The New York Times reports that 1 in 4 parents link autism to vaccines inspite of the consistent scientific evidence that there is no such link.  Autism diagnoses are up radically in the last 30 years and it's reasonable for parents to want to know the cause of this increase.  Because of the timing of vaccination and the timing of autism diagnoses (and often onset), it was a reasonable hypothesis that the two are related.

There's just no science to support it. 

In fact, the study that started the anti-vaccination movement has been thoroughly discredited. 

Autism is a rough road. I'm lucky that I'm not on it so I cannot speak to how rough it actually is. I was impressed by the writing of autistic adults who emphasize that just because they are different does not mean anything except that they bring different perspective to society.  And interventions to help autistic children interact with society have some amazing results.  But it's still a rough road.

To be clear, blindness, deafness, cardiovascular disease, encephalitis, meningitis are also really rough roads some of which can lead to death.  All are potential impacts from contracting a disease that is preventable through vaccinations. And not being vaccinated increases the public health risk for all of us.

As parents, we have to balance different risks. Our instinct to protect our children is wonderful, but sometimes very uninformed.  Newsweek published a long article on the many benefits of vaccines in December - it's worth a read.  There are arguments that vaccines are big-pharma making a lot of money.  I guess that's possible, but the public health benefit has been tremendous.  Vaccines and hygeine have saved millions of children.

There are a lot of potential causes for autism.  I hope we research as many as we can to help parents prevent exposure if it's a preventable thing.  The first step in good research is letting go of the theories that didn't pan out so you can put resources at finding a more viable answer.

My children are vaccinated and we also did H1N1 flu vaccines this year because we estimated it was a better risk after researching the science and talking with our doctors. 

What do you think about the continual emphasis on the autism:vaccine link?

Update on Tuesday, March 9, 2010 at 2:34PM by Joelle - a Practical Parent

I applaud Allison's passion - and there are articles about the Homefirst medical practice and the Amish community stating that they have no incidence of autism.  The issue is establishing causality - and making a very dangerous conclusion - since vaccines prevent life-threatening diseases that have ravaged society in the past.

Homefirst and the Amish have other differences with the general population beyond vaccination.  I don't know that any of them are causal either. 

That said, a reader on MotherJones (a very progressive publication) did share a lot of studies that aggressively looked for links between the vaccines, thimerisal and autism - and didn't find any.  Another reader pointed out that the rise in autism corresponds to the rise in nutrasweet.  I'm sure other people can suggest other correlations.  The vaccine correlation has been studied extensively and never found statistically relevant.  The power of vaccines for prevention of serious disease is proven.

Here are the studies (from ttamiesor on MotherJones):

From http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/113/5/e472
"Review of 2 major textbooks on autism and of papers published between 1961 and 2003 yields convincing evidence for multiple interacting genetic factors as the main causative determinants of autism.” “These studies fail to confirm that immunizations with the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine are responsible for the surge in autism."

From http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16818529?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel.Pubmed_Discovery_RA&linkpos=2&log$=relatedarticles&logdbfrom=pubmed
"A statistically significant linear increase in pervasive developmental disorder prevalence was noted during the study period. The prevalence of pervasive developmental disorder in thimerosal-free birth cohorts was significantly higher than that in thimerosal-exposed cohorts (82.7 of 10000 vs 59.5 of 10000). Using logistic regression models of the prevalence data, we found no significant effect of thimerosal exposure used either as a continuous or a categorical variable. Thus, thimerosal exposure was unrelated to the increasing trend in pervasive developmental disorder prevalence”

From Journal of the American Medical Association
http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/290/13/1763
"During 2,986,654 person-years, we identified 440 autism cases and 787 cases of other autistic-spectrum disorders. The risk of autism and other autistic-spectrum disorders did not differ significantly between children vaccinated with thimerosal-containing vaccine and children vaccinated with thimerosal-free vaccine.” “Conclusion The results do not support a causal relationship between childhood vaccination with thimerosal-containing vaccines and development of autistic-spectrum disorders."

From:
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/119919937/abstract?CRETRY=1&S...
"There is no support for the hypothesis for a role of either MMR or thimerosal in causation, but the evidence on the latter is more limited."

From
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T1B-4D974DV-1...
"Findings: 1294 cases and 4469 controls were included. 1010 cases (78•1%) had MMR vaccination recorded before diagnosis, compared with 3671 controls (82•1%) before the age at which their matched case was diagnosed. After adjustment for age at joining the database, the odds ratio for association between MMR and pervasive developmental disorder was 0•86 (95% CI 0•68–1•09). Findings were similar when restricted to children with a diagnosis of autism, to those vaccinated with MMR before the third birthday, or to the period before media coverage of the hypothesis linking MMR with autism. Interpretation: Our findings suggest that MMR vaccination is not associated with an increased risk of pervasive developmental disorders."

