Autism and vaccine thoughts

[cjarvis]

I was talking to my husband last night just rambling my thoughts about autism and those who have suffered from vaccine induced autism vs. those who have autism and have never received any vaccines.

So my question or thoughts are:
I have read many stories of parents who have perfectly normal children, walking, talking and being normal kid and then they received their 12 or 18mo shots and bam they start regressing.

So what about the children with autism who never receive vaccines, when do they show signs of having autism? Do they progress normally and then regress? I am guessing there really hasn't been any studies on this, but I admit I completely uneducated about all this, but find it interesting.

Any thoughts or personal stories?

[GoBecGo]

There is a lot of ASD (mainly aspergers) in my family. Diagnosed there is my dad and my uncle (neither vax'd). Undiagnosed due to being "borderline" and it not being clear if it is nature or nurture are myself (vax'd in 1980's) my brother (vax'd in late 1979's/early 1980's). Undiagnosed due to it not being something they "did" in those days my paternal grandfather, great grandfather and several male 2nd cousins and great uncles (none vax'd). My DH is undiagnosed due to not having sought diagnosis but is definitely on the spectrum, as is my dad's sister.

For my family vaccinating or not vaccinating doesn't seem to have made any difference, my mother noticed no difference in us (myself and my brother) pre-vs-post vaccination, and those who had the more severe autistic traits (my grandfather and his father) were unvaccinated. Infact he with the most severe was born and grew up in Russia in a very natural environment (no junk food, low pollution due to it being 1903 and a rural area) and still, there it is.

We vaccinated our DD. She definitely has some traits but again it's hard to see if it's nature or nurture. At the moment i don't think she would benefit from diagnosis, nor do i believe she has enough severity to be dx as an aspie. I didn't notice any difference in her before/after vaccinations, but then she had her first ever vaccine on schedule at 8weeks, so how i would tell i don't know. Unless i read something which convinces me there is a more substantial risk from vaccines than from the illnesses they prevent i will vaccinate my next child too. I know there are many people with many things to say on dangers/links but i am interested in statistical analysis and logical conclusion (what can i say, i'm autistic!) and so far i haven't found any arguments which i find credible. That's not to say i question or care why others choose not to vaccinate, that is their decision, and thank goodness we are all free to choose as we see best.

Ultimately autistic traits are so "normal" to me i find lots of normal people so illogical and randomly emotional that i have to dig real deep to deal with it. What is autistic or at least "odd" to many other people is completely normal to me. So i'm not overly anxious to take a million (to me ill-founded) precautions to make sure my kids don't turn out like my father, who is a wonderful man, that i love dearly.

[cjarvis]

Thanks for your reply GoBecGo. So it seems to be a genetic thing in your family and something you are used to seeing.

I would like to know more about children who have not received any vaccines and have autism. Did the child develop normally and then suddenly you notice some changes or differences OR was the child always showing spectrum behavior?

Are there any studies or stories out there that I can read about this?
Thanks

[FreeRangeMama]

I don't know about studies, but my aspie ds was different right from birth (or before, he was quite the fetus ). He did regress somewhat drastically around 2, but it was more that he started retreating into his own world for larger and larger parts of the day rather than a loss of skills. Once we got him back into our world a little more often he was back to his regular (aspergers) self He is unvaxed.

[newmum35]

I think it is Dr Moulden that talks about how an unvaxed baby can still suffer neurologic damage if nursing mom (or pregnant mom) receives a vax (he also talks about how it can occur in unvaccinated as well, from polio for example) .. I think thats something to think about.


I find Dr Eisensteins practice very interesting too... you might want to read what he has to say about the unvaxed children in his practice.

[tanyalynn]

Originally Posted by cjarvis

I would like to know more about children who have not received any vaccines and have autism. Did the child develop normally and then suddenly you notice some changes or differences OR was the child always showing spectrum behavior?

My family doesn't deal well with the mercury in our amalgam fillings. Not everyone is like this, but in our family it's been related to more and earlier health problems generation by generation, and in my son it shows up (he's 3) in some sensory seeking behaviors, plus a variety of other stuff. He's never had a diagnosis, but if we hadn't started making changes when he was so little, I'm not sure where things would've progressed to. He was noticeably clumsy as an infant--it's not normal to think your 6mo baby is clumsy, but it wasn't just DH and me seeing this. And he got sick a whole lot more than most kids. He's not vaccinated; given that his immune system clearly wasn't functioning all that well, I think vaccines would've caused him significant issues.

For us, the cause and the cure are pretty straightforward. I am significantly more functional than I was a couple years ago (I felt pretty bad), and the kids are progressing. I do worry about the things I can't see. I think both kids (my daughter is 5) have been affected in many subtle ways, things I've seen change in the past couple years, but I can't know what may be permanent. Their in-utero environment was not optimal (understatement).