vaccinations: conspiracy theory or undiscovered truths?

A hot topic of discussion (and controversy) when preparing to be a new parent is around vaccinations. Are they completely safe? When should you vaccinate? According to the schedule laid out by the government? Or is there a better option for your child?

It's all quite daunting and from what I can tell, there are basically three camps. 1) Those who vaccinate according to the CDC 2) Those who don't vaccinate at all and 3) Those who ask to have certain shots broken up or spaced out to supposedly minimize risk.

My cousin recommended this book to me: What Your Doctor May Not Tell You about Children's Vaccinations. I went back and forth for awhile about whether I wanted to buy the book (I have WAY too many pregnancy/baby books!) But in the end I figured more information is better than less.

I was half right.

I did some research on my own and even asked a couple of my trusty early learning friends (read: gurus) their opinion on vaccinations and its link (or lack thereof) to autism. Both agreed it's a very personal decision on the part of the parent (I, too agree with that sentiment) but that the benefits of vaccinating your child greatly outweigh any risks. I definitely agree and it was NEVER and option for us to not vaccinate. However, I'm also not 100% convinced that these countless stories of babies falling ill or sometimes even dying have absolutely no connection to certain vaccines.

Now, is it the vaccine itself that causes these problems? Doubtful. I think if your child is healthy with a normal immune system, vaccinating it fine. But what about those babies who don't have a normal immune system? Apparently, there are two studies done in 2008 and 2009 that found that children with autism have lower levels of certain antibodies that play a role in immunity. Some believe that this is a prime reason why certain children react negatively to vaccines -- their immune systems just can't handle it. The problem is, there's currently no way of knowing how well your child's immune system is working -- no preventative measure as of yet. The only way to know is to give your child the vaccine and see what happens. Hm. That's like giving Brian a fistful of peanuts to see if he's allergic. Not comforting at all.

On the other hand, I think a lot of these books, including the one I mention above, don't REALLY give you the straight facts and a good part of what they're selling is just that -- what they're selling. It's marketing at its best to sell books and make money.

A perfect example is the entire Mercury chapter in What Your Doc May Not Tell You (chapter 3). It talks about thimerosal, an ingredient that in recent years has been challenged by parents because it contains mercury. The book does the right thing and distinguishes between the two kinds of mercury: methylmercury and ethylmercury. Ethylmercury is what's found in thimerosal. The book then tries to claim that the toxicity of methylmercury is the same as ethylmercury, but does not put forth any actual data to back up this claim. (Granted, the amount of research done on ethylmercury is limited, but still the author puts forth no actual evidence to back up her statement)

Then the scare tactics and spinning begins.

The chapter goes on to compare mercury levels in tuna, which everyone knows to be true, and compares it to the thimerosal vaccine. Here's an exerpt:

"Let's look at two items for which the level of mercury is known: a six-ounce can of tuna fish, which contains an average of 17 micrograms (mcg) mercury, and a pediatric dose of hepatitis B vaccine, which contains 12.5 mcg."

Notice that the author is very careful to just use the word "mercury" when making this comparison because the fact of the matter is, the mercury in tuna is methylmercury while the mercury in thimerosal is ehtylmercury. She has flat out stated the latter on a previous page, but doesn't state the former as clearly. The way the paragraph is written, you are easily led to believe that she's comparing apples to apples. She isn't.

Methylmercury is what contaminates fish and can build up in the body leading to nerve damage. But ethylmercury doesn't accumulate in the body the way methylmercury does.

My sense after reading the way the author wrote this entire chapter on mercury is that she knew she couldn't outright present false information. Obviously, she'd get reamed for it. So, she "spun" it in her favor. I found it appalling and therefore discount her entire book.

I will note though, that the book was written in 2001 so perhaps some of her opinions and "facts" are outdated. And since then thimerosal has been taken out of most vaccines anyway. But apparently, autism rates have still increased since then, leading scientists to believe that there isn't a connection between the two.

So...after all that what am I going to do about vaccinations? Well, I've been trying to get in touch with our pediatrician to ask what her philosophy on it is. I haven't been able to find much info on the cons to spreading out some of the shots so I'd like to hear from her on that.

I definitely want to ask her about the Hep B shot that they give babies right after they're born at the hospital. It's unclear to me why a baby needs to have that vaccination so soon. Plus, if my baby is smaller weight-wise, I want to ask her whether this should be taken into consideration (i.e. Is there any connection between his size and the development of his immune system?)

I know for a fact that our baby WILL get all his vaccinations. I just need to talk with my pediatrician about the pros and cons around timing and get some of my other lingering questions answered.

The doctor surely knows best (or at least knows better than I do!) so I will trust her judgment. But I need to ask the questions. Not asking and just blindly doing whatever "they" tell me when there's all of this known skepticism out there just doesn't work for me.