Give on Giving Tuesday...to Give Pro-Vax Voices a Boost!

Our friends at Voices for Vaccines work tirelessly to make sure the anti-vaccine movement does not succeed in presenting itself as the default "parent voice" heard in any immunization conversation. VFV instead garners the power of the more than ninety percent of parents who choose to protect their children, and the community, by vaccinating. Because of the grassroots nature of the organization, and the fact that VFV does not accept any pharmaceutical funding, it relies entirely on individual donations from members and others supportive of the mission.

Tomorrow, December 2, VFV is asking for our help to turn up the volume on pro-vaccine voices by gathering 1,000 donors who are willing to give to VFV as part of their Giving Tuesday drive.

Moms Who Vax is happy to support Voices for Vaccines and to take these simple steps to help spread the word to 1,000 potential donors for tomorrow!


1. Join the Facebook event and invite friends.

2. Visit VFV on Giving Tuesday and donate any amount, great or small.

3. Share this video widely with friends, family, and colleagues:

Mandatory Flu Vaccination: In My House It's the Law

Today marks the last day of National Influenza Vaccination Week, and in keeping with my standard M.O., I've waited until the very last minute to talk about the influenza vaccine. (Luckily, this didn't extend to the vaccine--my kids were vaccinated in August and I got mine in early November).

Over at Shot of Prevention, Voices for Vaccines Parent Advisory Board member and leader of Nurses Who Vax, Melody Butler reminded readers what, exactly, is at stake when it comes to children and the flu. Last year, 169 children died from flu. "To put that number in perspective," Melody wrote, "that's more than six kindergarten classes." 

Opponents of vaccination would quickly point out that those deaths likely represent children who had an underlying condition or were immune-deficient, that most healthy children can fight the flu. The brutality--and the astounding ignorance--of such a statement is likely self-evident, but let's unpack it anyway.

First, those children with underlying conditions or who were immunocompromised are the very reason we should vaccinate our healthy children. By cocooning these kids who are battling illnesses, like cancer, we can reduce the chances that they will contract the flu, which, for them, can be extremely serious. 

Second, opponents of vaccination are caught in a double-bind--they aim to convince as many people as possible not to vaccinate their children, yet the health of their own unvaccinated children is utterly dependent on high vaccination rates. 

But what about the canard that the flu vaccine doesn't work? Is it perfect? Of course not. The nature of the flu itself makes a universal vaccine an exceptionally complex proposition (though it may be on the way). But if you could reduce your child's chances of suffering--and believe me, dealing with influenza comes with a great deal of suffering, whether you're a child or an adult--by any percentage point, even one, wouldn't you do so? Apparently, in some circles, the answer is no. And I find that hard to wrap my mind around. 

So here's my yearly plea: whether flu vaccine reduces your child's chance of getting the flu by 60% or 6%, it's worth the trip to the pediatrician's office, the local big box minute clinic, the local pharmacy, etc. 

And a last note: in my house, vaccinations are mandatory--and my kids are getting old enough now to understand why. Yes, they don't want to get sick, but what fills me with pride is that they care even more about keeping their friends and family healthy as well. They understand how vaccines function in this regard. They are not old enough to fully understand why parents might not vaccinate their children (frankly, I'm not either), but they have been told that these unvaccinated children are in need of protection as well, that these peers of theirs are, in a sense, immunocompromised themselves. Choosing vaccination because you care about your own health, as well as the health of the community, is a lesson in compassion and community all children should learn. 

Moms Who Vax: Nicholas's Mom

Editor's Note: Nicholas' Mom is a Catholic work-at-home mom who lives in the Northeast with her husband and their six children.  

"Are any of them twins?"

And there it is again.  It's not an unreasonable question with so many children so closely spaced together, but every time it comes up I have to pause and loosen the lump in my throat, smile and say that no, none of the children standing with me are twins.  One of them, my littlest girl with the pigtails and impish grey eyes, should have been a twin though.  And she was a twin until Fall of 2009 when I caught H1N1 influenza.

We hadn't even been trying to get pregnant, so when those two pink lines showed up we felt pretty stunned.  However, my husband and I quickly wrapped our hearts around the fact that we would be welcoming our 5th child and were so excited to see him or her on ultrasound.  In the darkness of the ultrasound room at first I didn't know what I was looking at and wondered why there was something else in my uterus next to "the baby" until the tech pointed out very clearly "so, there is baby A and there is baby B."  I asked if she was sure.  I had to stop driving a few times on the way home to collect myself, muttering under my breath "one baby... and another baby.  Two babies?!?!!"  I hadn't expected to be pregnant at all and here I was, extra pregnant with a couple of stowaway twins.  I called my husband who quickly started calculating how we were going to afford a full size van.  I called my midwife, and a nurse friend who had two year old twins and started figuring out how to try to have the healthiest multiple pregnancy that I could have.  I wasn't sure how all of the logistics were going to work out, but we are a Catholic family and decided to place our trust in God and to walk by faith.  

