Today I took George to the doctor to get his shots. I was very nervous about this prospect: George used to have a terrible fear of doctors, and would always sit in the waiting room literally quivering with anxiety until it was his turn. Fortunately he’s a healthy child and hasn’t needed the services of a doctor for a couple of years, so I curious to see what his reaction would be like today.
When we walked into the waiting room, he sat down and calmly started playing with a toy. He didn’t flinch at the sights and smells typical of a doctor’s waiting room. We didn’t wait for long before we were called into the doctor’s inner sanctum. There, too, George was remarkably laid back as the doctor looked him over.
His composure fell apart somewhat when it was time for the needles, but as soon as they were done and the Band-Aids applied, all he needed was a couple of minutes of hugging, and then he was fine.
Ah, yes. The needles.
As an autism parent who keeps her kids vaccines up to date, I sometimes feel like a minority voice. Or perhaps it’s just that the anti-vaccine people tend to be more vocal than those on my side of the fence. But this is not intended to be a post about who’s right and who’s wrong. Everyone has their own journey, and their own reasons for the choices they make.
My position – speaking only for myself – is that vaccines cannot be blamed for the autism epidemic. You can show me a thousand statistics proving that I’m wrong, and I can show you a thousand statistics proving that I’m right. I do not dispute that some people have bad experiences with vaccines. But I do not believe that anyone has made a convincing enough case to generalize those incidents to the population as a whole.
I know with absolute certainty that George came out of the womb with autism. When I look back over his babyhood, I remember many thoughts of doubt going through my mind.
He should be swatting at toys by now, but he stares right through them.
Shouldn’t he be interested in the texture of these fabric books?
At what age are babies supposed to sit? Crawl? Walk?
Why is he ignoring me when I call his name?
I knew early on that something was going on. Vaccines had nothing to do with it.
Still, there are people who are critical of my choice to vaccinate. Deciding to vaccinate my younger son was like walking through a minefield.
“You are vaccinating your younger child, even though your older child has autism? Really?”
From the way some folks talked, you would have thought I was ripping out my child’s fingernails one by one.
My kids’ vaccinations have always gone without incident. There are generally a few tears that are forgotten by the time we are getting back into the car, and there may be an evening of crankiness. Someone might sleep badly. By the following day, everyone is pretty much back to the way they were.
My name is Kirsten, and I willingly vaccinate my child with autism.
(Photo credit:Daniel Paquet.This picture has a creative commons attribution license.)
I’m so glad to have you as a friend, and I totally respect your choice, even though we’re on…different sides of the fence. I’m just as sure that vaccines DID play a role in Gabe’s autism, do I believe they were the ONLY cause, no….but I know they played a role that no one on god’s green earth can tell me is * just a coincidence*. I love that we can both do right by our kids and hold to our convictions no matter what the other side says and know we always have each others back, as someone who IS anti-vaccine it felt important for me to say. I support you.
Hi> My name is Jacquie and I’m a vaccinater.
I’m reading “The Panic Virus” by Seth Mnookin. It is brilliant. He has this quote: “Intuition leads to the flat earth society and bloodletting; experiments lead to men on the moon and microsurgery.”
Many have recommended the book to me, and I’m finally reading it!
Jen 🙂
I’m with you, Kirsten.
Jen, the interesting thing with that quote is that intuition uses a whole different brain system than conscious experimentation and analysis. I know; nerd alert.
I too am the mother of a child with autism and also the mother to three neurotypical children and I vaccinate my kids. THank you so much for writing this – I too feel in the minority at times. Like you said, what binds us together is that we all want to do what is best for our children and that I can support and respect.
Thank you for the comment, Audra. It is quite sad that we feel like there are “sides” in all of this. It would be nice if autism parents could just band together for our kids, regardless of what choices we make as parents.
A wonderful piece. Autistic children deserve to be protected from diseases, too!
From my incredibly informal survey, most parents of autistic children do vaccinate them. Why do they not speak out as you have? I’m not sure, but I am hoping the tides will turn.
Thanks, Karen. I don’t know the answer to your question. Maybe the pro-vaccine folks are just weary by the infighting within the autism community, and this issue really raises some hackles. A lot of anti-vaccine people are quite willing to have civilized dialogue about this, but some unfortunately are not.
Thank you for sharing this–you’re absolutely right. We need more parents like you speaking out. No one who vaccinates his or her child should feel ashamed of that choice.
Thank you, Ashley. I also want to stress that those who choose not to vaccinate shouldn’t feel ashamed either. It’s really about all of us respecting one another’s parenting choices.
Kirsten, This post is excellent and important. Every voice counts when it comes to disassociating autism from vaccinations, and on this issue, the voice of parents like you rises to the top. Thank you for writing about your experience. It helps on a number of counts:
1) brings attention to the fact that though the bulk of childhood vaccinations and the diagnosis of autism happen around the same time in a child’s life, there is no causation
2) redirects us all to focus on supporting valid research into autism to get answers based in science that will help our children, and
3) reminds parents (of neuro-typical kids AND kids on the spectrum) to protect their children against horrible preventable diseases by way of vaccination. Every child deserves this.
Best wishes and keep up the great work.
Thank you! Someone posted an additional perspective on my Facebook page, saying that her children are not ABLE to receive vaccines because they are recipients of donor organs. She relies on other parents to keep their kids vaccinated so that her kids can stay healthy. It’s a message that in vaccinating our own kids, we are playing an important role in protecting those who are unable to do so.
Hi! I teach pediatric nutrition at The Cdn School of Natural Nutrition and have done a large amount of research on this topic over the past decade and wanted to share it with you. The 18 month shot is often the one that is called the Autism Shot. The shot does not cause Autism. However, the shot contributes to the toxic load of the child and if they already have a high toxic load, the shot will be like the straw that broke the camel’s back and symptoms will appear. The shots contain heavy metals so when coupled with other vaccinations, drugs, unhealthy food, swimming in chlorinated pools, x-rays, etc the body ends up simply saying “No More!”
Thank you for your comment. I read so many conflicting reports on which vaccines contain which ingredients that it can be hard to know what to believe. It does make sense that for some individuals, vaccines might cause a problem when combined with other factors.
As someone else on the other side of the fence, I also support your decision, Kristen.
I see lots of kids with autism in my homeopathic practice. For some, one vaccine or another ( or one of the carrier agents in them) was a trigger, for others, it was the antibiotics they were given, for some , it is Tylenol. I have other autistic patients who have never been vaccinated, had antibiotics, or Tylenol! With them, the triggers are different again. That is the way I see it. Vaccines can be a trigger, but don’t ” cause” all autism.
I have patients who choose to vaccinate their kids and I give them remedies to deal with the effects ( if there are any). I also have patients who choose not to vaccinate.
I think the important thing is that every parent feels free to choose what feels right to him or her.
Fear of needles, btw, is something that can be treated homeopathically too.
Thank you for speaking out and wishing you and your family all the best,
Pat
Thank you for this perspective, Pat. I absolutely believe that there are a number of environmental triggers that may, when interacting with a genetic predisposition, result in autism. I think people tend to get caught up in the idea of identifying one single “cause”.
Yes! I feel like the minority on this too! My daughter is Autistic, and I’m going to keep her up to date on vaccines. If I have another child, they will be vaccinated as well. Thank you for this!