My son is about to be 12 months & due for that MMR vaccine that so many parents are testifying may cause children to be autistic. Just trying to find someone with some personal experience dealing with autism. I can do all the online statistical research I want, but personal experience can be a little more enlightening. Anyone here have or know some children with autism?
I can only answer one part of your question. You're talking about Dr. Andrew Wakefields research that has brought up a lot of debate and in the following research no real connection has been found between the MMR vaccine and autism. From the Danish Medical Bulletin. Vaccines and autism – Kreesten Meldgaard Madsen The PhD thesis examines two hypotheses. It has been suggested that different vaccines cause autism. The wide-scale use of childhood vaccines has been reported to coincide with an apparent increase in the incidence of autism. The first hypothesis relates the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccination to the development of autism. The second hypothesis connects the use of thimerosal-containing vaccines to the development of neuro-developmental disorders such as autism, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and speech or language delay. The hypothesis that MMR vaccination causes autism was proposed by Wakefield and co-workers who reported on children with signs of both developmental regression and gastrointestinal symptoms shortly after MMR vaccination. We conducted a follow-up study including all children born in Denmark from January 1991 through December 1998 – altogether 537,303 children - and them followed through 1999. We found no difference in the risk for autism in vaccinated and unvaccinated children, even when other factors were taken into account, such as age at vaccination. The risk was similar in vaccinated and unvaccinated children both with respect to the narrow definition of autistic disorder and other autistic-spectrum disorders. Finally, there was no clustering of autism diagnoses in the time after vaccination, by age of the child at vaccination, or by date of vaccination. When reviewing the literature no convincing scientific evidence exists to support a causal relationship between the MMR vaccine and the subsequent development of autism. The biological plausibility rests on tenuous grounds and there is a sound body of epidemiological evidence to refute the hypothesis. Thimerosal has been used as an antimicrobial agent in vaccines since the 1930s. It is metabolized into organic mercury compounds, which are well established as nephro- and neurotoxicants. However, mercury poisoning and autism do not affect the same sites or cells of the brain. Furthermore, there is no evidence of harm caused by the level of exposure experienced by children following the routine vaccination schedules in the US or Europe. By now, thimerosal has been phased out in most countries. If thimerosal was a common cause of autism; we would expect a drop in the incidence of autism following cessation of use. This decline was not observed in Denmark where thimerosal has not been used since 1992. Whether a decline will take place in countries that phased thimerosal out at a later stage than Denmark, time will tell. It is concluded that nothing in the existing mass of data supports the hypothesis that vaccination causes autism and at present there is little scientific support to revisit the hypothesis. It is time to direct resources into other areas of vaccine research. There's an even greater risk if they don't get the MMR vaccine. So what Wakefield made an uproar about is a myth without any sufficient scientific research. I don't have any 1st hand experience with autism as such, but my mother has worked with autistic children a lot, so she know quite a lot about the topic. If you could be more specific on what you'd want to know about autistic behaviour or symptoms I might be able to answer some q's.
I work in medicine for a living, and I cannot emphasize this strongly enough: There is ABSOLUTELY no solid evidence that vaccines cause autism. Period. The arguments that they do are based on spurious research and lazy correlation/causation errors. And furthermore, many of the childhood illnessess that vaccines are designed to prevent can themselves cause a variety of developmental ******ations.
I have aspergers[sp?] syndrome which is on the autism spectrum. It is the most mild form of the condition. Even so I could provide a little insite on the disorder.
This is an excellent point. It is important to include that the reasoning behind many of these vaccines being attacked were the levels of mercury that were present and the correlation between mercury levels and autism are being investigated. These inoculations no longer include these levels of mercury so even if that turns out to be the case, that is not an issue at present. I do know some individuals with autism. I do not know anyone with a severe case, however. That is also an important note. Since autism is a disease that operates on a wide scale, some individuals have very few negative side effects from the condition and some go undiagnosed their entire lives. What I do know about the over all facts of autism, sadly these are fewer than they should be, come from research that went into a final project / paper from my Adolescent Psych class in university (I'm a returning, non-traditional student and had this class last semester). This paper was done on mental diseases and conditions and was given a 95 / 100 so it was, at least in the prof's eyes, a pretty good paper.
I have a mild version of Autism called Asperger's Syndrome. I was diagnosed back in my sophomore year in high school. Don't worry.... compared to other kids in my area who are diagnosed with it, my case is MILD.
Asperger's Syndrome, from what I've heard and witnessed.. is really common.. I read up on it, although never diagnosed.. I wouldn't be surprised if I had a mild case of it. I know a number of people who spend a good time on-line to communicate with people have it.. What gets me is how they often throw the ADHD label on young kids these days. When they're instead just really creative 8\\\\ and a lot of things bore the heck out of them.
This too is an excellent point. When it came time for my wife and I to vaccinate our first born we researched the topic extensively and asked our wonderful pediatrician many questions; which he answered without hesitation and to our satisfaction. He stressed that his office discontinued use of the vaccinations that contained above average levels of mercury about 5 years ago. He also mentioned that many other pediatricians have done the same due to concerns brought up by many parents. In my opinion, I never thought that vaccinations brought about autism. Due to advancements made throughout the years, it’s easier for doctors to detect the condition, which has lead to the huge leap in children being diagnosed with it.
Not me However, I was once mistaken for autistic. In middle school, there was an 8th grade only art class. When my math teacher saw I could draw pretty well, she thought it'd be cool if the art teacher would allow me to sit in and take that as my elective even though I was only in 7th. He agreed when he saw my work - at that point we just needed permission from the principal and the gym teacher who's class I'd be transferring out of. I went up to meet with them both together. The principal was fine with it and asked the gym teacher's permissions. Now, the principal had a very interesting lysp-like diction. He turned to the gym teacher and said - "Chris is artistic and we'd like to give him some special attention." What came out was of course that I am autistic. The gym teacher had this totally dreaded look on her face, it was crazy. I just stood there and didn't say anything. Anyway though, thanks to my fake autism, she had no problem allowing me that "special attention." Sorry if this story is inappropriate
Nice to know that there's at least a couple others in these boards who have Asperger's as I do. At least now I can honestly say that I can fit in around here.
Asperger's isn't something you can have a 'mild' case of. It's a disorder with specific criteria--you have them or you don't, and therefore, you have the disorder or you don't. Regrettably, the criteria are vague and subjective, and as such, the disorder is used as a label is the same way ADHD is. For reference, here's the diagnostic table:
Funny you should ask. My son will be 2 on Sunday, and my wife (who is usually the logical one) told me this morning she was nervous about his 2 year shots, despite the fact that there is no solid proof of the link.
My other favorite ridiculous argument about vaccines is the one about how "Big Pharma just wants to scare you into spending money on shots that aren't necessary!" Right, like selling all the medicine people would need to treat measles, mumps, rubella, polio, and so on wouldn't make them a fortune.
I have autism not a mager chase but its not much of a strugle its just you think alittle diffrently its hard too explain but nothing huge will I am speaking for myself
Can somebody please explain to me what the hell autism is? And while we're at it, lets explain to me what the hell Asperger's is too. According to what Squirrelcar posted, people would say that I have whatever that is. Also whenever I see kids or whatever with autism on the local news or whatever, the parents are crying about how difficult it is for their child, but when they cut to the kid, they look perfectly normal. Can somebody enlighten me on this?
All it is really as I stated before^ that all they do is just think alittle differntly its nothing huge
