Autism and vaccines?

[chispa]

My son is 2 and is getting his shots tomorrow!  I have been asking the peds to separate the shots and have decided to opt out of a few.  There is so much info on both subject ...safety of vaccines and their links to autism.  What is a mom to do?

[nhockaday]

I know exactly how you feel. I have doubts and concerns too. There are books on the subjects, but I feel that they are biased. There are definately good reasons to get all the vaccines, but then it is scary to think they may hurt your child. I think you are doing the right thing by getting them more spaced out and skipping some. I'm doing the same thing. I think some are totally unnecessary, and they definately don't need to be given all at once! There is a doctor around here who supports parents that don't want to do all the shots. I haven't called yet, but I think that's great b/c so many doctors try to pressure parents into getting all of the shots.

One thing to think about is children don't have to have the shots to go to public school (in America). There is no law saying your kids must be vaccinated. There are forms that you can fill out to be exempt, mostly for religious reasons. But if you plan on sending them to camp or certain recreation programs, then they will probably have to have up to date shots. It is just very difficult to convince your doctor not to vaccinate your kids.

But then on the flip-side, the reason why all the diseases are gone is b/c of the shots. There are certain places that some of the diseases have been popping back up b/c of parents choosing not to vaccinate their kids.

And one good thing is that all the mercury preservatives have been removed form the shots now.

Ugh, I feel like it is d***ed if you do, d***ed if you don't 

[nohayo]

The only thing I've heard about vaccines are about the unnatural ingredients, I've never heard about this autism link! Can someone please explain?

[nhockaday]

It's hard to explain in short. You should google it. Basically, there were questions wether there was a link between autism and the preservative (mercury) used in shots. Now there is a question of giving so many shots at once and it causing autism in certain children who have certain genetic characteristics. The children were fine until they were given many shots at one time. Then they developed autism.

[chispa]

I know a few parents that also say that they saw changes on their children specifically after the 24 month shots.  I am a bit anxious about it.  What ahockaday  posted is what my  peds have stated.  Mercury is out which makes them safer; she  also mention that the shots may have triggered autism in children that were already showing signs or predisposition to it.  I took a class on autism and they felt strongly about not giving so many shots at once to the kids.  Luckly my peds are accomodating about separating the shots for me.  We go every other week to spread them out.  I also opted out of the varicella or chicken pox one.  Mi first two got the chicken pox when they were little and were fine.  I got them when I was 26 and was miserable!

[akgard]

This is a touchy subject and I even have a different opinion than my sister on this but this is what I think.  Would you want your child to get the mumps and go deaf?  No, so the risk of complication from a vaccine is about the same as getting one from the illness, so why not protect your kid and those he's around from those illnesses that we have vaccines for?  My sister was thinking of not coming to my wedding because she doesn't want her child vaccinated and there was possibly an outbreak of whooping cough here during the wedding.  If you think of it in those terms, she'll never be able to leave the house because people travel all over the world in just hours now with air travel.  I just think you should protect your child from what you can...

[heyblue41]

I still haven't vaccinated her!  My son is fully vaxed.  My sisters and I have different beliefs in this area.  The new rotovirus vax came out right before my daughter was born and that prompted me to start researching instead of just blindly going along with what my ped said. And I had to start giving people flu shots at work.  While the risks from vax are small, they aren't small if they happen to you.  There are also lots of chemicals in each vax that you wouldn't believe.  Read some package inserts.  Check out Motheringdotcommune for some forums.  I probably will eventually vaccinate my daughter.  But it will not be until after age 2 and only one shot at a time.  I probably will not do all of the shots either.

[Nikita]

I vaccinated all mine and so far no reactions.  In Australia the one they suspect of autism is the 12 month MMR (measles mumps rubella), and there have been people interviewed on current affairs shows who swear this was when their child turned autistic.  I think it's NOT just coincidence.  They are live doses of the actual disease!! They have side-effects like fever, why not worse.  12 year old girls are reacting to Gardisil for cervical cancer, even passing out. I still vaccinated my daughter, I thought that wasnt too bad a reaction.  better than cancer!! I have a friend whose child's father has autism in his family... she wont vaccinate. Fair enough, her bub could be susceptible. But in Microbiology at uni they taught us that diseases come back in when people dont ALL vaccinate. So I do it for the common good, hoping it wont be specifically bad with any of my kids. Hoping to protect them from diseases, not give them a condition. Perhaps holding off for longer...

[romina borg]

Dear All,
I am new to this forum.  Was surfing around and decided to join.  Let me introduce myself.  I am a mum of 2 year 9 month son.  He has now been assessed as having mild autism.  I do question a lot whether this is because of all the vacinations he was given.  Still a big question mark. 
Will try and post more in this forum in the coming days.
Good day.
Romina

[Nikita]

Not at that this would be the case with anyone on here, but I had an experience I'll mention.  Met a woman a fair few years ago when her oldest daughter started kinder.  The mum was extremely intelligent, the daughter had something wrong.  She was diagnosed with autism.  The next daughter 2 years younger seemed quite normal and intelligent, but this woman and I lost touch.  That daughter was diagnosed later with autism. (The mum probably suspected vaccines too). Eventually this woman rang me... she was leaving her husband to move to New Zealand with an internet lover (she hadn't yet met in person). Her children had been taken out of her care many months earlier by human services. She was just taking off, and iff I cleaned her house and yard, I could keep whatever I wanted for myself.  Ok, I liked the challenge. Upshot of this, the house and yard was a disgusting pig sty... I found their cat that went missing rotting in the yard.  The kids had clearly been locked in their rooms with NO STIMULATING THINGS TO DO, and smeared faeces over the walls.  I met the kids and their caregivers later... once the kids had been put into a caring, nurturing, not neglectful environment, their autism disappeared.    As in, it was cureable and reversible in their cases. Perhaps a misdiagnosis in the first place.  So I wouldn't take a diagnosis of autism as gospel, I'd explore different ways to reach and teach an "autistic" child. Or a child with aspergers. With these kids the way to fix it was simple, but for people on here who would obviously care and give their kids the best, their might be some other way to change things for the better.

[Nikita]

The moral of the story is: 

1.  It can be misdiagnosed.
2.  If it IS autism it may be fixable, or improved by changing things in their environment.

neglect caused this case (an environmental, NOT genetic cause), your cases would be from other reasons, but as with vaccines, it seems to often be environmental, not genetic.  They dont seem to be born like that (this woman first suspected it stemmed from a car accident where they were by the side of the road, stationary, and a car slammed into the back of them at high speed). I did hear she used to leave the baby up stairs rugged up in sweltering heat, while she was downstairs in air conditioned comfort.  That wouldn't be good for a growing brain. And neither might be vaccines or a dose of an illness!

[dreffa]

do you think vaccination has a link to AUTISM read think post and other before voting http://www.lewrockwell.com/miller/miller15.html

[chispa]

THANKS!!! so much for this link.  So much info to consider!

[dreffa]

am glad to hear such response from everyone, all moms concerned... like to ask in malaysia is the option for separated mmr vaccine

[cafemocha]

Wow!!  Just googled the correlation of autism with vaccines.  I actually never heard of it until this forum.  My son is complete with his vaccination.  Looks like he's ok.  Sadly, though, a good friend of mine found out about a year ago that her son has early stage autism.  They go to the same pediatrician and probably have the same vaccines.  I wish there was some information anyone can share that I can forward to my friend to help her out or to at least make her feel better.

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