For weeks I took belly photos, counted grams of protein, devoured any book on multiple pregnancies that I could and consulted with my doctor and my midwife about how to plan for pregnancy, birth and life with twins.  I felt amazing and was so excited about my babies. I cherished listening to baby A and baby B's heart beats, so distinct from each other, one much faster than the other.  Living in a house that would barely have accommodated one more baby, we started looking at finding a bigger home in our area and price checked on eBay to see what kind of car that would fit our family we could afford with our tax return that year.  

When the first cases of H1N1 started popping up in Mexico I barely noticed.  I thought the idea of "pandemic flu" sounded so overblown.  When my friend told me that natural immunity was better than the vaccine and there were miscarriages associated with the flu vaccine, I took what she said seriously the same way I trusted her about what size shirts I was going to be in by the end of my pregnancy.  I was afraid to get the vaccine.  Ultimately I wasn't sure whether I was more scared of the disease or of the terrible things my friend told me could happen if I got the vaccine, but I decided to trust my health care providers and signed up for the very first vaccine clinic for pregnant women in my county.  Beyond that I went about my daily life and just waited for the vaccine to become available in my area since there was such a severe shortage in our area.  I never thought that anything bad could or would happen to me.  I was in my mid 20s, ate a healthy diet with lots of vitamins, tried to lead a more natural lifestyle and I worked too hard to have a healthy pregnancy for anything to possibly go wrong.  I worried about how I might get pneumonia if I caught H1N1, but beyond that it never occurred to me that my babies could be at risk.

I was the first in my family to show symptoms.  At first I felt slightly off and then I spiked a fever that evening. Through the night I slept fitfully, slipping in and out of hallucinations and for the first time in my life truly afraid that something worse could happen to me from a virus than just being miserable for a few days or weeks.  My doctor saw me first thing in the morning while my husband and then our kids started showing symptoms, and immediately prescribed Tamiflu.  I realized how serious my condition was when my doctor gave me the "if you start turning blue, don't try to get to the hospital.  Call 911 immediately" discussion.  Within even a few hours of getting the Tamiflu on board I started feeling not exactly better but like I wasn't getting worse.  I was still weak and took time to recover fully, but I was certain that the worst of it was over.

But what bothered me in the weeks that followed was that I only heard one range of heart tones.  Before there had been two, even as recently as the day before I was sick.  They were still in two different places and I measured ahead enough that my midwife had no concerns, but I couldn't shake the feeling that something was off.  I put it down to being the normal jitters of a mother who had had previous pregnancy losses and trusted that everything was ok even if it didn't feel ok.  After all, the worst was over, so I waited for my 18 week ultrasound to find out whether my babies were boys, girls or one of each.  We brought all of our kids with us to see the babies on ultrasound, the day after Thanksgiving that year.  It was clear as soon as the tech's face changed from excitement to concern that something was very wrong.  She kept looking but finally had to tell us "right now I'm only seeing one baby."   With those words my heart sank through the floor.  I had children in the waiting room waiting excitedly to find out whether they were having brothers or sisters.  I had no idea how I was going to tell them what had happened.  The radiologist came immediately and confirmed what the technician had found and life would never be the same again.

Through so many phone calls to be made, emails, Facebook updates I felt numb and wondered what I had done wrong.   I took all of my vitamins, I was healthy and working so hard for a healthy pregnancy.  As much as I looked for things I should have done differently or better, I kept coming to the bewildering conclusion that there was nothing.  I had done everything right and my baby, my daughter's twin, still died anyways.  There was no rhyme or reason.  There was no missing piece of the puzzle that if I had just done that one missing thing, everything would have been ok.   The only thing that would have made a difference was the vaccine, and no amount of wishing was going to change the fact that there was a shortage and that I got exposed during that delay.  I am so thankful to still have my daughter, that she was able to survive, but loving her doesn't change the knowledge there is someone who isn't here who should have been.  

