(Jeffrey P. Baker MD, PhD)Do we risk not vaccinating our children because there may be a link between childhood vaccinations and autism? One British doctor thinks he has established a link between the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine and children that develop autism. American physicians are not convinced of this idea and think the risk of not vaccinating our children is a greater risk. Parents of autistic children have begun believing this theory and the number of parent’s not getting their children vaccinated is increasing. Also increasing is the number of whooping cough and measles cases.
I believe more research is needed and as some doctor’s have suggested maybe we should separate the MMR into three vaccines given at different times and study this long term compared to the number of children developing autism. I believe that the rise in autism cases could be that more are just diagnosed than in the past or it could be the change in our diets over the last 30 years to high fat and processed foods, that even young children experience.
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