Tenar i did extensive research in DD's first year and i'm afraid to tell you i found the only way to get to a decision which i felt was solid enough WAS to read the journal articles and use the internet to learn about any and every detail necessary until i had an understanding i could rely on. It's all very well to freak out about monkey kidney cells in a vaccine solution, but finiding out WHY they use the substance is important, and i would agree with Trillian and Schmickers that reading both sides IS the only way to come to a clear conclusion.

There are as many reasons to vaccinate as not to, and where the weight of the arguments of both sides lies is very individual. My child is fully vaccinated and there are ASD's in my family. My dad has aspergers, both his siblings are on the sprectrum, their father was too.

This is a difficult rationale for some people, i know. The US case indicates that some children (1 so far has been conclusively identified, but several others are under investigation and testing) have metabolic disorders which display ASD-like symptoms which CAN be exacerbated by some of the routine vaccines on offer. My father was NOT vaccinated as a child with the modern vaccines. His father was not vaccinated at all. His father's great uncle, institutionalised at 15 for being "mentally retarded with criminal inclinations" was undoubtedly autistic in some way and was certainly not vaccinated nor exposed to any of the modern chemicals or fertilisers our generation have been. The gene is there in my family and not vaccinating in the past HAS NOT prevented it from coming out. We have lost many of our number through the generations to polio, measles, smallpox. We have lost none to ASD's. It would also be very difficult for me to rationalise not vaxing my kids in order to potentially stop them being like my dad, a man who i love with all my heart *just* the way he is.

It's an incredibly difficult and personal decision. My dad jokes that i was scientific in my approach and that any kid i have is probably going to be on the spectrum anyway, because their mum is (i have some traits, but not a diagnosible condition), and their granddad is. Perhaps we as a family are meant to be this way? Perhaps any autism brought on by my choosing to vax was inevitable because my approach to the decision-making process being a hard, statistically based one was both a symptom of the gene and the reason it would be triggered?

I don't know.

But i have good and bad news for you. The good news is that my XP had chicken pox as an adult and though it was deeply unpleasant he survived. The bad news is that the varicella vaccine is the least effective vaccine in mainstream use, it's failure rate is so high i'm not getting it for DD, i'm going to take her to a pox party instead.

Best of luck with your journey and decisions. PM me if you want more info.

Bec