurance pay for these vaccines since there is no proven benefit?
There is no conclusive data linking vax to autism, but I've decided that my children will be following a modified vax schedule. There is simply no need for a child to get all the vax on the schedule within such an aggressive timeframe. I am not convinced that we fully understand the consequences of putting the infant immunological system under such strains beginning immediately at birth. I understand the public health rationale behind the aggressive schedule, but it is just not necessary if the parents are "with it" and involved in the process. I'd be interested in hearing the thoughts of hte resident hornfans physicians, esp any with a pedi background.
My youngest son has Asperger's Syndrome - frequently referred to the as the highest functioning form of Autism. My wife is pretty convinced some vaccinations he had as an infant had a role in causing this. There was / is some research out there that backs that up, but there are Dr.'s. and medical industry skeptics too. If we had it to do over again and preservatie free vaccines were available, we would seek them out and limit the risks as much as possible. Good luck.
Thimerosal does not have anything to do with autism. The guy who suggested that it did was paid to say so and has been beaten down into a hole from which he will never emerge.
Speaking as another parent of an Aspie, I have never been fully convinced of the link between thiomersal-containing vaccinations and autism spectrum disorders. The lone study that allegedly linked autism to vaccinations is severely flawed and largely discredited by the scientific community. I know of at least one autism support group in Central Texas, in which many of the parents involved are strongly convinced of a thiomersal connection to autism, despite the lack of scientific evidence for this. On the other hand, my wife is also involved with an autism support group in Oregon, where most of the members are not convinced of the link. Seems to be a lot of conflicting information (or perhaps misinformation) about thiomersal floating around. As an aside, the use of mercury in vaccinations does give me some pause, from a purely environmental standpoint. Mercury is a known toxin to humans, and it has increasingly showed up as a major component in environmental pollution. I know of a number of examples where the EPA recommends limiting consumption of certain species of fish due to higher than acceptable mercury levels. How much of the mercury remains in our bodies after the vaccination? Does any of it leach out into the soil or water table once our bodies are buried when we die? Maybe not, but it is something to think about. Now back to the original subject. My personal belief (take it for what it's worth) is that autism spectrum disorders have a genetic component, possibly aggravated by unknown external factors. I can cite several examples in my extended family where, in hindsight, various family members had exhibited behavioral traits common to Aspergers syndrome in varying degrees. Aspergers diagnoses were not commonly recognized until fairly recently. Anyway, this definitely suggests a genetic component to me. Some of the recent research seems to be confirming this, although I won't cite specific examples at the moment. Bottom line: if you want to enroll your kid in school, he/she is gonna have to get the shots. If the use of mercury in vaccinations concerns you, then make the extra effort to find mercury-free vaccinations.
Another father with an Aspergers son. I also have two that are not Aspies. If given the chance for a do-over of vaccinations, I would do it again. I too am not convinced of the relationship between vaccines and Autism. As the earlier poster stated, I also look back at family members on both sides and see some similarities.
This is a really good article about Autism and Vaccines. It goes into detail about why some of the initial studies linking autism and vaccines are flawed.The Link The CDC has some good information on the subject -The Link There is another good short editorial by a doctor from Austin that was in the New York Times I believe, unfortunately I can't find that link anymore. Adults, don't forget that you need immunizations too.The Link For those adults that are age 60 and older, there is now a vaccine for Shingles.
Also, here is some articles from CNN. This one is about how the rates of Autism are rising even after thimerosal was taken out of vaccines.The Link This one is about a possible genetic link to Autism. -http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/01/09/autism.gene.ap/index.html?iref=newssearch
From what I thought, there are more cases of autism being reported because doctors are now better at diagnosing it. And I think that many parents don't want to admit that sometimes random bad things happen to good people. You need a bad guy to accept a problem.
Bottom line for us is that there is NO MERCURY in the vaccines & hasn't been there for some time. There is this really odd boundary crossover between the granola hippie types & the uber-religious home schoolers when it comes to stuff like vacc's. My holy roller "self taught holistic medicine font of everything / now allergic to everything" S-I-L has passed out the kook kool aid to her niece (wife has 2 sisters; this is the oldest of the nieces) who has also declined vaccs for her two kids. Woe be unto a husband who goes against a woman's wishes, right? Here in Texas, you absolutely can NOT skip vaccs for your kids. Heck, there really isn't a lot of places in the USA you can skip it, what with the easy ability to travel, but more specifically we have a LOT of immigrants who don't have the access to vaccs & are now wandering around here in the states. There are literally billions of people who have received these NON MERCURY vaccs & the % incidence, while increasing, isn't (IMO... this is all IMO) related to asperger's or autism. A lot of these people need to look into how much other chromosomally damaging things they've done in their past. I know someone (not related) who had a child die of a type of cancer that I'd say could easily be tied into the amount of pot she smoked in college. Not trying to derail, but let's not JUST focus on vaccs.
