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| | Author | Messages | |
leefamily
Posts:0
 | | 10/05/2007 1:51 PM |
 Alert | I've heard so much debate regarding the MMR shot and a possible link to autism because of thermisol (preservative) that is added to it. Apparently this preservative is full of mercury and many are saying that such a high dose cases 'brain damage'- resulting in autism.
I'm freaking out, mostly because I don't know how to educate myself on this and being that boys are more than four times more likely to have autism (and I have a boy) I'm worried.
Anyone know anything? For or against vaccines? | | | |
| | KidsNJewels
Posts:16
| | 10/05/2007 4:05 PM |
Alert | I myself do not vaccinate my children. My cousins son was a very "typical" boy who walked and talked at a very young age. He went for his 1 year vaccines and looked a little dazed after the vaccine like they normally do, however, he never snapped out of it and now he is labeled as Autistic.
There is a ton of information our there regarding vaccines. One thing I always think about is the fact that a very large study was done by a University in Chicago and they observed Amish children back East- NOT one child (or adult) has Autisim. It makes me really think about it since they do not vaccinate at all.
I would encourage you to do a lot of research on Autisim and make the decision yourself, that way you feel you made the best decision for your child and family. | | | |
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| | YZRacer
Posts:1580
| | 10/06/2007 10:23 PM |
Alert | | Thimersol is not used in vaccines anymore, hasn't been for years. The link of thimersol and autism has not been proven. there are many internet resources, as well as your peditrician to help you with this decision. | |
If you can't spot the loser, it might be you
Senior Member
Posts: 665
Joined: Jun 2006 | |
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| | Colgate
Posts:581
| | 10/06/2007 10:58 PM |
Alert | | I have worked for many yrs doing ABA with autistic children. Many of the parents of my clients swore up and down and sideways their children were fine up until they had their MMR. The one parent of my client had him on VHS film and the verbal was there and so was the social interaction, when I got to him at age 3 he could not talk or do much of anything, but STIM. My younger brother had the same thing happen after his shots, he started having seizures real severe too! The doc put him on Dilantan and he snapped out of it or grew out of it. It started just days after his shots, very strange. They did take that Thimersol of the shelves. I sort of believe that the two were related, but, I am not a doctor! | |
Live every day as if it were your last and smile! | |
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| | leefamily
Posts:0
| | 10/08/2007 9:40 AM |
Alert | I didn't know they took it off the shelves. That's awesome. Last I heard was that some vaccines still had it. It's hard to really trust the research because let's face it, IF they were to prove the link btwn thermisol & autism - lots of money would be lost. I guess it's a 'mommy knows best' in this case. I'm one of those people that has strong instincts and I don't always follow them. My instincts say not to do it - but society says I have to.
KidsNJewels - Did/does your dr. give you a hard time abt not vaccinating? | | | |
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| | KidsNJewels
Posts:16
| | 10/08/2007 12:19 PM |
Alert | My doctor just asked my reasons for not doing it. Once I told him- he never brought it up again. The doctor did offer me additional information regarding the vaccines but I kindly reminded him that our family experienced it first hand and I would pass. He said ok.
Good luck and definately trust your instincts! | | | |
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|  | love@hm
Posts:430
| | 10/09/2007 5:44 PM |
Alert | My son has autism. I do NOT believe the vaccinations are the cause. I can look back and recognize symptoms as early as six months. He is VERY high functioning.
The thermisol/mercury have been removed from all shots EXCEPT the seasonal flu shots. HOWEVER, they do make some of those shots w/o just be sure to ask for them specifically.
I personally believe autism is mostly genetic. There is increase because the DSM-IV was changed to include pdd-nos and aspergers, and because people are better at recognizing the red-flags and getting help. Children like my son would have been classroom trouble-makers with parents who didn't have a clue - I'm glad to know that is not the truth.
That vaccines causes autism has been around for a LONG time. People want something to blame it on. Honestly, there are children who regress who are NOT vax'd. Also, children who regress are actually minimal. . . there are far more who do not. | | | |
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| | QueensOverKings
Posts:12
| | 10/09/2007 8:25 PM |
Alert | I selectively vaxed my 4 yr old and have not vaxed my 8 month old. There is a wealth of information on the forums on mothering.com and Dr Sears - http://www.mothering.com/discussions/forumdisplay.php?f=47 and www.askdrsears.com
It's a very personal decision. But do the research before you make a decision.
