I decided to find a new pediatrician after we moved almost 20 miles away from our old ones–obviously to find someone closer, but also because I didn’t want to explain why we hadn’t kept CJ up with the vaccination schedule.

I made an appointment with a new pediatrician closer to home, and of course they asked for CJ’s immunization record. We’d kept CJ current on his shots until 9 months. Then when Jenny McCarthy told her story on Oprah sometime in the Spring of 2007, CJ’s worried godmother (Jeamy) sent me a link to the show.

Up until that point, I had been pro-vaccination. I had started pursuing Nursing as a second bachelor’s degree before I had my son, and the instructors never explored the vaccination schedule as a choice. They taught it as if it were a history course; that everything was a fact and absolute: The Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776 and the MMR is to be administered when an infant has reached 15 months of age.

I would probably still have ignorantly sided with the majority of the medical community (even after seeing Jenny McCarthy’s story) if it weren’t for the fact that Autism has recently surfaced in my family. That hit close enough to home that it prompted me to dig a little deeper. Some experts believe that the likelihood that a child will be autistic increases if he of she already has an autistic family member. But google “autism hereditary” and one will find results that support both sides. I lean towards the side that believes that part of Autism could be hereditary, and that the other part could be environmental. Granted, supposedly nothing on the subject of Autism is confirmed. All I know is that mothers have an intuition about these things, especially things that concern their child(ren).

So anyway, upon meeting the new pediatrician, the big discussion was, of course, why CJ was so far off the immunization timetable. I explained the family history and my fears, and while the pediatrician tried to sympathize, she ultimately told me that if we didn’t allow them to get him back on track we’d have to find another pediatrician. I was not okay with this, but I was patronizing anyway. CJ was being seen for a fever that day so I knew they wouldn’t give him any shots until he was better. So I tried to squeeze out as much information as I could before I had to make any decisions.

“Okay, which ones does he need in order to get caught up?” I asked.
“DTaP, Hep B and A, Hib, Prevnar, MMR, Varivax, and IPV,” she replied.
“The MMR is the one I’m particularly worried about. Can we split some of these up into multiple visits?” I begged.
“Well, it’s harder on the baby if we have to poke them with needles more than we need to. The best thing is to just get him all caught up in one visit.”

My imaginary jaw dropped. Was she serious? She was going to give him almost a year’s worth of vaccines in one visit?! She must have sensed my apprehension, because she added, “we’ve given as many as 7, 8 shots at one time and never had any problems.”

Yeah, like this was supposed to alleviate my fears. Hello! Every child is different! Just because one thing didn’t cause a reaction on one child, doesn’t mean that it’s okay for mine (i.e. peanuts, eggs, and rye). Tell me, why do we determine how much Childrens’ Tylenol to give according to the child’s weight, yet administer the same dosage for vaccines no matter how much or little a child weighs?

Not budging, I asked for her thoughts on the direct relationship between the increased number of childhood vaccines to the rise in Autism diagnoses (1 in every 150 children is diagnosed). Her response was that while the numbers of both has increased at the same rate, that they were not necessarily correlated. Instead, she assured me that the increase in Autism diagnoses was due to how much more information we have these days.

“In the past a child may have been regarded as simply ‘quirky’ when, in fact, he had undiagnosed Autism. And vice versa, with all of the attention that Autism has been getting in the media, there may be some instances in which Autism is diagnosed in children who may have some other disorder that displays symptoms like that of Autism. That’s why there’s been such a dramatic increase in Autism diagnoses in the past couple of decades–not because of we increased the number of vaccines we give them. That’s irrelevant.”

Hmm. Okay, I understand that there may not be any conclusive evidence to link the two, but give me a break! That doesn’t mean you can just turn your head away from the fact that Autism is afflicting more children than ever before and continue to ignore that a relationship even exists! Meanwhile, they’ve taken mercury (Thimerosal) out of vaccines since 2001, but still will not admit that there is a causal link between mercury and Autism. Then I suppose it’s just a coincidence that the symptoms for both are eerily similar. And why would they take it out if they didn’t think that the public’s fears were justified?

Don’t get me wrong. I am not anti-immunization. I credit vaccines for the elimination of some of the most deadly and debilitating diseases in history. What I don’t understand is why medical professionals regard their vaccination schedule as if it were as firm a law as The Ten Commandments. Medicine is not a perfect science yet its professionals are so arrogant that sometimes they believe it is. Most of them consider a child who has died from an adverse reaction to a vaccine a mere casualty in the war against communicable diseases. Tragic, but necessary. Sure, tell that to mourning parents. And we’ll see if you’re still sitting on that high horse of yours if that casualty happens to be one of your own.

All I’m saying is that we should be able to take our kids to the doctor without feeling bullied into doing something that we don’t agree with. She continued to reason by saying, “it would be a threat to the other children if we allowed an unvaccinated child to be seen here.” Who (or what) is the threat and who is the victim here?

Most of us have had a doctor misdiagnose us with something that called for a certain medication, only to have to return a week later asking for a new prescription that actually works. I repeat: doctors are not perfect. They can evaluate your vital signs, examine your throat, listen to your lungs, and palpate your abdomen all they want, but much of what they conclude is also based on what you, the patient, tells them. The objective symptoms are important, but sometimes not as important as the subjective ones. Statements such as, “I feel dizzy” or “I have Autism in my family” are not evident through physical examination. All in all, the patient, or in this case, the parent of the patient is the one who knows best. Doctors can only do so much, because they have to make their diagnosis on limited information. Many doctors will admit this without hesitation, yet I can’t understand why they think they are so right about vaccines.

With all that said, I still believe that vaccines are meant to do good. But forcing them upon children and their parents without regard to the concerns of his/her parents, giving parents ultimatums, substituting reality with idealism is irresponsible! And so is aimlessly going through the motions of a scheduled wellness check and allowing the nurses to poke your baby without having researched the risks.

My mission right now is to find a pediatrician who understands my fears and tries to customize my son’s care based on his individual needs–not some national one-size-fits-all program.

Parents, the best thing you can do is to EDUCATE YOURSELVES. Don’t believe anything you hear without checking it out for yourself. Second guess everything. Go to your appointments prepared with questions you want to ask and rebuttals if need be. NEVER allow a medical professional to pressure you into doing something you aren’t comfortable with. Vaccinating your children is 100% optional, despite what most doctors will have you believe. Boycott pediatricians who bully. And last, but not least, listen to your intuition! You’re their mother, you know your children best. Whatever the doctor advises, it is the parents and the child who will have to live with the outcome, not the doctor. Be your child’s #1 ally.

For more on customizing your child’s vaccine schedule, click here.
More tips on how to vaccinate more safely.