Related to this, I saw an interesting segment on Nightline the other night. It mentioned how Aspergers syndrome appears to be underdiagnosed in girls. Most of the research has focused on boys, as the condition appears to be easier to spot for them. A lot of people write off similar behavior in girls as just being inherent to their gender. One family featured in the segment had three kids, all Aspies. Two boys and one girl. I recognized similar traits in the girl that my own son has also demonstrated. What are the odds of all three children just being unlucky, getting Aspergers by random chance? Sounds like a good possibility of a genetic component to me, although that may be too simplistic of a view.
thiomersal is no longer in most vaccines. fromaldahyde is the bigger toxin to consider. rox isn't saying legally you can't avoid immunizations but that the immigrant population is at risk and too large to allow for herd immunity to work on a large scale. I don't buy the link, temporal correlation doesn't mean causation. We will do a modified plan for our second son. Our first seems pretty normal though and he had normal scheduled immunizations. The kicker for us is the pedi admitting the number of vaccines for kids has dramatically increased in number over the years. That load can't be good.
Tropheus is right - I was speaking to the risks, not the legality (although it's to the point where I would like to know up front so I will be able to properly tag the parents as nutjobs; family included]). there isn't a corner of these United States that hasn't been affected by the Mexican influx & the risks are just too great.
...If these things are so important Because it's not so important, if "it" refers to preservative-free vaccines. People being what they are, and parents being who they are, tend to look for reasons why their child is autistic, and it's easy to blame preservatives in vaccines. Those parents are sincere, but misguided.
The kicker for us is the pedi admitting the number of vaccines for kids has dramatically increased in number over the years. That load can't be good. Ok, I'll bite. Why can't that "load" be good? And by "load" I assume that you mean the increased number of illnesses for which vaccinations are available? I would think this is a very good thing. More vaccines means protection against more diseases.
our pedi highly recommends vaccines, but recoginizes in the last twenty years the load has increased on kids. He is the expert we trust, and he isn't 100% sure it all good. I think if he and I were just friends and were drinking beer on the porch, he'd admit he'd like to see a slightly less aggressive schedule. The fact is, the increased load is a relatively new thing (20 years) and while I suspect there is very little in the way of connection between autism and vaccines, I also think spreading out the exposure to known toxins (formaldahyde, etc.) is a good thing. We're talking about an extra six months or a year, not an extra 5 years based on a reluctance on our pedi's part to wholly defend the current schedule.
My wife is pretty convinced some vaccinations he had as an infant had a role in causing this. Now, I'm not saying ANYTHING about the wife in question, but this reminded me of a recent article in the NYT about a mother whose crusade is allergies. Some of you may have read it. My point is that the allergy mother is, ahem, a bit overzealous and not exactly using cold, hard reason (or science) to support her views. And there seems to have been a lot of parents (fathers, too) who just want, need, to find a reason, a link, as to why their child is autistic. Confirmation bias run amok, in a way. The Link
BTW, most research suggests that infants immune systems are UNDER-STIMULATED today, not over stimulated, resulting in rapidly increasing rates of atopic dermatitis/eczema, hayfever, asthma, and other immune-mediated diseases. The theory is that kids arent coming into contact with the same allergens that they used to, thereby avoiding tolerance and later developing much stronger immune responses to these stimulants. I agree. Anyone read "Tortilla Flats" by John Steinbeck? There's a part in the book about some poor kids, not living in the cleanest of conditions and subsiding mostly on beans, who are extremely healthy and shake off colds and stuff. Yeah, yeah, fiction and all that.... This topic does present an interesting insight into how people conduct risk analysis and which information they choose to accept or discard in their decision making processes. Imo, we're regressing with vaccinations. Too many parents are opting out for what I see are invalid reasons. Not to mention the chicken pox vaccine that doesn't seem to last as long as it should.
