After reading an article on mercury and autism in my March-April issue of Mothering Magazine I felt compelled to finally write about this very controversial topic, as well as my personal experience of being judged by friends, family and strangers for our unconventional choice of choosing not to vaccinate our child. I hope this will shed some light on my family’s legal choice to exercise freedom of conscience.

D. A Geier, et al., recently reviewed the findings of 150 studies in “A Comprehensive Review of Mercury Provoked Autsim“ and published them in a special issue devoted to mercury toxicity.  The study showed that fetuses exposed to mercury or exposure at early childhood combined with a reduced ability to excrete caused some forms of autism spectrum disorders (ASD).  This is what I described to my husband when the topic of vaccination came up during my pregnancy.  If pregnant women are warned against consuming alcohol during pregnancy because it will transfer to the fetus, then it holds true that everything in your blood stream will transfer to the fetus, including mercury and other heavy metals.  Today, we are exposed to mercury through eating fish and through mercury based fillings.  We are advised to eat fish while pregnant for the beneficial omega 3 fatty acids, which are great for brain development, but not many people know which fish contains high amounts of mercury- conversely, a neurotoxin. Other than the mainstream message of avoiding canned white tuna and swordfish, people are unaware of the high levels found in other fish.  In addition, mercury fillings can leak over time entering the bloodstream. My family utilizes the fish/mercury chart found at www.gotmercury.org and supplements only with fish oils approved for sale in the European Union, due to their higher standards for mercury and PCB-free fish oil products.

If a baby is born with a heavy metal body burden to begin with and the inability to excrete the heavy metals due to an immature detoxification system, then a few doses of thimerosal-containing vaccines given over several months, each containing more than the EPA safe daily limit, which is 0.1 mcg per 1 kg. or per 2 pounds 3.27 ounces of weight, could theoretically tip the scales and cause ASD. I believed this to be true after speaking with a customer of mine a couple of years ago when I became pregnant.  He is a Naturopath and his wife had done a heavy metal test and found she had high levels of mercury. She was ready to do a cleanse when she found out she was pregnant. It wasn’t safe to detox while pregnant, so she chose to wait. Once the baby was born she tested herself again and found her levels to be low. Immediately they tested their baby boy and found he had high levels. They worked over several years to detox the baby slowly and chose not to vaccinate. Last I saw the little boy he was healthy and happy.

Why haven’t we heard from the scientific community about the possibility that babies could be born with high mercury levels? I am no scientist, but it seems obvious. Are the doctors and scientists afraid that it may sound as if they are blaming mothers? I certainly don’t blame a mother for eating otherwise healthy fish that got polluted. That’s the EPA’s fault. It’s the coal industry’s fault. It’s the FDA’s fault for not requiring warning labels on those packages of specifically offending fish. They are supposed to regulate this stuff to protect us.

Take Out Before You Put In

I propose that parents are offered a heavy metal screening test for their newborns before they decide to vaccinate. Thimerosal has been removed from most vaccines, but they still have trace amounts and also contain aluminum – another heavy metal.  Merck’s Hepatitis B vaccine, given to newborns at birth contains 0.5 mg’s of aluminum. What’s the harm in offering a test to find out if a baby is at risk of overload? This could finally settle the debate once and for all: do vaccines really cause autism? I don’t think there is a direct causal effect for the majority of cases. I think they tip the scales and end up being the cause – but not inherently, in most cases.  But even with little or no mercury load and thimerosal removed, we still chose not to vaccinate for several other reasons.