From
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T1B-4D974DV-1...
“Conclusions: The significance of this finding is that MMR vaccination is most unlikely to be a main cause of ASD, that it cannot explain the rise over time in the incidence of ASD, and that withdrawal of MMR in countries where it is still being used cannot be expected to lead to a reduction in the incidence of ASD.”

ttamiesor says s/he went through 30 abstracts, and found zero to support the theory the MMR and/or thimerosol shots had any statistically significant relationship to autism.

Again - it's about risk management - and looking for the research rather than opinions.

 

 

No one wants their kids to be fat, diabetic or forever on a diet.  And somehow, according to the CDC, between 12 - 17% of children are obese. Without obsessing, I definitely try to make good choices and teach the children to do so as well.

Obesity is a serious health concern for children and adolescents. Data from NHANES surveys (1976–1980 and 2003–2006) show that the prevalence of obesity has increased: for children aged 2–5 years, prevalence increased from 5.0% to 12.4%; for those aged 6–11 years, prevalence increased from 6.5% to 17.0%; and for those aged 12–19 years, prevalence increased from 5.0% to 17.6%.^{1, 46}

While it would be great to eat all locally grown, farm fresh, homemade, well balanced meals three times a day (or six if you are eating smaller meals), life gets in the way of all that effort. According to CSPI, a renowned (or notorious) public health advocate, there are ten foods that really should be avoided.  Take the poll - how many do you regularly offer your children?

CSPI offers a top ten best foods too.

10 of the Best Children's Foods 

• Fresh fruits and vegetables (especially carrot sticks, cantaloupe, oranges, watermelon, strawberries)
• Chicken breast and drumstick without skin or breading
• Cheerios, Wheaties, or other whole-grain, low-sugar cereals
• Skim or 1 percent milk
• Extra-lean ground beef or vegetarian burgers (Gardenburgers or Green Giant Harvest Burgers)
• Low-fat hot dogs (Yves Veggie Cuisine Fat-Free weiners or Lightlife Fat-Free Smart Dogs)
• Non-fat ice cream or frozen yogurt
• Fat-free corn chips or potato chips
• Seasoned air-popped popcorn
• Whole wheat crackers or Small World Animal Crackers

So I feel a little relieved since we basically avoid most of the bad foods and tend to eat the good ones. We do eat hot dogs - but only kosher and those are apparently better.  We don't eat soda and very little juice. The children like chocolate and we avoid sticky candy except in rare situations. How do you keep your head straight about what's good and bad and teach your children to make good choices?

For the last 10 years or so, I've been on a personal crusade against High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS).  Recently, I added soy products to my list of scary stuff.  And today, I learned that Agave Nectar is just as bad as HFCS. Turns out, my husband's desire for us to have a kosher home (compliant with the Jewish Dietary Laws) is inadvertently protecting my family from a lot of bad "food products".

The problems with HCFS and Agave Nectar

One of the major health concerns for my family as for the country is obesity. Among our extended family, there are lots of people who fight this battle and we'd like to help our kids avoid becoming soldiers in that war. One of the major drivers of obesity is an "addiction" to sweet. I find myself craving sweet flavors - Panda's Sweet Fire Chicken, Dark Chocolate, Tropicana Orange Juice.  At least two of the three only use natural sugars.  And while I'm sure it would benefit me to reduce total sugars to 5% of my daily calories, the very fact that most of my family's sugar intake comes from natural, unprocessed sugars versus manufactured sugars and sweeteners is inadvertently biologically beneficial in the effort to give my children a great opportunity to have healthy bodies throughout their lives.

The Weston A Price Foundation, a non-profit committed to healthy foods, did a comprehensive analysis of the chemical differences between natural sugars. From their April 30, 2009 post:

Sugar is a disaccharide that breaks down into two monosaccharides—glucose and fructose—in the intestinal tract. After absorption, fructose must pass through the liver. Small amounts of fructose added to glucose in the diet increase the production of glycogen (stored sugar) and reduce the release of glucose into the bloodstream, an outcome that is theoretically helpful to those suffering from type 2 diabetes. However, large amounts of fructose in the diet rapidly turn into fatty acids—a process called “de novo lipogenesis”—which are then stored as fat or released into the bloodstream as triglycerides....

...Glucose enters the cells through the action of insulin; fructose enters the cells through the action of something called a Glut-5 transporter, which does not depend on insulin. This transporter is absent from pancreatic B-cells and the brain, which indicates limited entry of fructose into these tissues. Glucose provides “satiety” signals to the brain that fructose cannot provide because it is not transported into the brain.

And guess what HFCS and Agave Nectar are made of -

...the fructose in HFCS is free, unbound fructose, which is not the same as the fructose in fruit, which is bound to other sugars, and is part of a complex that includes fiber, fatty acids, vitamins and minerals...the fructose in HFCS is therefore not recognized in the human Krebs cycle for primary conversion to blood glucose in any significant quantity, and therefore cannot be used for energy utilization.¹³ Instead, these refined fructose sweeteners are primarily converted into triglycerides and adipose tissue (body fat).

This is bad stuff. For a lot of foods, it's the first or second ingredient.