There are also some good books, one of which is - Evidence of Harm by John Kirby | |
Crunchy AP, BF, CD, BW mama! | |
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| | leefamily
Posts:0
| | 10/10/2007 8:35 AM |
Alert | <div class='NTForums_Quote'>Posted By love@hm on 10/09/2007 5:44 PM
My son has autism. I do NOT believe the vaccinations are the cause. I can look back and recognize symptoms as early as six months. He is VERY high functioning.
The thermisol/mercury have been removed from all shots EXCEPT the seasonal flu shots. HOWEVER, they do make some of those shots w/o just be sure to ask for them specifically.
I personally believe autism is mostly genetic. There is increase because the DSM-IV was changed to include pdd-nos and aspergers, and because people are better at recognizing the red-flags and getting help. Children like my son would have been classroom trouble-makers with parents who didn't have a clue - I'm glad to know that is not the truth.
That vaccines causes autism has been around for a LONG time. People want something to blame it on. Honestly, there are children who regress who are NOT vax'd. Also, children who regress are actually minimal. . . there are far more who do not.</div>
You say there were signs as early as six months... what were they? Is it in retrospect that you notice the signs or did you notice them while they were happening?
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| | leefamily
Posts:0
| | 10/10/2007 8:41 AM |
Alert | <div class='NTForums_Quote'>Posted By QueensOverKings on 10/09/2007 8:25 PM
I selectively vaxed my 4 yr old and have not vaxed my 8 month old. There is a wealth of information on the forums on mothering.com and Dr Sears - http://www.mothering.com/discussions/forumdisplay.php?f=47 and www.askdrsears.com
It's a very personal decision. But do the research before you make a decision.
There are also some good books, one of which is - Evidence of Harm by John Kirby </div>
Thanks for the website mothering.com. I guess my fears of autism stem from it (autism) being so widely known. It seems like once I found out I was having a boy, it was everywhere - I knew people all of a sudden who's children were autistic, I saw bumper stickers, I heard from celebrities, etc. So it got my wheels spinning.
Plus, when he has been vaccinated, he's just not 'right' for like three days. Is that normal? I hate it. But, I'm scared my dr. is going to give me grief for it. | | | |
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| | love@hm
Posts:430
| | 10/10/2007 10:03 AM |
Alert | 1st, I want to put this out there: I will not debate on this topic - I simply want people to know there are parents out there with autistic children who do not believe the vaccines caused the autism.
The signs I recognized as autism in my ds before age 18 months are retrospective - however, they w/o a doubt fit within HIS autism based behaviors. I DID NOT recognize them originally because autism was not a 'hot topic' then and the signs of autism were not as well-known. That has come only in the last couple of years. I am lucky because my ds has not had therapy and has been able to overcome a lot of what is difficult for autistic children. He is EXTREMELY high-functioning and was not diagosed until age 4.
What I saw BEFORE 12 months:
1. frustration with toys when they did not do what he wanted them to do. This is not the standard play with the toy and give up, but a six month old 1st shaking, then throwing head back in frustration, then crying at the toy until it is removed and he can start to focus on something else. I remember discussing this action with my mom, and her being concerned.
2. Eye contact. He has ALWAYS been good at looking at MY face, but many, many people commented on how he wouldn't look at them, or he would catch them looking at him, and would not make eye contact.
3. Loved to be rocked. He would rock on his own too. After a bath, he was not consolable unless he was placed in the rocking chair - in his towel.
What I say BETWEEN 12-18 months (and longer)ds walked at 11 months so the majority of this happened closer to 12 months:
1. Leading by the hand. He would regularly walk me over to the cabinet and stand there waiting for me to figure out what cup he wanted. He would not point or touch the cup, and eventually I learned which were the ones he wanted.