We Are Not Cows

Paul A. Offitt, MD, the inventor of the rotavirus vaccine, recently published a book called Autism’s False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure. This is the same doctor that Hollywood actress Amanda Peet tells readers in her Cookie Magazine interview several months back, that she spoke to regarding the safety of vaccines and then whole-heartedly decided to vaccinate her daughter by the full recommended schedule.  Firstly, he is a friend of her family, and as stated above, invented a childhood vaccine.  I gathered information from numerous sources to make an informed decision. That’s not my beef with her though. She can do as she chooses with her child.  My beef is that she called me a parasite – for not vaccinating my child. I don’t believe that parents who choose not to vaccinate are purposefully trying to gain immunity from the ‘herd effect’.   Like me, I think they are teaching their children good hygiene and promoting healthy diets, exercise, preventive therapies and plenty of restorative sleep to allow the child’s immune system to strengthen naturally. We are lucky enough to live in a country with good sanitation, so that is not a worry for us in the U.S.  Most of the childhood diseases are really not that dangerous if you acquire them. They are just inconvenient for most families.  Of the more serious diseases, like polio, one has to ask if there is really a threat.  Polio has been eradicated from North America and there have been no wild polio cases since around the time the vaccine was introduced. Although, there were cases of polio due to the vaccine. Was it the vaccine that eradicated polio or improved sanitation and hygeine? From January to July 2008, the CDC reported 131 new cases of measles. Of these cases, 63 were acquired by unvaccinated people.  The other 68 were vaccinated and 89 percent were imported from other countries, mostly Europe.  So are the unvaccinated really causing a threat to the vaccinated population? I personally don’t think so. I referred to several sources to draw my conclusions; The Sanctity of Human Blood, by Tim O’Shea, Vaccines: Are They Really Safe and Effective by Neil Z. Miller and Natural Baby and Childcare by Lauren Feder, MD, as well as articles, the CDC website, vaccine inserts and the point of view of three California pediatricians, who all vaccinate, but accept unvaccinated children into their practices -another blog post unto itself!

Trifecta Or Triple Threat?

Has anyone ever acquired three diseases in the same day, naturally?  Is there any record of a person     going to an emergency room and being diagnosed with measles, mumps and rubella all in the same day? I can’t find anything on the internet pointing to that happening to anyone. What about diphtheria and whooping cough? – and oh, on the way into the E.R. the guy stepped on a rusty nail and acquired tetanus. I believe in Mother Nature whole-heartedly and science only half-heartedly, especially in a for-profit healthcare system. If I did choose to vaccinate, I think it wise to separate the vaccines.  This would mimic nature more closely and allow the body to focus on building up immunity for one disease at a time. It would also limit the exposure of toxins, like aluminum and formaldehyde your child would receive.

Direct Entry

But of the diseases I mentioned above, only tetanus enters the blood stream directly.  The others enter through the mouth or nose. Yet, vaccines all enter through a needle injected directly into the bloodstream. Does that allow the body to launch an immune response the way our bodies were designed to for that specific infection?  Take the flu, for instance.  If you caught it, your immune system would activate at the tonsils and then the inflammation process would begin. You may get a fever, sore throat, runny nose, cough, etc.  Then your body heals. What immune response steps are missing when the influenza virus is injected directly into your bloodstream?  We don’t really know if this is an issue now, but long term it may have an effect on our overall health.

Read Your Labels

I wonder how many parents actually read the insert that comes with the vaccine when they bring their child to the pediatrician for their shots.  These viruses have to grow on living cells.  The cultures of choice are chick embryos, yeast, monkey kidneys and something called WI-38 human diploid lung fibroblasts. Specifically, these are used for Merck’s rubella portion of the MMR and for their chicken pox vaccine.  These cells are from aborted fetuses from the 1960’s from women who were exposed to rubella while pregnant. They terminated their pregnancies for fear of birth defects.  This cell line is still used today. This is certainly not something I wanted to inject into my body before I got pregnant, as recommended by my OB/GYN. And I certainly didn’t want to inject it into my child.  I had chicken pox as a child. In fact, like a lot of kids in the 70’s, I went with my brothers to a chicken pox party at my cousin’s house.  None of us got it that badly. A couple of scabs fell off early and left some scars, but I skinned my knee worse falling off my bike. As far as rubella is concerned, it isn’t really dangerous for kids, just for pregnant women.  If we are being asked to protect the ‘herd’ by vaccinating, then why can’t we ask children who have contracted rubella to stay home and away from pregnant women to protect ‘the herd’?

In short, I acknowledge how serious some of these disease can be, especially in a very young infant.  All the more reason to breast feed and pass on your antibodies from the childhood diseases you acquired and are now protected from for life.  Your baby will be protected for as long as you nurse.  This is another reason I am still nursing (and being judged once again) my unvaccinated 19 month old.  I am not an irresponsible mother, nor am I a parasite. I have read and discussed and thought about the benefits and consequences of vaccinating and not vaccinating. For our family it made sense to opt out. I don’t take my child’s health lightly.  So don’t worry, I will quarantine my child should he come down with something. I will stay home and take care of him, like any good mom would. But if vaccines really work, then it really wouldn’t matter.