Thursday, January 6, 2011

Vaccine Controversy

From CNN...


What does everyone think about this? I have mentioned hesitation about vaccinations on this blog in the past, but tend to be on the side of Western Medicine when it comes to immunization. My daughter did have a horrible reaction to her first MMR shot and I have often wondered if her allergies are related in some way. It is not really a rational, fact based theory. It is more about me wanting to have a direct cause for her situation; someone to blame. But I have several friends, whom I respect deeply, that have decided to not immunize their kids. Many of them, using Dr. Wakefield's study as the foundation of their argument. And there are a host of other reasons why parents choose to not vaccinate, which are all worth considering. Much like all things relating to parenting, there is a lot of gravity in the decisions we make... everything from baby shots to where our children will go to school and beyond.

One thing is for sure, this controversy is only heating up and I am sure we are going to be hearing a lot more in the days and weeks to come.

3 comments:

Michelle said...

I think it is yet another personal decision to be made between parents and their pediatrician. Of course, the pediatrician should be willing to discuss the issues frankly; any doc that says there are no possible side effects to a medical treatment is not being honest.
Personally, I know that cousins of both of my parents died of polio and scarlet fever, so I tend to see a usefulness for vaccines. One of my nieces did have an unexpected injection site reaction to a vaccine. It was not serious in itself, but it did require some extra care for a couple days (her vaccinations have continued, but with extra observation for reactions and only one at a time).

Libby said...

We've had vaccine concerns, but due to my son's egg allergy. (Some, including flu shots, are cultured in egg yolk.) Could that have been a culprit in your daughter's MMR?

As the parent of a child with egg allergies who can be actually medically unable to receive a vaccine, I'm a big fan of herd immunity, so other parents opting out of vaccines really does worry me.

To be honest, since the mercury whatsit was removed from vaccines, the new cases of autism have not dropped, so I figured the theory had kind of disproven itself!

Heidi Miller said...

Your comments mean so much to me! Thank you! As for Ella's reaction to the MMR, her allergist thinks that it was due to her body rejecting the vaccination on some level. But not because of her egg allergy. Ironically, she has not ever had a bad reaction to the flu vaccine even though it is egg based. (Phew!) We have a friend who lost their 2 year old to influenza (one that could have been prevented by a flu shot) and that is enough for me to make sure my kids get their immunizations. This is scary stuff and it helps that we have doctors that we can communicate with and trust. I would lose my mind if I didn't have their support.