No one looks at my family and sees that empty space where the lost child we named Nicholas should be.  No outside observer sees the missing fingerpaintings, hears the missing voice in the crowd, or notices the muddy footprints that aren't left alongside his brothers and sisters.  But I see them.  I see them in my daughter's eyes and wonder whether Nicholas' would have been blue, brown or grey like hers are.  I see them at Thanksgiving when my beautiful little girl sits so proudly at the table and I know exactly how old Nicholas should be this year.  These are the invisible losses, these are the hidden pains that I will always carry because of what H1N1 did in my life.  And I will spend the rest of my life wondering what would have happened if I had been able to get the flu vaccine.

The question still comes up every so often even now that we have our 6th child:  are of my children twins?  No, and yet yes.  My daughter will never know her twin and I will never have that baby, that precious child in my arms.  But I carry him in my heart and in my life just the same.  I remember him with every vaccine that my children get as soon as they are eligible to receive it.  I remember him with every stranger or friend I help to research vaccines so that they can feel comfortable in the safety of immunizing their children.  I remember him with every step of immunization advocacy that I take, every time I share his brief life with others.  This is his legacy.  This is his life, and how I honor it by remaining Nicholas' mom.

Editor's note: Flu vaccine is strongly recommended for all pregnant women. It is safe for both mom and baby, and will provide the newborn added immunity through its first few months of life.

"Scare Tactics"

Recently, a mother who immunizes her children tried to post on a blog called "Modern Alternative Mama" in response to a worried mother of a newborn. The new mother had chosen not to vaccinate her baby out of fear, but was living in a community in the midst of a pertussis outbreak. Her pediatrician had called to ask if she might reconsider immunizing her baby at this point. The mother seemed worried--she didn't want to vaccinate, but clearly she didn't want her infant to contract pertussis. After reading responses from other non-vaccinating mothers--telling her to hold strong, to rest assured that breast milk would somehow make her baby immune from pertussis, one of the most devastatingly contagious diseases on the planet--this mother-who-vaccinates felt moved to post a response. 

She asked the mother of the newborn to reconsider getting her child the Dtap, and linked to Everlee's pertussis story here on this blog as an example of how an infant handles pertussis. Not only was the comment not approved by the woman who runs Modern Alternative Mama, but the mother also received an e-mail saying that the blog didn't allow commenters to use "scare tactics" and so the comment would be censored. After reading the e-mail myself, I was somewhat surprised--until I went to the blog's Facebook page and saw the anti-vax posts from the blog author. Typical stuff I encounter on a daily basis from the underbelly of the mercifully sparsely populated anti-vax world, more banal than the truly bizarre "Moms Who Vax Make Up Their Stories" conspiracy theories floating around. 

Still, I found myself stewing over this one.

In many ways, I am not surprised that we live in a world where the true story of a vaccine-preventable disease can be considered a "scare tactic." After all, we are still burdened by climate science skeptics and Creationists who believe the earth is 6,000 years old and that we hung out with our dino friends. But coming as it did in the midst of preparing a story from another mother whose life was changed by a vaccine preventable disease, I found this appellation--"scare tactic"--used to describe Everlee's story particularly distasteful, even for the anti-vax crowd. While serious side effects from vaccines are exceptionally rare, I would never look a parent, whose child had had a bad reaction to a shot, in the eye and say: your story, and your child, are a scare tactic, and therefore you do not deserve to be heard. I'm not certain how you can respond to any parent who is suffering in such a dismissive way and remain human. It doesn't necessarily mean you agree with their theories as to why their child became ill, or that you acknowledge that such reactions are common, but it means you have a basic level of compassion. 

Illness and death from vaccine-preventable disease, which are far, far more common and, unfortunately, on the rise, are not scare tactics. They are the true stories of fellow human beings who want to be heard and, even more important, who want to save other families the heartache they've suffered. More, the science is on their side. The facts are on their side. And I, as a parent, am deeply grateful for the work they do by keeping their wounds wide open in order that they might save lives, something those who criticize them have no interest in doing. 

The Rubella Files

Jennifer McDonald is a mother of two, with one on the way, and is a member of the Facebook group “Wear ‘em, Nurse ‘em, and Vax ‘em, too.” She wrote in to share a story from her own family history that underscores her decision to vaccinate her children.

When Jennifer’s grandmother was pregnant with Jennifer’s mother in 1960, she was exposed to—and possibly caught—German measles, or Rubella, one of the most dreaded diseases a pregnant woman can get. At this time, because of the high rate of severe birth defects associated with exposure to Rubella, doctors routinely advised termination of the pregnancy. And this is what Jennifer’s grandmother’s doctor advised her to do.

