Some of you know I am an advocate of alternative vaccination schedules. I am not anti-vaccination, but I do not accept the current immunization schedule as advanced by the American Academy of Pediatrics, which receives funding from the pharmaceutical companies who produce the vaccines they mandate. Two conditions would precipitate a change in the opinion I am expressing here, and would lead me to reconsider my stance against the current vaccination regimen:
1. If financial considerations and "kick-backs" were removed, and the AAP endorsed these vaccines solely for the greater good, with no incentive for gain, and
2. If research would be funded by the NIH to investigate the existing correlational data that has indeed established a link - albeit not a causal one - between receipt of the live MMR vaccine and onset of autism spectrum-related disorders. Currently, the NIH refuses to fund such studies. Senate Bill 843, the Combating Autism Act, has yet to produce any codified results, much to my lack of surprise.
I have kept Nick current on other immunizations, such as DTaP (Diptheria, Tetanus and Pertussis) and HIB (Haemophilus-B influenza). At his 18-month well visit two weeks ago, my doctor - who supports my decision to alter his schedule - talked me into a "two in one" shot of DTaP and HIB, which produced a serious reaction at the site (evidence of his immunity, but frightening nonetheless). His leg was swollen twice its size, red, hot to the touch, and he was fussy, even downright nightmarishly angry, for days. He never got a fever, thank goodness, because he's prone to febrile seizures. But those four days kept me and my parents on our toes. I called the doctor's office only to be reassured this is a "normal" reaction in someone his age who has had the required multiple rounds of these particular immunizations. I could report his reaction to the vaccine injury compensation program if I wanted to advance research on why certain children experience such symptoms while others don't.
How reassuring.
I will post more on this in the weeks to come as I hope to begin a dialogue on the subject and even plan to write an article - where it will be published, I don't know, but somewhere moms can access it - to encourage a conversation. My thesis? The decision to immunize your child needs to be a decision, not an automatic response to a physician's recommendation. Everyone in this equation, right down to your own pediatrician, has a vested interest in how many vaccinations your child receives. My doctor has to report to the AAP the proportion of his treatment population who are on an "alternative schedule" even though technically the only alteration we've made is to have Nicholas receive shots one at a time over many months and to avoid the MMR until age 4 when his immune system will be mature enough not to over-respond as we suspect happens in cases of vaccine-induced autism (where children are genetically predisposed to such a reaction). I am also hoping that by age 4, research will be completed that either finally establishes or negates a connection between the MMR vaccination and autism spectrum disorders.
I just want moms to know they have options and decisions to make. And moms who breastfeed, says my doctor, have more options because their children are gathering stronger immunity through breastmilk than those who are formula-fed and thus perform better on an alternative schedule.
