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Went through this with my son and daughter. My pediatrician explained this to me - the problem is the drug companies. The maker of the individual vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella, only offer it in 6 packs (it was either 6 or 12 packs) for purchase. Of course, vaccines are dated so if they do not have 6 parents that want their children to get 3 separate shots, it's a huge financial loss for a pediatrician to absorb. Most parents care about the immediate pain, plus there has been absolutely no research that has ever said mmr causes autism/other learning/developmental disorders (I know...the courts recently ruled that there was good probable cause that the mmr caused autism in one isolated case where the girl had a rare genetic disorder). I'm not making a case for vaccines. But rather I simply delayed a good chunk of my son and daughter's vaccinations. My pediatrician told me the only reason there are so many shots in the first 18 months is because that is when most parents consistently bring their children to the doctor. I definitely delayed the mmr until 3, well passed the age where autism symptoms have started to show. Additionally, my kids haven't received the hep. vaccine yet and I won't let them take the flu vaccine - to my current knowledge they still use thimerasol in both and it's the mercury in thimerasol that has been speculated to cause developmental delays.
The reason people want them separated is that there was one study - later discredited - that pointed to mmr as the cause of autism. and if you separate them it decreases the chances. You can easily google the vaccination debate and you'll see this one study quoted over and over and over again - you gotta remember - anyone can write these webpages.
My son does have some developmental delays and I have done a ton of research and there's a few things I'm convinced of - diet is a huge factor. If you're ever bored, check out how many more additives our kids are intaking in one year than our parents did in their whole life, food coloring dyes, preservatives, chemicals the list goes on and on. We have seen a huge improvement in my son's behavior since we started my son on Omega 3 (go to bbc's website and you can see what Britain's schools are doing with omega 3), had his adenoids out (adenoids were affecting his sleep), and I pay so much more attention to the food labels. He's not thrilled about the Omega but manages to gulp it down in his morning apple juice. So many kids with adhd they say actually have sleep disorders (which I personally wonder if it's the amount of tv they watch and if it's messing with their brain development - over stimulating them). Also, look at lead levels in kids - our acceptable level of lead is far above other nations and my son's lead levels in his 2 year old blood test came just slightly under the united states acceptable level - and we lived in a house that was only 5 years old, so you can't blame it on the paint. Just my opinion as a well researched parent - it's not the vaccines, but I don't see any harm in delaying them rather than take a chance.
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