I've been thinking about this for a while, but actually am doing it right now because a friend who's a doctor posted this link on Facebook about how doctors feel that parents who don't want to vaccinate their children don't trust them. I typed up a pretty long response and then I thought, "I always do this and this poor lady is probably tired of hearing about it. But I want to get it off my chest and have a chance for people to read it - if they're interested.
So here's my response, for what it's worth. Also, our children are not really named Lenny and Linus. We are not that cool.
"I actually struggle with this. I want
to go to doctors that I trust, but my experiences have taught me that
how they view medical research and the medical establishment can make
a big difference. Here's an example that doesn't involve vaccines:
When I was pregnant with Lenny I wanted to decide if we should
circumcise him. The AAP recommendation at that time was basically
against, but I couldn't find anything online that seemed like actual
evidence in either direction. I went to the library and found a book
by a doctor who was on the board that made the recommendation. He
was the dissenting opinion though. He had a whole list of factors
which in his opinion combined to make it a good idea. On it's own
any one of them might not have been enough, but when you put them
together it seemed like a pretty good idea to me.
When we met the pediatrician we used
for Lenny the first time I asked him is opinion of circs. He said
they were purely cosmetic. I said I had been doing some reading
and....He said "Anyone can write down an opinion...." or
something dismissive like that and then said, "If your husband
was hit over the head with a rock would you do the same to your
baby?"
We went ahead and had the procedure. I
never actually saw that doctor again because it was a big practice
and he was the head doctor - we would probably have had to
specifically request him. We saw another doctor who really listened
and never made me feel like I was a threat to her because I read or
had questions about "best practices." But we also often
saw a nurse practitioner who gave us a hard time about delaying
vaccines and other choices like co-sleeping. They also made me bring
Lenny in for extra weighings because he didn't gain between two
appointments - when he was over a year old."
What I didn't get around to saying is that now the AAP has reversed its position on circumcision. Now it's a good thing. And what I had been reading about is probably part of the reason. Also, I was thinking of saying that I get that vaccines are a much bigger deal than circumcision because of the threat of spreading diseases. But the point is that a doctor who doesn't listen to my concerns, who won't discuss the research with me or who jumps to conclusions about where I'm coming from is going to be hard for me to trust. Also, I like it better when people talk about the body of evidence and don't act like we can "prove" that something is completely safe.
Also, we eventually stopped going to that office - after the doctor we really liked left. We are now going to a doctor who is fine with us using a modified vaccine schedule and is actually helping us do that (we had to take Lenny to the Health Department, but thankfully we can bring Linus into the office, which is much easier.)
Then I wrote this on her actual link: The
one question I have about this is, what about reactions kids have to
vaccines? I know personally of a child who had a life-threatening
reaction to a vaccine. Also a medically fragile baby who had seizures
after two different vaccines - his neurologist said he shouldn't have
any more flu vaccines. There must be risks to the general population
because the literature they give you at the doctor's office tells signs
to watch for and when to contact doctors. I get that vaccines are
important, but I would have trouble trusting a doctor who claimed that
there were absolutely no risks involved. Better to say, "The risk from
vaccines is much smaller than the risk from the diseases."
Also, as a parting shot, I read this article recently about how the whooping cough vaccine currently in use may not be as effective as previously thought. People are busy blaming non-vaccinators for the resurgence, but it could be the vaccine, which was changed because parents objected to the high fevers and seizures kids were having. Which makes me think that we should spend less time blaming.
