Another Momversation. I love these things. (Notice I figured out what was going wrong with embedding the video into the post. Enjoy!)
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Vaccines and autism: for years, there have been talk that the MMR immunization caused autism in otherwise healthy children. Many in the health field, however, dismissed the link. Last February, it was shown that the doctor who first made the link had faked the results. And now the medical journal The Lancet retracted the article in which those results were published, an unusual move on the part of the British publication. But will the debate rage on? Do parents like Jenny MCarthy still insist that the MMR vaccine caused their children’s disorder? Daphne Brogdon of Cool Mom asks, “Vaccines and autism: debate over?”
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You know, as parents we are between a rock and a hard place.
This is a debate that I rarely discuss. I am not a pushy person. I do not care one way or another about you or your children. I am not here to judge what is right and wrong with the way you raise your children. Therefore, I don’t feel like you should judge me for my decisions in raising my children.
Now that we have left all of our judgements at the door, here is my story.
With Caroline, I dreaded the day that we had to go in for our 15-month well baby visit. I cried. I stressed. I read all kinds of scary information. I walked into our pediatrician’s office a nervous wreck. I remember my heart beating so fast I thought it was going to beat out of my chest. The dreaded MMR shot was going to happen that day. I was so uneasy about it.
It would be a lie if I said to you that I didn’t consider pushing this shot back. I knew that Caroline hadto get it eventually to be able to attend school. But I didn’t want to deal with it right at that moment. I just wanted to wait. I just wanted more time to think about it.
Thank God my pediatrician is a saint and I love him. He talked me through it. He held my hand. He wiped my tears. Caroline didn’t have a clue what was happening. She just enjoyed chewing on a germ infested book that a million other people had touched. Her mama was having a mild anxiety attack and she just ate page 7 of an old dirty book.
“Hailey, I would never tell you to give your child something that I thought would harm her. There is NO, I repeat NO proven evidence that says this shot is the cause of autism.”
Give your child a shot… possibility of becoming autistic. Don’t give your child the shot… possibility of child dying from any one of the three diseases that this shot protects against.
Decisions. Decisions.
I did it. I gave it to her.
The simple fact that there was research saying something that was obviously not true (but we didn’t know it at the time) was scary. It planted that seed of doubt in my mind. I did have doubts. As a parent, I think I am entitled to those doubts. I don’t think that makes me a bad parent. I think that makes me a conscious parent. It makes me a parent that does her research and knows what is going on with her children.
With Emma, it was different. The whole debate crossed my mind for about .6 seconds and I was over it. That is what happens with your second child. I just signed the paper, the shot was given and we left. (Of course I giggled the whole time. What? It is just my nervous habit.)
So, tell me what you think. Do you think that the debate will finally be over now that the Lancet has retracted the article by a doctor who “faked” the results? Do you think parents that are dead set on the fact that the MMR vaccine causes autism will still insist on it? Did you ever have doubts about the MMR vaccine? What swayed your decision? Let’s talk about it. (Remember: Leave your judgments at the door.)
PS- So far, both of my children are doing just fine… MMR vaccine and all. 