2. The cups brings me to the next thing. . .he was VERY specific about what cups he would use, and which ones he wanted, yes, at 12 months of age. If you handed him the wrong cup, or the cup filled to the wrong level, he would look at it and immediately throw it and himself to the ground screaming and crying. It took me a few months to figure out where the invisible line in the cup was, and how to make everything perfect. Then I had to learn to hand him the cup and wait until he 'approved' and I could let go of the cup - this was NOT easily detectable (and I was wrong many times)
3. He would tantrum about toys, food, being told no (normal). The tantrums could last up to 20 minutes at a time. . . having more than one 20 minute tantrum at 13-14 months old a day was normal. During the tantrums we was a big head banger. This was the ONLY sign of autism I was aware of. Everything else I knew about autism involved losing speech where he was SLOWLY (still behind most kids) gaining, also I has always heard austitic children did not show affection - which is NOT true!
4. Facination with lights. Flash lights were out best friend and our worst enemy. He still loves them. But at an age as young as this, we had many tantrums over broken lights, and dead batteries.
5. By this time, we started to use his rocking chair as a place to help him calm down. I would put him in it and he would rock himself until he was calm. He also began to SLEEP in the rocking chair at night - this started right AT 18 months when I was working on weaning him. He would rock so hard in the rocking chair we would have to pull it out away from the wall every morning. the wall soon lost some of its paint, and the chair also became worn where it made contact with the wall.
It was shortly AFTER 18 months that I remember him pulling out 30 soda bottles and lining them up through the house. We could NOT take them down or touch them or he would be very upset. I know other people have mentioned him lining things up before this time, but I don't remember noticing until he lined up the soda bottles. . .
As a parent of a autistic child I want to say, the media does not generally give a fair look at the spectrum. It is a SPECTRUM - there are very, very high functioning autistics and very, very low functioning autistics. Even more, one may struggle in a completely different way than another. It NEVER presents itself the same way. I almost never watch shows like Oprah when these topics come up because they rarely show how high functioning it CAN be.
I will not say my life has not been affected. I regularly plan things around how I think my ds will react, and what I think he will or won't do. I follow his 'rules' for certain things because it means he will eat his dinner. He is five and still won't poop in a toilet. I'm NOT saying it is no big deal.
I do think people, especially people who have not dealt with it, think of it as an end-all, almost as if it would end their lives -or their way of thinking forever. For me, still have dreams for my ds. I want him to go to college and get married, and have children - he may not do all those things, but it IS possible for him to.
In the meantime, I receive blessings from autism that I never would have gotten if it weren't in my life. He notices all the little details in things. He recently said the alphabet backwards because he wanted to. he can count forward AND backward to 100 - farther if he wanted to. He is constantly asking to use the computer in the last couple of days - what does he do - he spells words. He figures out what they start and end with, and I help him with the SOUNDS of the middle. He makes me laugh, with the little things he says, he makes me proud of all he has accomplished.
I am NOT telling anyone to vaccinate their kids. That is a personal decision. I choose to vax my kids, and my youngest is still getting hers. I am saying - don't be so scared of autism. It is OK to mourn if you find dealing with it, it is OK to hope your child doesn't get it, but don't let the media's scare tactics take over your life. It is there, and I hope they are able to find what causes it, and I hope less people will be affected, but I DON'T live some horrible life, and if you do find yourself in my position you will probably find you feel the same way. . . | | | |
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| | leefamily
Posts:0
| | 10/10/2007 10:17 AM |
Alert | <div class='NTForums_Quote'>Posted By love@hm on 10/10/2007 10:03 AM
1st, I want to put this out there: I will not debate on this topic - I simply want people to know there are parents out there with autistic children who do not believe the vaccines caused the autism.
The signs I recognized as autism in my ds before age 18 months are retrospective - however, they w/o a doubt fit within HIS autism based behaviors. I DID NOT recognize them originally because autism was not a 'hot topic' then and the signs of autism were not as well-known. That has come only in the last couple of years. I am lucky because my ds has not had therapy and has been able to overcome a lot of what is difficult for autistic children. He is EXTREMELY high-functioning and was not diagosed until age 4.
What I saw BEFORE 12 months:
1. frustration with toys when they did not do what he wanted them to do. This is not the standard play with the toy and give up, but a six month old 1st shaking, then throwing head back in frustration, then crying at the toy until it is removed and he can start to focus on something else. I remember discussing this action with my mom, and her being concerned.
