I love attachment parenting, I don't believe in forcing gender stereotypes, I love exposing my kids to culturally different things, and believe in my right as their parent to parent them as I choose. I believe their education is my responsibility first. I love essential oils and home remedies. I support home birth and natural life. As much as the neo-hippe crunchy Mom thing is cool to me, I wear a bra, buy crackers, and I also had my kids vaccinated.
The debate on vaccination gets heated and there's lot of "research" opportunities on the subject. *coughgooglecough* However when doing research for yourself here are some things to consider and understand:
*Studies have shown: I hate this statement. It can be incredibly misleading. First, anyone can say that. Second, they need to show proof of the study. Third, they need to tell you clearly what kind of study it was.
Clinical study or clinical trial: Clinical trials often involve healthy subjects with no pre-existing medical conditions but sometimes pertain to patients with specific health conditions who seek otherwise unavailable treatments. In early phases, participants are healthy volunteers who receive financial incentives. During dosing periods, study subjects typically remain under supervision for one to 40 nights.
Observational Study: In epidemiology and statistics, an observational study draws inferences about the possible effect of a treatment on subjects, where the assignment of subjects into a treated group versus a control group is outside the control of the investigator This is in contrast with experiments, such as randomized controlled trials, where each subject is randomly assigned to a treated group or a control group.
Experiment: An experiment is an orderly procedure carried out with the goal of verifying, refuting, or establishing the validity of a hypothesis. Controlled experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when a particular factor is manipulated. Controlled experiments vary greatly in their goal and scale, but always rely on repeatable procedure and logical analysis of the results. There also exist natural experimental studies.
Case Study: In the social sciences and life sciences, a case study (or case report) is a research method involving a detailed investigation of a single individual or a single organized group, used extensively in clinical psychology and also, though less often, in other branches of the discipline. Case studies may be prospective (in which criteria are established and cases fitting the criteria are included as they become available) or retrospective (in which criteria are established for selecting cases from historical records for inclusion in the study). Also on Case report: In medicine, a case report is a detailed report of the symptoms, signs, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of an individual patient. Case reports may contain a demographic profile of the patient, but usually describe an unusual or novel occurrence. Some case reports also contain a literature review of other reported cases.
Pilot Experiment: A pilot study, pilot project or pilot experiment is a small scale preliminary study conducted in order to evaluate feasibility, time, cost, adverse events, and effect size (statistical variability) in an attempt to predict an appropriate sample size and improve upon the study design prior to performance of a full-scale research project. Pilot studies, therefore, may not be appropriate for case studies.
When doing research on anything about your child's health understanding these terms is critical. Any Tom, Dick, or Harry can tell you "studies say this" and even provide you with a weblink to the study. But if it was an conducted in a way that drew a correlated leap based on an inference that may not be fact, then the study is not reputable the same way a case study or clinical trial may be. Also, you need to make sure that the people involved in conducting the study are doing so ethically. See Wakefeild. Somethings you can't tell immediately but if you look for things that have been scrutinized heavily, you're going to have better luck.
ALL OF THIS IS BORING!!! Umm, yes. It is. Fact checking and finding out information is not as simple as the "google search blog said so", "I read the terrifying ingredient list and I KNOW those are harmful chemicals! Look at their scary names!!" This is the less passionate but necessary part that many people skip. Yes, that was condescending of me to make light of how I feel people react when reading things from the anti-vax movement. What you should also understand is that I reacted: EXACTLY like that. I read the ingredient list, I heard about thermisol, I read the accounts from parents. It was terrifying. You have to peel that away.
I decided if I was going to make this choice I needed to read both sides of the argument. I then looked at pro-vax and anti-vax information. I looked where they came from and I decided what I felt I could trust. Here's one link below:
Anecdotal evidence: The expression anecdotal evidence refers to evidence from anecdotes. Because of the small sample, there is a larger chance that it may be unreliable due to cherry-picked or otherwise non-representative samples of typical cases.Anecdotal evidence is considered dubious support of a generalized claim; it is, however, perfectly acceptable for claims regarding a particular instance. Anecdotal evidence is no more than a type description (i.e., short narrative), and is often confused in discussions with its weight, or other considerations, as to the purpose(s) for which it is used. This is true regardless of the veracity of individual claims.
The term is often used in contrast to scientific evidence, such as evidence-based medicine, which are types of formal accounts. Some anecdotal evidence does not qualify as scientific evidence because its nature prevents it from being investigated using the scientific method. Misuse of anecdotal evidence is an informal fallacy and is sometimes referred to as the "person who" fallacy ("I know a person who..."; "I know of a case where..." etc. Compare with hasty generalization). Anecdotal evidence is not necessarily representative of a "typical" experience; in fact, human cognitive biases such as confirmation bias mean that exceptional or confirmatory anecdotes are much more likely to be remembered. Accurate determination of whether an anecdote is "typical" requires statistical evidence.
The term is sometimes used in a legal context to describe certain kinds of testimony.
WOW THAT WAS A LOT!
Here's why this is also important to understand. Another part of the anti-vax movement is personal testimony from those who have had bad experiences and feel the cause is vaccination.
You want to trust your friend (read: internet stranger).
Something bad happens to your friend.
They decide who they blame.
They tell you about it.
You empathize, you agree.
Your friend is ethically intertwined with the issue.
This makes it difficult for them to be impartial.
Vaccines are bad. For everyone. .... wait what?
See, the personal testimony isn't necessarily untrue. When I tell someone the things that happen to me, I'm telling them how they happened as I saw it. My perception maybe wrong but it's truth to me. The correlation and cause I draw from my experiences are mine. It doesn't mean everyone should trust me or that everyone's experience will be akin to mine. This is why anecdotal evidence is dangerous when talking about the health of our kids.
Wait there's more:
Correlation does not equate causation. For the love of GOD!
Anti-vaxers aren't bad parents
I was just like that. I wanted to protect my children, I don't immediately trust the government and I want my children safe. I feel for the tactics of the anti-vax movement. It can sound so convincing and so easily play on my fear and empathy for others. However, when it boiled down to it, I didn't feel it held up. This is for every person to decide but I feel like these are things worth mentioning and discussing.
All definitions provided here were from Wikipedia other sources are found within the post. Image provided by reddit.com via google search.