The great debate comes to us

I know that I have spoken out a good deal regarding my opinion about vaccination and the need for it. I have tried to make it clear that while I do NOT believe vaccines cause Autism, I do believe that people can and do have reactions to their vaccines. I believed that more than every after Sierra's mysterious illness that landed her in the hospital for 4 days with a high fever and rash, despite the doctors refusing to say that it might have been a vaccine reaction. The docs never did find out what was wrong with her though, and it just seems suspicious to me that a couple days after her MMR and flu vaccines, she got so sick. No one else in the household was sick, she does not go to school or daycare and had not been exposed to illness outside of whatever illness was at the pediatrician's office at the time of her well visit.

Yes, well visit! She was well when she went in for those shots. The doctor took a long time to look over every inch of her, and said she looked great. I trust this doctor completely, and we did discuss (prior to the shots) staggering her vaccines out a little more. She was supposed to have gotten something else (hep A maybe?)at that appointment, and I'm glad I said not yet to it, who knows how much sicker she might have become just having that extra little bit of strain to her system.

Anyway, all this came to mind after reading this article over on Age of Autism. I will admit a lot of their stuff makes me get the eye twitches similar to the things on PeTA's forum, however there is also a decent amount of good stuff there. The article is written by the mother of a baby who died as a result of a vaccine reaction. A horrible, painful reaction, the pictures are really shocking. The story brought tears to my eyes, and I don't cry easily. I do think that we as parents need to be aware that reactions can happen. Rarely, but they can. It really hit home for me when Sierra was so sick and this article made me realize how lucky we were.

Now, that said, Sierra WILL be vaccinated in the future... But slowly. She still has not had that missing Hep A shot, and I'm nervous as hell about it, but it needs to be done. I'm going to wait awhile, as she has a sniffly nose right now and I want her to be as healthy as possible so her system can do what it needs to do. It's one of those things I keep putting off and putting off, but I know I have to deal with it sooner or later. Sierra's doctor knows that I'm pretty levelheaded about the vaccine thing, and is very willing to work out a personalized vacc schedule with us which is great. I'm lucky to have a doctor who is respectful to the views of parents, and did not immediately dismiss me as an "anti-vaccine whacko" as a lot of pediatricians might have done.

Oh, I forgot to mention that as of yet, Sierra has not magically become Autistic following her vaccines. She, in fact, is stringing 4-5 word sentences, asking questions, using my/your/mine properly... She is so far beyond Jaymes in the speech dept and it's incredible to watch. It's like being a new mom all over again.