Last night, while chatting with the hubs and sister-in-law, and then while perusing the 2010 Ikea catalog (many earmarks were made, let me tell you) – I half-watched the Dateline special called “A Dose of Controversy” about vaccinations, autism, and the he-said she-said war of who’s right.

A statement given by the American Academy of Pediatrics to Dateline pretty much sums up why I WILL be vaccinating my child. Specifically:

While it is likely that there are many environmental factors that influence the development of autism, vaccines are not the cause of autism. We know this because many careful and repeated studies show no link between vaccines and autism. Specifically, numerous studies have refuted Andrew Wakefield’s theory that MMR vaccine is linked to bowel disorders and autism. Every aspect of Dr. Wakefield’s theory has been disproven.

Don’t get me wrong, I am concerned about Autism and the possibility of my child developing it. However, it’s sounding more and more like a genetic defect (which one study says possibly develops sometime in the 2nd trimester) and at this point, may be unavoidable. In the meantime, since almost all studies show that there is NO LINK between childhood vaccines and Autism, I will have my kids vaccinated. It’s more important now than ever to have your kids vaccinated since so many parents are NOT vaccinating their children, exposing EVERYONE to the possibility of any number of diseases and infections that haven’t been widespread for years, like whooping cough and measles.

It’s a very sensitive subject with parents, and one I would probably leave on the shelf among strangers (like religion and politics) because people’s mind’s are usually pretty made up on the topic. I will not try to convince someone otherwise if they choose to not vaccinate. I WILL protect my child from those people’s children by vaccinating them.

In less controversial news, I’d like to give a shout out to my sciatic nerve for ruining my day.