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Jenny McCarthy's new book

Anyone reconsidering the typical vaccination schedule? I am after reading Louder than words by Jenny McCarthy whose son has Autism. Her speculation is the vaccines over loaded her sons system when his immune system was low and contributed to his autism diagnosis. Thoughts? I'm considering holding off on the MMR shot until 3 years of age
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Avatar universal
Oh yes, scary scary. even if what is written is true, and it isnt, Theres a much more important figure:

300 million to 500 million people died in the 20th century from smallpox.

The last infection was in 1978. Zero humans have died from smallpox since then.

So I assume you folks WANT the death rate to spike that high again?
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Avatar universal
Goodafternoon.How ncan u say "People lke Jenny Macarthy" in that manner seek answers in the wrong places.Diseases were man made and ths world will never be free of  them.Parents of autistc children want to do the research to finnd out why as well as a general education parent.We have to be more Open-minded people
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Avatar universal
wow... you are saying a lot of things.. with absolutely NO proof.  lets see here.. i was FINE until i was FORCED to get the MMR in 1976 . PLEASE LOOK UP THIS DATE COCNERNING VACCINATIONS.  I was in a coma... a day later. Then.. weeks later.. NEVER THE SAME AGAIN.

THE time period? what? where is this proof? are you going to tell me that i "GOT" autism because i was six?

ehh.. maybe you should actually talk to someone who has actually had something go wrong after immunizations.. instead of reading something.. then giving your opinion. My son died as a direct result from the Pertussis Vaccination. This is proven. my mental state was altered as  a result from the MMR vaccination.
and on a different note.. there IS Thermisol STILL IN SOME VACCINES.

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Avatar universal
My child had a Hib vacc today and the doctor told us that the tetnas (spelling) is mixed in with the Hib...Any thoughts...is mixing vacc's a popular trend. I was told that the MMR cannot be given separately, that NO doctor can get it that way. I am in Massachusetts....any advice?
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389974 tn?1331015242
This is an old logical flaw called post hoc ergo propter hoc ("after this, therefore because of this").

Autism is not caused by vaccines, but the time period in which it manifests itself is near the time vaccines are given, which leads to the confusion.

Another part of the confusion is that people think that the number of autism cases are rising. What is happening is that children's mental disorders are decreasing and autism is making up the difference. If you aren't a cynic, you would say that autism is better understood and classified.
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Avatar universal
I have my 16 month old son on an adjusted shot schedule and I am worried about the flu season this year but I do not want to give him the shot!  What do I do?
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Avatar universal
I've been doing research and have been looking for advocacy groups that support our choice on whether or not we wish to vaccinate. Healthfreedom.com is one such group I am interested in. Is anyone actively involved in trying to support our right to choose?
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Avatar universal
How much did that EDS cost?  Looks very interesting.  
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Avatar universal
There has been no thimerisol in individual dosing vaccines in over 5 years, there is no scientific link between vaccines and autism.  If the MMR were the cause, do you think thousands upon thousands of nurses, and doctors would continue to recommend it?  Go look at the source of all of this Wakefield and his research.  Paid by the lawyers suing the big med companies after getting families to file voluntary VAERS forms.  He himself was paid by lawyers to do the research.  Money is the problem?  You bet, don't think a starving research doctor couldn't use $50,000 for doing some research.   Do yourself a favor and do a bit more reading.  Try Paul Offit's book, Autism's False Prophets, a relatively balanced discussion.   All the proceeds of the book go to autism research, not a money maker for him.  A lot better than the newest whiz bang low gluten free diet recommendation you see all over the place.  
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776559 tn?1235672963
My son is 20 and autistic.  It is hard to say when his autism started as he was diagnosed before the age of one.  It is my understanding the questionable ingredient in the shots is mercury.  A small amount is used.  Ask your pediatrician for mercury free vaccines.  They make them now.
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Avatar universal
I am undecided if i will vaccine my son or not.But I just want to remind all Mothers, a Mothers intuition is very strong and needs to be heard.If Jenny Macarthy says that after her sons vaccine "a light went off" I think there is reason for consern and I am proud that she is using her voice to spread her word.A Mothers intuition and feelings for her child is stronger than scientific evidence.I do not need to concer with science to tell me whether or not I feel something has happened to my child.