“He’d seen many mothers regret not terminating once their measles-exposed babies were born, and he’d seen firsthand the effect this had on them,” Jennifer says. In fact, the rubella vaccine was developed in order to prevent transmission of the disease to the fetus, because the effects can be so devastating: miscarriage or stillbirth, an infant with severe heart disorders, blindness, deafness, and other organ disorders.

But Jennifer’s grandmother declined to follow her doctor’s suggestions and proceeded with the pregnancy. “And my mother,” Jennifer says, “was born, presumably defect-free.” So they thought.

Because of the exposure to Rubella when she was a fetus, Jennifer’s mother’s chances of being able to have her own children were very slim. Despite this, and a miscarriage, Jennifer’s mother beat the odds and did give birth to four healthy children, including Jennifer. 

“Looking back,” Jennifer says now, “if things were just a tiny bit different, there's a good chance that I wouldn't be here today.” And while she remains grateful, Jennifer says knowing what she does about rubella, it only heightens her frustration with anti-vax activists who say vaccine-preventable diseases are rare and are not as harmful as we have been lead to believe. 

Rubella remains one of the most dangerous diseases for pregnant woman and their fetuses. It is the reason your ob/gyn or midwife makes certain you have rubella immunity when you come in for your first appointment (a blood test can reveal this if you don’t remember if you were vaccinated as a child). 

When considering the rubella vaccine (part of the MMR vaccine), you need to think not just of your children, but of your grandchildren-to-come. That's because by immunizing your child today, you are preventing the heartbreak of rubella transmission from your child to her own child--your grandchild. 

Note: If you have a story about how vaccine-preventable disease has affected your family, either in the past or recently, please contact us at momswhovax AT gmail.com

The Google Conundrum

As a new parent, I did the same thing every single parent in my state, probably in the country, did before bringing in my kid for his vaccinations: I googled "vaccines." Big mistake. There were no obvious signs that I had fallen down the rabbit hole. In fact, I was directed to some very official looking websites, one of which was The National Vaccine Information Center.


National Vaccine Information Center. That sounds official. And I need information on vaccines. Great. It took me a while to realize that the site I was visiting belonged to an anti-vaccine organization. (As Dr. Ari Brown pointed out during this weekend's Got Your Shots immunization conference here in Minnesota, you always want to get your vaccine information from a website that has a scrolling ad for lawyers on the margin of the page, right!) Then there's the Vaccine Safety Council. Again, sounds official. And I want safe vaccines. Let's head on over there and see what gives. And so began some of the most stressful months of my life, becoming scared of harming my son with vaccines, coming to realize, through research, that I had been sold a bill of goods by the anti-vaccine community, and was in danger of putting my son's life at risk if I didn't vaccinate. Somehow I climbed out of that rabbit hole and got back on steady ground.  I know other parents face the same terror I felt after doing that first Google search, so I want to provide some basic information here in the hopes that it can be a kind of Cliff's Notes for you or new parents you know who are doing the vaccine thing. As new and expecting parents, the last thing we want and, frankly, have time for is examining verbiage, nuance of language, and point of view on websites we come across during a 2am Google search between nursing and changing a diaper. What I learned was that I could not take anything for granted--I could not assume that seemingly straightforward, unbiased names like "National Vaccine Safety Council" or "Vaccine Information Center" were providing factual information. Notice that none of these sites call themselves "The Anti-Vaccine Clearinghouse" or "Moms Who Don't Vax." They refer to themselves as people desiring "safe vaccines" (hint: we already have them) or "more research" (hint: the research is in, and it's conclusive).


I want to provide some shorthand for you sleepy parents out there who want to know about some of the sites you find during a Google search. Please note: I only list the first five notable anti-vaccine sites that appear in a Google search for "vaccines" here. I'm happy that the CDC's site, the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP)'s site on vaccines, and other credible sources are appearing higher and higher in this particular Google search. But in the meantime, if you are a new parent, please know this about the following websites you will encounter on your Google adventure.


1.) National Vaccine Information Center: Anti-vax organziation run by an anti-vaccine activist named Barbara Loe Fisher. Unfortunately, this is currently the third or fourth link that shows up under a Google search for "vaccines." To get a sense of what these folks are about, check out this story from Discover Magazine online.


2.) SafeMinds: Anti-vax organization run by another anti-vaccine activist named Sallie Bernard, former marketing executive. Left Brain Right Brain, a science blog, says this about the organization:

"SafeMinds has shown themselves to be very resistant to the very research they called for. Studies which show a lack of association between thimerosal containing vaccines (TCV’s) and autism are always rejected by SafeMinds. They are not alone in this, groups such as Generation Rescue and the National Autism Association(NAA) have also refused to accept the science.

