January 27, 2009
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I’ve come a long way, baby
The other day I was sitting in the waiting room at the pediatrician’s office so that baby #3 could get his ears checked for infection. I sat there with Joel in his little infant car seat, reading Higlights magazine to my 3 year old. I started watching all the parents coming in with their pre-teen kids and wondering what my life would be like when I got to that point. WEIRD!
Then, I noticed a woman sitting next to me and she brought me back to “the beginning”. She had a baby in a car seat and was glancing around the waiting room nervously bouncing her leg. I started chatting with her and learned that she was there for the baby’s first round of shots. I started laughing remembering my oldest daughter’s (now almost 5 years old) first pediatrician’s appointment. It took three adults two hours to get her ready! We gave her a bath and then she had a big blowout as soon as we got the towel wrapped around her, so she had to go back in the tub. Then, of course, she has to be dressed in the fanciest 5 layer outfit that you have and you are still new at figuring out the carseat and you are also trying to remember to bring the three pages of questions for the doctor. Then you sit in the waiting room with your stomach in knots because you know some nurse is about to poke your innocent little bundle with a bunch of needles.
Anyway, this other woman in the waiting room looked at me pleadingly and said, “Please tell me it’s going to be ok. I’m doing the right thing, right? I mean, she’s so little and I just worry about all that stuff they are pumping into her.”
I remember that fear, I had it too. The media has caused such an uproar over vaccinations that you feel like you are putting your baby at risk. So I did a bunch of research and came to my own conclusions.
“You ARE doing the right thing,” I told her. “Just think of how lucky you are that you have this chance to save her from all these awful diseases. You’re just doing your job as a mother.”
That’s how I feel. There’s no proof of a link between vaccinations and autism, and side effects from the vaccines are extremely rare. For decades, doctors and scientists have worked so hard to eradicate these horrible childhood diseases. I feel lucky to be able to do this for my kids.
How do you feel?
Comments (4)
We do delayed vaccinations. I’ve meet a couple of kids who became autistic after a round of shots. I think it’s a personal choice!!!
thank you. I don’t know how I feel about it, but I just pray that God gives the doctors wisdom.
We immunize. There was never a question in my mind. Recently there have been reports on the Hib shortage and how a few kids have died of Hib–something like 7 all together. Five of those kids were never immunized for anything. I’ve also got some pretty controversial opinions about autism that I won’t share here. Let’s just say that I don’t believe the hype. I also think the quickest way for any civilization to be bombarded by dormant infectious disease is to hide in the herd, so to speak. I really wish that we still immunized for small pox. I spoke with an epidimiologist a few years ago and she’d worked in Africa for a very long time. There is a coorelation (albeit never researched, but it existed) between those immunized for small pox and those who hadn’t contracted HIV/AIDS. Interesting, huh?
@Punk_Rock_Mommy - that is an interesting correlation! Have you read “Saving the World” by Julia Alvarez? It’s a novel about the efforts in the 1800s to eradicate small pox from the world. It was really interesting!