At this point I am undecided but I do not think that slamming a Mother who truly belives that vaccines have hurt her child is helping make anyones decision much easier.
I for one will listen to my Motherly instinct for my child before I will open a scientific text book to make my decisions.
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Avatar universal
About three years my then 8 years son cut his foot on a piece of metal, I thought he needed stitches so to the ER we went, they gave him a Tetnus shot. I expected such as we all "know" thats what you get so you DON"T get TETNUS.  Well about a year later he started to be very larthgis and always complained of aches and pains, he would wake up in the night screaming his legs hurt and his feet.  Dr after Dr said they were growing pains. Well my other two kids went thru tremendous growth spurts quickly and NEVER went thru this.  Finally I took him for Electro Dermal Screening and "TETNUS" was found and H-pyloria, After herbal drops he was fine and the next retest showed it was gone.  He has since grew 3 inches with NO pain!!  I am am a concentious objector to vaccines now.  My military service required me to have tons of shots..(now I am all messed up). Just my two cents but it was worth it to see my child well.
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Avatar universal
Also, if a child still becomes sick with the disease after being treated with a vaccine, then it's very likely that the child has an immune disorder.  A vaccine is often times a deactivated version of the pathogen (bacteria, fungi...), and in order for the body to build up an immunity, it practices by fighting the inactivated pathogen.  Therefore, when the actual bacteria shows up, the immune system is quick to respond because it already knows how to fight the infection.

This is in response to a quote taken from this forum: "My son had his shots and also contracted Whooping cough, measles and rubella...so much for safe and EFFECTIVE..that is when I woke up...I wondered why did he get the shots only to contract the diseases FROM the shots?"

Also, if your son has all these infections, and is proved to not have an immune system disorder, then he must be exposed to harmful pathogens on a daily basis to receive all of those infections.
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Avatar universal
Hello,
I'm just going to be the devil's advocate I guess.  I'm a student and a male so I definitely cannot relate to any mothers out there.  Please take what I say with a grain of salt, as I am certainly not an expert.  I hope that I do not offend anyone, I'm just trying to educate myself.

There's a lot of discussion about seizures being paired with vaccinations.  I know that seizures can be caused by very high fevers, and I have also seen that vaccinations are capable of causing fevers.  However, I have not found any credible sources that suggest that seizures cause autism.  This website, http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/autism/detail_autism.htm is a great source for autism.

Although there is a great deal of skepticism involving vaccinations, there is still no concrete proof correlating it with autism.  I just wanted to point out, because a couple people referred to websites to support their claims, that you need to be careful with you resources.  Anyone can make a website and it's more often than not incorrect information.  I'd try to look at websites with a .edu (college/university websites) or .gov (government website) suffix.

Good luck!
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Avatar universal
It's all about the immune system everyone.  Should you choose not to have the shots, it's very important to keep your childs immune system strong and healthy through nutrition, sleep etc.  Blood tests have shown children that have not been vaccinated, and they have all of the necessary antibodies which they came into contact, but because they're immune systems were strong they were able to not get sick from the illness, rather, produce antibodies, which for some illnesses, gives them lifetime immunity as opposed to 65-95% effective vaccines.  And for the mother who thinks that opposing vaccines is child abuse, i say, giving them is child abuse.  if you know the damages that are even possible from the vaccines, why would you put your child at risk?  why not take a little more time, some extra mommy work and research to keep your children healthy, and learn about the symptoms of the diseases should you need to treat them.  it's like many have stated in the past, you're playing "russian roulette"  with your children.  All in all, I agree that this decision is a unique one for every mother, and not every child is going to react the same way to the shots.  So if you're doing the shots, wait as long as possible, choose what's necessary, space them out, and keep your child's immune system as strong as possible.  The "gut" diet that Jenny McCarthy refers to is exactly because having too much yeast in our system's does compromise our immunity.  Good luck to all mothers out there!
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Avatar universal
My son had all his shots on scheduel up till he was18 months which was when he had his first seizure. After that I had it so he got 1 shot at a time and even breaking the shots down he still had another seizure. And I mean not a 30 second seizure he was seizing on and off for an hour. So he is 2 now and no more seizures and the doctors all think im crazy. He was born with a fever, his whole first year n a half he was sick all the time. Since he hasnt had shots hes been healthy. Makes you wonder huh?
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Avatar universal
Jenny would be more believable if she didn't have such a financial interest in selling her books.  She would also be more believable if the scientific evidence supported her.

