No one wants to say it out loud, but autism is the boogeyman of children's disabilities. It terrifies parents because of the utter unfairness of the disorder. You spend 9 months holding your breath in the hopes that you give birth to a healthy, perfect child. As the pregnancy progresses, if you chose to, you can do scans and testing, checking for potential medical issues with your child. But even should those all be clear you cannot be certain about anything until you see your baby for yourself, and, if you chose to, have the myriad of testings and screenings done in the first few minutes post birth.
For some of us, it goes on longer than that. With Munch we had to watch carefully for the first 6 weeks to be sure she suffered no ill effects from her early infection. Any cough she might have made had me convinced we were seeing the onset of lung issues from the meconium she may have inhaled. But like every parent who is lucky enough to win the baby lottery, we made it through and ended up with a healthy, happy little girl who is completely "normal."
And that is why autism frightens parents beyond belief. To make it so far, to think you've gotten won the lottery and produced what society thinks of as "the perfect child," only to have it suddenly change in the toddler years is terrifying. If you avoid alcohol, you won't have a baby with FAS. If you avoid tobacco, you won't have one with low birth weight. If you avoid tuna, you won't have to worry about mercury affecting the brain. But what do you avoid to protect a child from autism?
This is the reason that many parents are holding on to the now disproven theory that vaccines can cause autism. If something can be done to lessen the risk of it occurring, what parent wouldn't jump at the chance?
I've tried to avoid this topic. I have at least one person ask me why I would put the Munch at such risk every time I mention a checkup. I usually send them links like this, or ones that state that thimerosal was removed from vaccines years ago just in case. The last issue of Parents magazine (thanks, Grandma!) has a fantastic look at vaccines and debunks the controversy thoroughly. But still it seems some parents won't believe what the research has proven again and again. But for the most part I've had a "live and let live" attitude towards the anti-vaccine parents.
But now, these parents are putting my child in danger.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The biggest U.S. outbreak of measles since 1997 has sickened 127 people in 15 states, most of whom were not vaccinated against the highly contagious viral illness, federal health officials said on Wednesday.
Not vaccinating your child puts him or her at risk for these diseases. If that is a risk you are willing to take, fine. However, you are also putting my child, who is NOT fully vaccinated yet, at risk of these diseases as well.
And let's be honest here, this isn't the first time you put my baby at risk. If you truly believe that vaccines are responsible for autism to the point that you fear for your child's safety, why are you so willing to have my baby put into danger in order to keep up the herd immunity necessary to keep your child from catching these diseases? It seems your movement has become effective now to the point where you no longer can rely on us to keep your child healthy for you.
To be fair here, I am not a fan of willy-nilly vaccination, and I take every shot quite seriously. When we began the chickenpox immunity, I asked if we really needed that, since both Smarty and I had chickenpox as children and suffered no adverse reactions. "Well, sure, and people used to make it through measles, mumps, even polio once up on a time with no issues, but some of them didn't," replied our doctor. "Why would you risk it?"
So that is my question today. The link between vaccines and autism has been debunked by scientists. Perhaps autism is rising (although it could just be that we are better at diagnosing it now), but there are many things that have changed in the last 20 years that could be a factor: parents are older when they are having their first child, our water has more chemicals in it than it did previously, we spend more time exposed to toxins everywhere. Or perhaps it's something completely different. Autism rates have been rising since they began adding DHA-ARA to formula, could that be a link? Or rising since the push to return to breastfeeding -- is there something passing through the milk from mother to child that causes autism? Or, since children aren't effected until sometime after they move to solids, maybe children should be kept exclusively on nothing but liquids?
Ridiculous suggestions? Of course. But are the results any more dangerous that a population that stops vaccinating their young?
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