Here I am with yet another hot button topic (I just can’t seem to stay away from them): vaccines.  Whether or not to vaccinate your children has become an increasingly controversial subject, but honestly I just don’t get it.  There are a lot of ‘anti-vaccination’ and ‘vaccines cause autism’ propaganda out there that aren’t based in evidence whatsoever.  In my experience, when I’ve been talking to someone who is against vaccinating and I ask them why and then follow up by asking for scientific evidence that backs up that belief, more often than not they don’t have the evidence or I am directed to some blog post someone has written or some article on some natural health website, none of which have any scientific evidence based research to back them up.

I mean I get it.  The thought of doing anything that could lead to a negative outcome for your child is really scary, but I can not abide fear mongering. I can’t stress enough, that parents need to do their due diligence and do some actual research, talk about it in depth with your child’s pediatrician in order to determine the best vaccination schedule for your child, read scientific journal articles on the subject and take what other parents say with a HUGE grain of salt.

The truth is: vaccines save lives.  

The second truth is: vaccines do not cause autism. (1) 

I am pro vaccination.  Not only am I protecting my family by choosing to vaccinate, but I’m also helping to protect the entire population.  I think everyone should get vaccinated but that doesn’t mean that everyone needs to follow the same vaccination schedule.  It is important to talk to your pediatrician about coming up with vaccination schedule that is right for your child, that may mean sticking to the standard one or it could mean coming up with something different, just as long the end result is the same.  However, it is important to note that the risk of autism is not increased by the amount of vaccines you get at once. (2)

Some of you may be thinking: “Wait a minute what about the study by Andrew Wakefield that was published in the Lancet back in 1998?”  Well, I suggest you read the actual study and then read this.

What are your thoughts on vaccination?

Sources:

(1). Gerber, J. S., & Offit, P. A. (2009). Vaccines and Autism: A Tale of Shifting Hypotheses. Clinical Infectious Diseases , 456-461.

(2). DeSefano, F. (2013). Increasing Exposure to Antibody-Stimulating Proteins and Polysaccharides in Vaccines Is Not Associated with Risk of Autism. The Journal of Pediatrics , 561-567. (If you don’t feel like reading the whole article, this sums it up nicely).