I am just glad that my immunized child is unlikely to get diseases of the last century.
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Avatar universal
You stated that India is a polio endemic country, and implied that it is due to lack of vaccines.  I would surmise it is because they don't have clean water, good waste management, knowledge of handwashing and quarantine.  In many underdeveloped countries, they use the local lakes for drinking water, cooking water and WASTE.  Water wells, sewer systems, soap, and education regarding handwashing and quarantine, in addition to good nutrition, would help fight against disease more than vaccines ever could!  According to Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, many of the diseases in America, i.e. polio, were on their way out before vaccines for each disease were required, due to water sanitation, waste management, handwashing and quarantine.  

My daughter became allergic to her milk-based formula less than two days after her four month shots, so we switched her to soy formula.  Her second day of rice cereal, she threw it all up.  I was constantly refeeding her until her 18-month allergy test which revealed she was allergic to peanut, nuts, dairy, eggs (we knew), beef, chicken, pork, mustard, garlic, carrots, and even rice, which the allergist said to disregard the rice, but our experience confirmed it.  She has had all of her shots and she is eight years old, but upon learning of the formaldehyde, antifreeze, aluminum, ether, mercury, monkey kidney tissue, chicken embryos, animal blood in vaccines, I have decided to never again give her any more shots.  In the Parents Magazine February 2000 issue, Karyn Seroussi wrote "How I Cured My Son's Autism".  Great article!

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Avatar universal
We have done a ton of reserach and have decided on a delayed and selective vax schedule for ds. For example, there is NO reason for a newborn to get the Hep B vax (if mom is negative and they are not in need of a blood transfusion). We opted out of that until later. I don't think we need to vax against chicken pox or roto (plus that vax is far too new for me to be comfortable with it especially since it was pulled once already in it's short self-life!). We're doing one vax per month and will do HIB, DTaP, and Prevnar. I will probably do Polio but later (around 12m). We will do MMR but I will get the separate shots and do one per 6m as not to overload ds's system.

There's a lot to think about on this and there is no right or easy answer. But I have been thinking and the AAPs schedule is based on convience and nothing else.

Plus, I am exclusively breastfeeding and will continue to breastfeed until at least 2y (dd made it through 3.5y) That really helps and makes me feel better about my decision as breastmilk is the original and natural vax as far as I'm concerned! Also, we don't travel outside of the US so I'm not concerned there.

Dr. Sears new book is a good resource but I have read a lot of original research as well. The truth is that when you look at population studies vaccines work, but they can't do the type of trials required to demonstrate a cause and effect relationship between vax and disease prevention. Also, the trials that are done have a lot of interesting quirks....like "sheding" and vicarious immunity. Very interesting stuff and it's a lot to digest. We don't know what the side effects really are and it is a good think that we no longer have to worry about Polio or Diptheria....but chicken pox? Really? The motivation behind that was solely financial and that's crossing a line in my oppinion.
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377600 tn?1225163436
Oh my goodness, the comment about breastfeeding and polio is a riot.  In India, mothers breastfeed.  Guess which country is a polio endemic country?  

And for the person who said that autism is not found in countries that do not vaccinate...where are you getting your information?  A lot of countries do not have autism because they do not have doctors capable of diagnosing it and/or populations of people who are unaware of how to spot it in their young children--limited educations and resources.

Amazing what people believe if it is in print.

When you do research--try to make it a reputable source.  Not just a source.

By the way, my children were vaccinated and are fine.  Be glad they are because we traveled overseas and unvax'd people here could have gotten sick if we had brought something back home with us.

In today's transit society--polio still exists and there are still cases of it.

To not vaccinate against such an awful disease is basically child abuse--in my CDC and travel educated opinion.

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Avatar universal
I developed chronic bronchitis after a measels shot.

Alternative doctors have long suggested that these vaccines do play hovoc on our immune system.

Our bodies were just unprepared for the onslaught of 20 century chemicals..
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Avatar universal
'surf!' not slurf!!!! lol
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Avatar universal
I had 4 sons before late in life having my first daughter...she is 4.  all my sons had regular shots (we were military) I grew up military and living overseas alot...I was 43 and pregnant and I think smarter! I had the internet to slurf and read and research...I too found these articles on the shots and it skeered me!  after her birth shots I never went back...I hear this is the reason WHY they give so many bc parent s fail to return for the rest of them...I chose not to return bc of the threats of autism or death!  my lil girl still hasnt had any bad childhood illness unless we count atopic eczema? Hers seem to be stress related...my dad died in april and she is (and I) have stressed over it. yesterday I let a lab lady draw blood from her to test her for her allergies...it was a horrible experience! I stayed calm but my child lost it...if after this result comes back and we can treat her skin...I was thinking about starting up her shots and catch up at a slow pace.  any comments?
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