Incidentally, one of the hallmarks of the anti-vax movement is an astonishing level of defensiveness. This is a trait you will rarely see (I've never seen it) in the pro-vax movement. Perhaps this is because we have nothing to be defensive about. You will also not see vindictive attacks on anti-vax activists from public health authorities and pro-vax parents, like this one Safeminds perpetrated on one of their pro-vax critics, a parent. Acts like this should go into your consideration of whether a source is trustworthy enough to earn your confidence.




3.) Association of American Physicians and Surgeons: a very official and "medical-sounding" organization that is anti-vaccine. For a detailed explanation of this organization's approach, please go to Science-Based Medicine's post on it. Shorthand: they had disgraced former doctor Andrew Wakefield speak at their conference.


4.) Natural News.com: Sadly, some parents look to this website as a source for medical information. It is notably anti-vaccine and has no problem providing "medical information" suggesting vaccines cause harm that is, frankly, nothing but lies. Even if you've never taken a science class in your life, you will quickly see through the stories posted on this very odd website. To give you an idea of how poor of a grasp the folks who run this website have on basic science, one of their recent headlines was: "CDC admits flu vaccines don't work (which is why you need a new one every year)" I nearly spit out my coffee when I read that one. It's astounding that these people don't understand that new flu viruses arrive every single year and that the vaccines are manufactured to guard against the new strains. They also claim "multiple studies" show mercury causes autism, something even most anti-vaxxers are now moving on from.


5.) Vaccines.net: this site has become very stripped down, but it still directs you to "vaccine adverse events," which is a somewhat unmonitored reporting system that collected all reports of perceived vaccine-related illness or injury. I hope to have a post from someone far more knowledgable than me on the VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System) set up by the U.S. government, and how it works, but long story short, someone can report (and apparently has) that their son got a vaccine and then turned into the Incredible Hulk, and that will be part of the VAERS reports; no causation is needed, just a report, even something overheard. I've read reports of a teenager receiving a vaccine, then thirty days later committing suicide, and it being part of VAERS because the reporting party wondered if the vaccine caused her suicide. Anyway, vaccines.net, despite the official-sounding name, is an anti-vaccine website.


6.) Vaccine Exchange: I honestly wouldn't have known about this site if the person running their Twitter account hadn't Tweeted us with some nonsense accusing us of not liking National Vaccine Information Center because we are cockroaches who scatter when light is shined on "the truth." (Because insults like this coming from  a site purporting to provide unbiased information about vaccines always inspires confidence in the site's usefulness.) Vaccine Exchange is just another site promoting an anti-vaccine agenda and using scary stories and misleading language to dupe new parents into buying into their stories. There's a lot of talk about "informed consent"--which has become shorthand for "antivax," because patients who choose to vaccinate their children are both informed (to the nth degree, actually) and have given their consent. You'll see stuff there about "Scientists Under Attack" and the fact that parents from West Virginia "have no right to decide what is injected into their children." If their overblown, meretricious prose doesn't tip you off, their poor web design might.


These are just a handful of the sites you might come across in a search on vaccines. Please take a look at the links on the right of this page for credible, science-based information on vaccines, as well as a few blogs from really smart people who do this infectious disease/immunology thing for a living. For a readable, accessible, but penetratingly intelligent--and accurate--account of the groups named above, please read "Yet Another Bad Day for the Anti-vax Movement in 2011" on the science blog Respectful Insolence.


I also want to point out one sad fact that I've had to come to grips with, and that is that the mothering.com board, for all its attachment parenting, breastfeeding, and "natural mama" support, is mostly an anti-vax board. You'll see a lot of links to books by anti-vaccine activists, and lots of justification for their reasons for not vaccinating. And once in a while you will see a valiant soul trying to coax them into using science. But I would warn any new parent away from this particular resource, as the rampant misinformation and scare tactics you see in the comments are not worth the trade-off for breastfeeding tips and lists of paraben-free baby products. 

Peace of Mind

As a new or expecting parent, you'll have to get used to the idea that your child will be sick. A lot. It's part of life, this acquisition of viruses and bacterial infections. And while it can be hard to watch your child cough, sniffle, become feverish, battle a sore throat, etc., at least we know her immune system is growing stronger and figuring out a way to let her live among other human beings without being crippled by illness. 

