After years of putting it off, I finally decided to share my story as an autism momma. Thank you for your kind comments and encouragement- it means the world to me. If this is your first time reading, start here. I’d love to hear more from you, email me.
…..the day the diagnosis came, I knew it would forever change my family. I really really really hoped that we could make ours as normal as possible. But I wasn’t naive in thinking that we would be able to be like everyone else.
And as we went to the doctor for our daughter, I knew that we would have to approach things differently. Because of our circumstances, I knew that we did not want to vaccinate her.
At J’s one year check up I had had an in depth conversation with our pediatrician. At the time, my aunt had talked to me about a special on Dateline regarding vaccines and autism. It scared me and I decided that at J’s next appointment I would ask the tough questions. So I did. Our pediatrician reassured me that there was no correlation whatsoever. My last question to her was, “If it was your child, what would you do? Would you vaccinate?” And her reply was “Yes.” JJ got all his shots up to two years old.
Fast forward to a couple of years later when one day we went to a different pediatrician than usual. He wasn’t very welcoming right off the bat. Horrible bedside manner. I told him that we would not be vaccinating our little girl (as I had told other doctors in the past). He became argumentative. I suggested that ‘Because we have J, who has autism, I didn’t want to risk it for Julia.’ He laughed at me and said, ‘Why would that make a bit of difference?’ I was shocked. ‘Well they are related and it’s not worth it to me to chance it.’ Again he came back at me, ‘That doesn’t matter. She still needs to be vaccinated.’ He pushed me to the point that I finally blurted out, ‘What you’re saying is- there is no relation between the two of them? She might as well be a stranger off the streets?’ ‘Yes, that’s what I’m suggesting,” was his reply. I was furious. Not only was he condescending but he wasn’t even open to the idea of doing things a different way. That day I had to forcefully deny all vaccines for her.
I realize that to vaccinate or not is a really really hot topic. I was going to flat out avoid bringing this up here. But it is a part of our story and I feel very passionately about not vaccinating my children. But that doesn’t mean that I expect everyone to feel the same. There are autism moms that believe without a doubt, that vaccines cause autism. There are autism moms that think there is no relation whatsoever. My opinions lie somewhere in between.
The thing is, after experiencing what I’ve experienced, in my heart I knew what I should do for my children.
I know without a doubt there are people on the other side of this. Moms that have lost children because of horrible diseases. I don’t want to make light of that for one moment.
Both sides have and could again here, be heavily argued.
I would love it if each person was respected for making the right decision for them and for their family. Just like I could never fully understand losing a child, someone who has not experienced autism in their life the way I have couldn’t possibly understand my point of view.
Obviously I’m just one silly girl with a blog and don’t expect for both sides to come to a truce.
But is it too much to ask…..can’t we all just get along? .………