A Moderate Approach to Vaccinations

The controversy about the possible connection between vaccines and autism has been in the news again lately. Portland is a sort of alternative-parenting Mecca, and I know people who fall all over the map on the vaccination issue. The only constant seems to be very strong feelings on all sides.

We talked to people who felt that the only rational approach was to not vaccinate your kids at all, just in case the vaccines were causing problems. Why take the risk? On the other hand, we spoke to people who felt that vaccinations are a kind of civic duty. If enough people skip them, outbreaks of disease will be more severe.

Personally, I dislike the extremists on both sides. Vaccinations, on the whole, are clearly a good thing, both for society at large, and for my family. And while I personally find it easy to believe that there is (or was) a link between certain vaccines and autism, the idea of not vaccinating at all seems like an overreaction to me.

The one piece of rational advice I received when we were making this decision was from a doctor here in Portland. He recommended that you get your child vaccinated, but not all at once. The traditional schedule has your child getting several different vaccines at once, which has the net effect of overloading their immune system. It’s not hard to imagine that a child with a temporarily overloaded immune system might have difficulty fighting off an infection. Whether that leads to autism or not, it sounds like something to be avoided.

We follow an alternative vaccination timetable which still has her getting all her shots, but rather than grouping them all together every six months, we’re spacing them out, one shot at a time, every three months.

I’m not trying to suggest that this approach is right for you. The point I’m trying to make is that when you’re surrounded by extremists on all sides, try looking a little closer at the problem. There’s may be a more moderate approach that no one is really talking about.