I'm not a "shoulding" kind of parent. I'm not the mom who wades into online discussion boards telling other moms what their kids should be eating or espousing the virtues of one particular method of sleep training or taking sides in the neverending debate over breast versus bottle.
I just don't believe there's one "right" way to parent, and I don't believe it's up to me - or anybody else - to tell another parent what to do. Which is why I've always stayed out of the vaccination debate.
But I've come to the conclusion I've been wrong to stay silent.
Here's the thing: Vaccination is different than just about any other parenting issue. Because your decision to vaccinate or not vaccinate your child doesn't just affect the health of your family.
It affects all of us.
So, as I read yet another headline about measles - well, I just can't sit back and not comment on the fact that so many parents are choosing not to vaccinate their children for so many questionable reasons.
It's just plain wrong.
Now, before you pounce, I do believe there are a few - a very few - legitimate reasons to not immunize your children.
There are people for whom it is a real religious issue. Although I disagree, I believe in respecting decisions made from a genuine position of faith.
Then there are those who may simply be too vulnerable to be exposed to a live vaccine such as the one for measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) - those with cancer, HIV or blood disorders, for instance. And, of course, there is the extremely rare but genuine case where someone has a known life-threatening allergy to a vaccine ingredient.
Those people have legitimate reasons to delay or refuse vaccination.
The rest of us don't.
And it's incumbent upon us to protect everybody else.
Sure, I could say, what do I care? My kid's protected, I don't need to care about anyone else's.
But that's not how society works - not if we want to keep everyone healthy and keep at bay diseases that have no business even existing in today's society.
I'm talking things like measles, polio, diphtheria - diseases that used to cause serious illness and long-term consequences, and that used to claim young lives as a regular occurrence.
Part of the problem is, I think, that those of us who are of middle age or younger have never lived in an era where any of these diseases were real. We just don't get how scary these diseases are.
So it's far too easy to get caught up in the crusade against vaccination.
It makes me crazy.
Because there is simply not one shred of credible medical evidence against vaccination, and masses of it in favour.
Don't take my word for it. There's a wealth of information out there about vaccination. So read away. But please, arm yourself with genuine information. Don't confuse a well-intentioned blog post from a so-called "natural living" parent with actual scientific fact.
Here's a few things you'll read in those sorts of blogs.
First big argument? "Vaccinated kids are sicker than non-vaccinated kids, and I know because I never vaccinated my kids and they're never sick."
Big deal. My vaccinated 20-month-old never gets sick, either. It means nothing without an actual scientific study.
Second big argument? "What's the point of vaccinating? Kids are supposed to get measles and chicken pox."
It's just a ridiculous argument. Why should we let our kids get sick unnecessarily? And why should we accept the risks that come along with these diseases - some of which are very serious indeed?
Ah, but that's where the third big argument comes in, of course - which is to say, "Vaccines are worse than the diseases they're supposed to prevent."
What makes me nuts is the fact that all the hullabaloo over the so-called danger of vaccinations centres around things that are so easily proven to be false.
That whole autism thing? Right. One study in 1998 raised the question of a link between autism and MMR, and that study has since been soundly debunked.
Then there's the whole mercury scare - which stems from the fact that some vaccines contain thiomersal, a preservative derived from ethyl mercury. But the fact is, for more than a decade, no Canadian vaccine used routinely for kids (except the flu shot) has contained thiomersal.
I could go on, and on, and on. But for any scientific fact or study I quote, there will be someone with a theory about a massive conspiracy involving governments and Big Pharma that suggests that somehow, every medical organization in the world full of highly trained, highly educated, highly skilled individuals that says vaccines are safe and effective has been brainwashed or bought off by the drug companies.
The thought is so ludicrous that it would make me laugh if it weren't so sad.
I'll stop trying to convince you if you don't agree with me.
But I'm going to continue to believe the World Health Organization, and Health Canada, and the Canadian Pediatric Society, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the American Academy of Pediatrics, and ...
Well, never mind.
If you don't believe them, you certainly won't believe me.
But it won't change the fact that I'm coming out on this one.
I'm a vaxxer, and you should be too.
Julie MacLellan is the assistant editor of the Burnaby NOW. Read more on this issue (including links to sources of information) at her blog.
