Autism and Vaccines

My fingers can barely roll and click the mouse fast enough. I am racing through Google and and it's sea of links in a fevered attempt to fill my brain with reliable information from medical experts and testimonials from the every-mother. Images of Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carey with disabled son in tow fill my head as I scroll the web pages...autism....vaccines...heavy metals...mercury. Is there a link? Is there a cause?

My son turns 1 year old in a month. By age 2 he will have had upwards of 36 vaccines put into his body if the CDC has their way. Not more than a decade ago it was 20. To prevent unnecessary childhood diseases, they say. Could be fatal. Could scar for life. You don't wanna spread polio, measles, mumps, rubella. They all sound like foreign species of animal to me. Words like epidemic and pandemic flash across my conscience. High Immigration Area. Re-emerging illnesses. Mitochondrial disease. Vaccination schedule.

Just why do we have to stick with such a rigorous vaccine schedule anyway? Is it really THAT necessary? Freedom from diseases is touted as the biggest benefit of modern medicine since the vaccine. If FDR had been vaccinated for polio, we may have had a different president. A different history. But as I stare at my son sprawled out on his bed in innocent slumber, I am wishing, hoping, this decision won't be as difficult as I know it is going to be.

1 in every 150 boys in America today will develop autism. That number has soared correlatively with the availability of vaccines. At one time autism was a word known only amongst a small handful of upper middle class families. Not a consistent headline on the front of magazines. It has increased starkly since then, it's numbers stretching across socio-economic barriers. At one time in history, only the rich had access to cutting edge health care and the preventative benefits of vaccines. But since then, the rate of children getting vaccinated in the US has skyrocketed. So has the disorder.

But do vaccines cause autism? Many are blaming the high levels of heavy metals used to make the vaccine and the high rate and number of vaccines given at a single time. One possible culprit, the mercury-containing ingredient thimerosol, was ommited from vaccines a decade ago, medical experts claim. But that is only one metal. Amongst several in a wide range of vaccines. Furthermore, mercury has NOT been removed from the yearly flu vaccines given to children and pregnant women as a matter of routine since that time. Has autism continued to rise since then despite taking out the thimerosol? You betcha.

My search continues...

I read the comparison list...symptoms of autism...symptoms of mercury poisoning. The lists are identical. I close my eyes and try to picture my 6 year old son flapping his arms in a frustrated attempt to tell me something. High pitched scream. Then I picture him with red bumps all over his face, glazed look in his eye, thermometer poking out of his mouth. Flat in bed. Flat in a coffin. Then I relax down into my chair with my hope wrapped around me like a warm blanket and picture neither; a thick-muscled wavy-haired high school baseball player with a 3.8 GPA, a college application on his dresser, a girl-crazy smirk on his face. Could the choice that will affect his destiny really be in my hands? Is it so simple?

Just what is the liklihood anyway that a few shots would keep my baby from getting an ancient disease, or, God forbid, dying? We all seem to assume that is the case. After all, isn't that what we are told? Just what is the proof that these vaccines do what they say they do? Sure, we have fewer childood diseases in our nation than previous decades. But does that mean that MY child will get one if I choose not to inject his body with toxin-laden shots?

I don't know. I admit I need to do more research. But I know that I cannot afford to just listen to the spin and hype hurled at me from the six o'clock news and make a blindly ignorant decision. No, I must do what most people have to do nowadays if they want to remain as well as possible, not falling into the sad category of becoming one of the "sheeple", being led along by the blind and powerful organizations who bear official and safe-sounding initials like CDC and AAP. I must take my own health and the health and well being of my son into my own hands.

What is that catch phrase of that big health care corporation? Oh, yeah...THRIVE. If I am going to do that, I must "mama-bear" it. The welfare and development of my posterity...my most precious resource, my only son, depends upon it. After all, when I think about it, he is the single expression of me and my husband that will go on forever. And his health might well depend on how we respond to this issue. I suppose that deserves some further research and careful thinking.