• Sodas and fruit juices.
• It's in children's yogurt.
• It's in tomato sauce. 
• Most ketchcup is made of the stuff. 
• So is most "maple syrup" - unless its real maple syrup. 
• It's in salad dressing (just when you thought you were eating the right stuff).
• It's in breakfast bars.
• Obviously - it's in candy.

In fact, it's hard to buy stuff without this in it.  And you should hear our pediatric dentist rant and rave about the impact of this stuff on kids' teeth.

Because we have a kosher home, there is a lot of processed food I simply cannot buy. We have to cook it. And because I won't permit HCFS in the house, we have to cook our treats or eat chocolate (the torture). Most organic products use sugar (hopefully unrefined). Apparently, our shopping habits align with Food Rules - a new book by Michael Pollan of the Omnivore's Dilemma.

We don't adhere to all the Food Rules - and I know we should - but we adhere to some of them. It is somewhat marvelous that a 5700 year old set of food rules protects my family from 21st century health risks.  What food rules do you observe in your home? Where did they come from?

Mom 1: And you are okay with them getting the live virus in the nasal spray, rather than the dead virus in the shot?

Mom 2: While at the pediatrician to have my daughter's high fever checked out last week, we let my 4-year-old son get the h1n1 spray. Now she's back to normal and he's got a fever, so whatever they had/have was probably not covered by this year's flu shot (which they both got) or the h1n1. And neither my husband nor I are sick at all, which is one good thing.

Mom 1: I understand that it takes 2 weeks for the immunization to take effect, so maybe that's why your son still got it? Also, since H1N1 made the rounds in the 70s, many of us born before abt 1976 had it then and are immune. That's why it's hitting ages 1-25 so hard.

Mom 3: Joelle have you checked out all of the possible eddects of the H1N1 vaccine (either nasal or shot). Not always good to get the 1st round of something that has not been tested thoroughly. My kids & myself have had flu mist but I do not think we are getting vaccinated for H1N1. It's not even available here yet anyway. Making them wear masks in the airport next Thursday when we go to NC to visit our eldest.

Me: Wow - this was quite the dialogue - sorry I was offline for a lot of it. To start with - I have a lot of trust in my pediatrician. He's been with us since Benjamin was born and when Jammer was hospitalized at 7 weeks with a fever, he was terrific. He is very research oriented and isn't alarmist in his nature. So, what he said was that the CDC recommends the H1N1 vaccine because the probability of an issue with the H1N1 vaccine is lower than the probability of an issue with the H1N1 flu. So - Mom 1 - I am alright with the live virus if that's what works best for the vaccine. I'm not a scientist, nor a member of the CDC - and my doctor has earned my trust on this. As for the masks - H1N1 is mostly transmitted hand to hand to mouth. I'm not sure what the masks do in comparison to handwashing/gloves. But every parent should do what makes you feel safe for your kids.

Walking into lego camp, the first thing the counselors did was ask my son to spritz his hands with a hand sanitizer because there are campers with food allergies and we have to be careful. No doubt – I don’t want to risk any child’s health. That said, I asked that my son be told to wash his hands in the bathroom to prevent contamination because santizers are bad for you. Obviously – if there is no running water, by all means, use an anti-bacterial gel or foam (but if their hands dry within 10-15 seconds...you need to use more).

But for allergies – that’s not going to help – anti-bacterial hand santizers apparently do not effectively remove peanut butter residue from hands (from the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology - search the link for anti-bacterial to see the excerpt). So – if you want to protect nut-allergic kids from reactions – take children to a sink and teach them to really wash their hands with liquid or bar soap. As a last resort, use an anti-bacterial wipe – but only, in my opinion, if there is no sink and soap available. Use as a last resort

Hospitals use alcohol-based anti-bacterial foams because the alcohol kills very nasty bacteria that lurk in hospitals – but not in the classrooms or homes (unless you are caring for someone who was recently hospitalized). And even the medical professionals who are recommended to use these anti-bacterial products are recommended to wash hands if there is any visible contaminant.

Germophobia can be worse than a cold. Obviously, anyone with suppressed immune systems or severe allergies must take significant preventative action. The rest of us are creating more problems than we solve with overuse of these products. The single biggest contributor to radical improvements in public health is not penicillin – its sanitation, hygiene and cheap soap – aka, plumbing and washing hands. Cool history of hygiene here.

We don’t buy anti-bacterial anything except when it’s a prescription from a doctor. We don’t want to contribute to the development of super-bugs – anti-biotic resistant bacteria that the CDC warned about in 2001  - and we don’t have anyone with severe immune suppression in our home. Super-bugs really scare me – a lot more than a cold. And we don’t want to give our kids allergy sensitivies (so far, luckily for me, they have none) by eliminating allergens from their environment. In 2004, the Journal of the American Medical Association “found that the 184 children in the group exposed to two or more dogs or cats in infancy were half as likely to develop common allergies than the 220 children who had no pets in the home.” 

Another justification for our dog.

Today at camp, they asked the kids if they’d like to go wash their hands or be spritzed.  That’s an improvement. My son knows that washing hands is what he’s supposed to do and did it. Please don’t sanitize my kids with anything other than basic soap and water!