That being said, you can probably expect to feel the way I still feel, after two kids, every time my kids get perhaps a little sicker than usual: anxious, worried, and perhaps even a little obsessed. For example, my nineteen-month-old has been sick for the last five days with what was a mysterious but brutal ailment. She was listless, not herself, eyes red-rimmed, running a high fever, and crying a lot. Her brother had been complaining of a sore throat. A visit to the doctor, and the follow-up three days later, showed no strep. He was off to school a couple days later, none the worse for wear. But my daughter was just not doing well at all. I found myself looking through my book of childhood illnesses, scrutinizing symptoms, wondering what she might have and if I should bring her to the doctor (my son's doctor didn't think it necessary to bring my daughter in, since his strep test was negative). 

As soon as I opened the book that old familiar feeling appeared. Blood and heart racing, getting hot, almost sweaty, feeling panicked. Measles? Meningitis? Mumps? Pertussis? I churned for about half a second, until I realized: wait, my daughter has been vaccinated against these deadly diseases. At least, I thought to myself, I don't have to worry about those. The peace of mind I felt instantly upon realizing that I had vaccinated my daughter (and son) so they would not contract these awful, sometimes fatal diseases was one of the greatest endorsements of my decision to vaccinate. Sure, I could move on to other worries, like strep throat (which is what it turned out to be after a visit to Urgent Care), but I no longer feared for my daughter's life. And while that may sound an extreme reaction to your child's illness, trust me, it's sort of a boilerplate reaction. Somewhere, in the back of your mind, a parent wonders if the sickness might be something awful.

My thoughts turned to parents who don't vaccinate. How, I wondered, could they cope psychologically with common childhood illness, not knowing if it was measles or the rather harmless roseola? Could it be pertussis or just a bad cough? The uncertainty would be my undoing. And in the middle of an outbreak, like the measles outbreak of Minnesota and the pertussis outbreak that killed children in California, the fear would be too much to bear. 

If you are trying to decide whether to vaccinate your children, consider your future self, waking up in the middle of some future night, and finding your baby running a terribly high fever in her crib. You don't what's going on--this is your first, perhaps. Do you want to run, in your head, the gamut of all the potential deadly vaccine-preventable diseases your child could have, signaled by this fever, that rash, this cough, these enlarged glands? Or do you want to have at least the peace of mind to know that the odds are hugely in your favor that your child is protected from the worst childhood diseases out there, and that this fever might indicate Fifth's Disease or Roseola or another annoying but basically harmless childhood virus? Do your future, sleep-deprived self, and your child, a favor and immunize.

I'm Mad, Part One: Mercury/Thimerosal

New and expecting parents are bombarded with information about all the bad things they'll need to keep their children away from: BPA in bottles, parabens in lotions and bath supplies, phthalates and PVC in toys and teethers. It can be overwhelming. And yet the science linking these three chemicals to negative health effects is thus far nearly conclusive (I will link to CDC studies on these chemicals at the end of the article). Luckily, phasing them out of your life is a risk-free and mostly hassle-free endeavor. Most if not all baby bottles today are free from BPA; in some states, including Minnesota, phthalates are not allowed in children's products. Parabens are easily identifiable in personal products (look for methylparaben, butylparane, propylparaben) and can be avoided. There is no trade-off. You are not putting your child at risk by choosing a BPA-free bottle.

So after crossing those things off the list, new and expecting parents often turn to vaccines. And many of them make the same mistake I made as a new parent. They turn to Google, the place where eminent scientific mind Jenny McCarthy says she got her "degree."The first sites we find are not Every Child By Two and the Centers for Disease Control, the Gates Foundation and Partners in Health. Instead, we find sites like the so-called National Vaccine Information Center, which masquerades as an impartial watchdog agency (hence the "org" in its web address), and Vaccines.net, which claims that vaccines cause all sorts of diseases and allergies. For the neophyte, it is nearly impossible to sort the wheat from the chaff here, and the effort to do so can be absolutely terrifying.

You will hear lots of terrible things about vaccines. Nearly all of them are lies. The word "lie" is inflammatory, but I use it here deliberately. It is a word, and a characterization, you will not see on public health websites, from the CDC, from Every Child by Two, or any of the sites of organizations whose job it is to study the safety and efficacy of vaccines. Even though they know this is true. 

But we're parents who have been on both sides of this debate. We've been scared, too. But after looking at the science and putting things in perspective--something the anti-vax community will not do, perhaps because they are incapable, perhaps because their science literacy is so low--we got mad. 

