One More Thing

I wasn't going to blog about this but I can't stop thinking about it and if I write it down (type it) maybe I won't think so much about it. Did anyone watch Private Practice last night? It was quite interesting and dealt with the issue of vaccines and autism. I shouldn't really say it "dealt with it" because it was very one sided and I think they mentioned about a hundred times (slight exaggeration) that vaccines DO NOT cause autism. I should say that I am pro-vaccine but I do use an alternate vaccine schedule for Kennedy and I am holding off on the MMR until she is older. There are too many mothers whose children become autistic after their vaccinations, particularly the MMR for me to feel comfortable going with the AAP's recommendations. What I think is that vaccinations do not cause autism BUT I do think there might be something about them that "triggers" the autism. In other words, the vaccination doesn't make a child autistic but triggers something that is already there that may or may not have gotten triggered otherwise. Regardless, in this episode of Private Practice the mother was adamant that her child not be vaccinated with the MMR vaccine even though he had gotten measles. He ended up dying and it was very sad but couldn't have been more one sided. It made parents who do not vaccinate their kids out to be negligent. In the episode this mother was negligent and wouldn't even vaccinate once he was diagnosed but parents who do not follow the recommended vaccine schedule are not always so one sided and happen to be educated most of the time. As I mentioned, I am pro-vaccine and I do wish parents would vaccinate their kids. When large numbers of parents don't vaccinate their kids diseases enter the communities and put our children at risk. These are diseases that are preventable. What I do wish is that the formulas for these vaccines were done with more responsibility. There are live virus vaccines and there are even vaccines we give our children that are cultured in monkey kidneys. Vaccines that prevent or minimize disease are wonderful but they do need improvement and they do need to be offered in single doses instead of the combinations shots for those of us who choose to not give our children so many vaccinations at once.
I could go on and on but hopefully that's enough to get this awful episode out of my head. Feel free to disagree with me if you want. Just my thoughts and no intention on offending.