2. Eye contact. He has ALWAYS been good at looking at MY face, but many, many people commented on how he wouldn't look at them, or he would catch them looking at him, and would not make eye contact.
3. Loved to be rocked. He would rock on his own too. After a bath, he was not consolable unless he was placed in the rocking chair - in his towel.
What I say BETWEEN 12-18 months (and longer)ds walked at 11 months so the majority of this happened closer to 12 months:
1. Leading by the hand. He would regularly walk me over to the cabinet and stand there waiting for me to figure out what cup he wanted. He would not point or touch the cup, and eventually I learned which were the ones he wanted.
2. The cups brings me to the next thing. . .he was VERY specific about what cups he would use, and which ones he wanted, yes, at 12 months of age. If you handed him the wrong cup, or the cup filled to the wrong level, he would look at it and immediately throw it and himself to the ground screaming and crying. It took me a few months to figure out where the invisible line in the cup was, and how to make everything perfect. Then I had to learn to hand him the cup and wait until he 'approved' and I could let go of the cup - this was NOT easily detectable (and I was wrong many times)
3. He would tantrum about toys, food, being told no (normal). The tantrums could last up to 20 minutes at a time. . . having more than one 20 minute tantrum at 13-14 months old a day was normal. During the tantrums we was a big head banger. This was the ONLY sign of autism I was aware of. Everything else I knew about autism involved losing speech where he was SLOWLY (still behind most kids) gaining, also I has always heard austitic children did not show affection - which is NOT true!
4. Facination with lights. Flash lights were out best friend and our worst enemy. He still loves them. But at an age as young as this, we had many tantrums over broken lights, and dead batteries.
5. By this time, we started to use his rocking chair as a place to help him calm down. I would put him in it and he would rock himself until he was calm. He also began to SLEEP in the rocking chair at night - this started right AT 18 months when I was working on weaning him. He would rock so hard in the rocking chair we would have to pull it out away from the wall every morning. the wall soon lost some of its paint, and the chair also became worn where it made contact with the wall.
It was shortly AFTER 18 months that I remember him pulling out 30 soda bottles and lining them up through the house. We could NOT take them down or touch them or he would be very upset. I know other people have mentioned him lining things up before this time, but I don't remember noticing until he lined up the soda bottles. . .
As a parent of a autistic child I want to say, the media does not generally give a fair look at the spectrum. It is a SPECTRUM - there are very, very high functioning autistics and very, very low functioning autistics. Even more, one may struggle in a completely different way than another. It NEVER presents itself the same way. I almost never watch shows like Oprah when these topics come up because they rarely show how high functioning it CAN be.
I will not say my life has not been affected. I regularly plan things around how I think my ds will react, and what I think he will or won't do. I follow his 'rules' for certain things because it means he will eat his dinner. He is five and still won't poop in a toilet. I'm NOT saying it is no big deal.
I do think people, especially people who have not dealt with it, think of it as an end-all, almost as if it would end their lives -or their way of thinking forever. For me, still have dreams for my ds. I want him to go to college and get married, and have children - he may not do all those things, but it IS possible for him to.
In the meantime, I receive blessings from autism that I never would have gotten if it weren't in my life. He notices all the little details in things. He recently said the alphabet backwards because he wanted to. he can count forward AND backward to 100 - farther if he wanted to. He is constantly asking to use the computer in the last couple of days - what does he do - he spells words. He figures out what they start and end with, and I help him with the SOUNDS of the middle. He makes me laugh, with the little things he says, he makes me proud of all he has accomplished.
I am NOT telling anyone to vaccinate their kids. That is a personal decision. I choose to vax my kids, and my youngest is still getting hers. I am saying - don't be so scared of autism. It is OK to mourn if you find dealing with it, it is OK to hope your child doesn't get it, but don't let the media's scare tactics take over your life. It is there, and I hope they are able to find what causes it, and I hope less people will be affected, but I DON'T live some horrible life, and if you do find yourself in my position you will probably find you feel the same way. . . </div>
Wow. Thanks so much for your information. It was very heartwarming. | | | |
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