I'm mad about lots of things. We all are. In an effort to save some new parents the same heartache, worry, anxiety that we suffered as we tried to figure out the vaccine thing--and to keep parents from delaying their children's immunizations out of fear, as a few of us did before we understood our mistake, putting our kids' lives at risk in the process--we are initiating a series of "I'm Mad" posts. These posts will address some of the most volatile but common claims anti-vaxxers make when trying to scare new parents out of immunizing their children. Today we start with the thimerosal question.

Claim: Thimerosal in vaccines causes/caused autism. If it doesn't, it's still toxic. 

I worried about thimerosal for a while. People told me it was straight-up mercury being injected into my child's body. Mercury is poison, right? It's what is causing all this autism, because although thimerosal has been used a preservative in vaccines for decades, without the attendant rise in autism, our kids just get so many more immunizations now, right? 

Well--except that thimerosal hasn't been in vaccines since 2000/2001 and autism rates continue to skyrocket. I shouldn't have to point out, but I will, that this is the exact opposite effect of what we'd see if thimerosal caused autism, as anti-vaxxers long claimed. I later learned that the preservative had been taken out of vaccines by the government and public health authorities not because of any toxicity concerns but because parents believed the Wakefield study and they feared vaccination rates would fall if this gesture was not made. Thimerosal does not cause autism (Immunizations and Autism: A Review of the Literature in the Canadian Journal of Neuroscience). 

Mercury poisoning? That sounds scary. Except that your typical tuna sandwich contains much more mercury than a single vaccine. Actually, the mercury in tuna is scarier, because it is methyl mercury, a serious neurotoxin, while the mercury in vaccines is ethyl mercury, which is, even at high doses, far less toxic than methyl mercury (but in the doses we're talking about in vaccines are literally traces anyway). Bottom line: mercury poisoning is an impossibility when it comes to vaccines, even if you were to get the whole course of childhood vaccines (back when they contained thimerosal) in a single week.

But here's the main point that goes overlooked. Right now, vaccines are nearly the lowest-risk medicine we have available to us. The reports of adverse effects--which include fever and soreness at the injection site--are so low compared to the number of doses administered, that they are considered one of the safest, if not the single safest, medicine in the world. And their benefits are this: they keep your child alive. It is as simple as that.

Too few of us parents have seen measles. I know of no one who has seen polio, except for people who have lived in Afghanistan and India, where polio is still endemic. Endemic. This means it is "regularly" found in a population. Know anyone who travels to India? Might there be any children at your local school who have Indian relatives? I know there are at least eight in my child's preschool alone. I hasten to add that their parents didn't think twice about immunizing them, because of their travels and because they, too, had seen these diseases take lives when they were growing up. Is there a reason why your husband or wife might be required to get a polio shot if he/she hasn't gotten one if she/he is deployed to Afghanistan? This stuff is a plane ride away. And it is not theoretical.

Haven't seen what Tetanus looks like? Here is a photo of a child with tetanus. Here is a photo of a child who suffered polio. Measles looks like this. Is it worth forgoing vaccines against diseases like this, and many others, that are absolutely extant in our world and either in this country (or in my case, my state) or a plane ride away, carried home by an unwitting traveler much like the toddler who brought measles back to Minnesota from Kenya this winter, because of fear of a toxicity that simply doesn't exist? It's something to consider. For me, it became an easy answer when considered this way. 

Science-Based Medicine offers a look at the claims of toxicity of vaccines that you are likely to hear as you explore the vaccine question. We owe it to ourselves to read the post in its entirety before making any decisions about whether or not to get on board with some of the more inflammatory claims we still hear from people who don't vaccinate their children and don't want you to vaccinate either. 

You can also get the word from these organizations. Below are links to their statements on the safety/toxicity of thimerosal. Again, this is really a moot point, as no childhood vaccines, save the multi-dose vial version of the flu shot, contain any thimerosal. But it's a point worth making, as it demonstrates the ways anti-vax proponents will manipulate and misinterpret the science to new parents, hoping that most of them won't bother to look into their claims.

