Should I Or Shouldn’t I Vaccinate my Child?

Posted by Kelley Prince, M.A., BCBA, President of Behavioral Consulting of Tampa Bay, Inc.

As a professional in the field of autism and a mother of a 16 month old son, I am frequently questioned by friends regarding my take on the link between vaccines and autism.  More specifically, they are interested in knowing how I approached the vaccination issue with my son.  Therefore, I thought it would be appropriate to provide my personal opinion on this issue.

First and foremost, there is no research to support a correlation between autism and vaccines. But, since medical professionals are still unsure of what truly causes autism, I was slightly cautious with my own son.  Therefore, I did get him vaccinated on the regular schedule with 2 exceptions: First, I postponed the Hepatitis B shot that is usually given at the hospital until we went to our first pediatric checkup. I was concerned about my 1 day old baby receiving a vaccine so soon after birth.  Secondly, my pediatrician recommended that my son receive the Measles, Mumps, Rubella (MMR) vaccine at his 15 month checkup.  Since I have heard several clients blame this vaccine for their children’s autism (perhaps because the signs of autism occur around the same time that vaccine is given), I decided to postpone this vaccine until my son is 24 months old. This will allow more time for his brain to develop as well as his language and motor skills to progress. 

I do want to stress that vaccines are extremely important to the health of our society and I am a supporter of giving these vaccines to our children.  The Centers for Disease Control reported that in 2011, the number of measles cases was the highest it had been in the US in 15 years.  And, over 90% of these cases involved individuals who had not received the vaccine.   

I do think that parents should be aware of other environmental factors that may be playing a role in the increasing rates of autism. Therefore, I feed my son as many organic food options as possible to prevent the ingestion of antibiotics, hormones, pesticides, etc.  In addition, I limit his TV exposure to less than 10 minutes per day since there is some recent research on the connection between ADHD and “screen time”.  Finally, I provide him with a Vitamin D supplement on a daily basis since a majority of Americans are Vitamin D deficient due to our concerns regarding UVA/UVB exposure.  Although these choices may have not had any impact on my son’s future, I now understand the need that parents have in attempting to do everything possible to ensure their children live a happy, healthy life.