World Health Organization's Statement on Thimerosal

 Centers for Disease Control Statement on Thimerosal

FDA on Thimerosal

Journal of Pediatrics publishes study on mercury in vaccines

Mom to Mom: Pam's Story

Pam's son Zachary

I received all of my vaccinations on time as a child growing up. My mother was a medical technologist and had taken blood from a patient infected with measles. She had seen these diseases first hand. I began to look more deeply into vaccines when I was pregnant with my first child, during the fall/winter of 2009. I knew the H1N1 flu vaccine was recommended, especially for pregnant women, and I was considering whether I should get the H1N1 vaccine as well as the regular flu vaccine. The first thing I did was talk to family and friends who were pregnant or had been pregnant to find out what they had done. I spoke to people who were pro-vaccine as well as people who were anti-vaccine. My own doctor's strong recommendation as well as hearing about pregnant women who had died from H1N1 led me to get both flu vaccines while pregnant. After my decision to vaccinate myself, I began further research about vaccines for my baby. I found that a lot of what I heard and read from the anti-vaccine side had a strong basis in fear and "what if" thinking. What if vaccines cause autism? What if vaccines are causing the rise in allergies among children? While these possibilities triggered what I would call the "fear mind," my rational mind was able to look at the research available online, much of which I found through Ashley's blog (Science for Sale). I saw that the research overwhelmingly supported the safety of vaccines. I could also see that the pro-vaccine argument was research-based, history proven, and logical. In addition to online research, I questioned pediatricians whenever I had the opportunity. I spoke with 5 different pediatricians who all recommended vaccinating without reserve. They said they vaccinated their own children and grandchildren. They spoke of the dangers of not vaccinating. We decided to vaccinate our son Zachary, and he has received all his vaccinations on time starting from the day he was born. He has been extremely healthy and the only reaction to the vaccines has been a couple hours of being tired and cranky. I do still get nervous when I bring him to get vaccinated. I wish the doctors gave more information about what he is being vaccinated for and the ingredients in the vaccine and the safety of those ingredients. Regarding those details, I had to find out the information on my own. I understand doctors and nurses are busy and weary of the vaccine debate, but I think it would help parents who are nervous about vaccines to have more access to information. 

Regarding my interaction with the anti-vaccine community, I have had a hard time with this because I have three cousins who I was very close with growing up who are not vaccinated. Their father is a chiropractor and for whatever reason did not trust that vaccines were safe. They are now all having babies of their own, and the vaccine issue has surfaced in discussion and emails. The discussion can get contentious, and I don't want to create a bad relationship with family members, so I try to relay the pro-vaccine argument as clearly and objectively as possible. Although I have not expressed my personal fears to my cousins for fear of ruining our relationship completely, I do fear for my son who is almost 11 months and has not received all his vaccinations yet. I want my children to be able to play with and know their cousins, but as a mother I know I have to protect my child in the best way I can. I would feel responsible if he contracted a vaccine-preventable illness from people who I knew were not vaccinated. I know that I'm taking a risk when my son is around these family members and its an issue that I still struggle with. 


If you are a parent who chooses to vaccinate and would like to share your story, please send us your story. We are also always looking for cute pictures of your vaccinated baby or child for our "Cute Vaccinated Kid of the Week"!

Change the Name!

There's something unintimidating about watching your child receive the rotovirus vaccine. It's a drop in the mouth, something that, while not exactly palatable, doesn't prick. I'm sure from a child's point-of-view, this is a preferable way to receive an immunization. I've often told my friends that all immunizations should be administered this way. It seems to be human nature to react to a large needle dripping with medicine with suspicion, especially if that needle is heading for our baby's tender thigh. The truth, of course, is that we should be eagerly awaiting this immunization so we can sit back and relax for the first time since the baby was born and feel somewhat sure he or she is at least minimally protected from pretty awful diseases. And many of us parents do feel that way, but I think it takes some practice. As humans we are very susceptible to the way things are presented to us. In George Lakoff's book Don't Think of an Elephant, the concept of "framing" information played on this human tendency. I think it might be time for those of us who vaccinate to consider re-framing the "vaccine" question by taking a small but potentially powerful step. It's time to stop letting anti-vax activists dictate the debate. Here is one way to do it.

Stop using the word vaccine.

Some, like me and a couple other of the Moms Who Vax, consider the word almost ruined. The word immunization, on the other hand, feels unassaulted and it doesn't raise the blood temperature in the same way vaccine seems to do. Yes, we call ourselves Moms Who Vax--but Moms Who Immunize just didn't have the same ring to it. But choosing the words we use to talk about this issue can have an effect. It's a small idea, perhaps too small, but I believe that instead of trying to reclaim the term "vaccine" we should plant our flag on "immunization." So, with a few exceptions, you will see vaccines referred to as immunizations on this blog, and if you are a parent who immunizes, I ask that you consider referring to vaccines the same way. And if you're interested in learning more about Lakoff's theories on framing, please check out this article on his ideas.