Pregnancy & Parenting

Has anyone heard of this link before? My Manager has a son with autism now and he thinks it's from his vaccination shots. I've read a little about the studies and I'm starting to become convinced that autism is caused from this. There is just way too much coincidence between kids getting shots and then weeks later developing symptoms of autism and other learning disorders.

So what are we supposed to do, not get our babies vaccinated? Are there vaccinations that don't cause this. I'm new to this subject so any thoughts and replies are appreciated. Thanks.

OMG- If you're talking about the MMR immunisation, this was a HUGE scare in the UK a  few years ago and the report & the Doctor that wrote it has been totally discredited- he's actually been up on criminal charges in the last few months! Please do a little more reading on it and you'll see for yourself if its worth the 'risk' or not?

The incidences of measles especially that are now hitting nurseries across the UK is a direct result of this scare. I'm sorry, but I want my kids protected from these diseases!

Of course there will always be parents who want a 'reason' for a childs problems, but it isn't always the case that there is a 'reason'? Sometimes things are the way they are for no discernable reason? If that makes sense!

 I read up as much as i could when my 3yr old was due hers and I decided that the report and the hysteria caused by it weren't reason enough for my daughter not to be protected from these diseases. Both my girls have had it and I'd recommend all parents to get it done. This is just my opinion though- my brothers wife has 2 nephews with Autism and they've decided not to get their children immunised- fair enough, I don't agree with it but thats their decision.

EDIT-  BTW My daughters paediatrician said that it was also unfortunate that the outward signs of autism manifest around the age this shot is given. He also thought the scare was just that- a scare. As I said, read as much as you can and make up your own mind?

jenny mccarthy and jim carrey have a big campaign about the link between autism and vaccinations going on right now.  they are encouraging mothers to ask the doctor to space out the vaccines instead of doing them all at once.

read the story:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/02/mccarthy.aut simtreatment/index.html

 

hope that helps!

There is currently no known link btw vaccination shots and autism.  Talk to your pediatrician for concerns.  Most are up to date on the latest data.  Immunizations are very important, and most are necessary.  If you do not immunize, there is a higher chance you will contact the disease the vaccination shots are trying to prevent (many are deadly, or have severe side-effects), then there is of a child being autistic.  Once again, talk to your child’s doctor.

Having an austic son, yeah I've heard of it before, but I don't place a whole lot of credance with it despite all the advocates and news stories.  I did find the recent story about how after injecting monkeys with immunizations they displayed autistic behaviors to be intriguing, but it's most certainly is not proof of anything.  There is no credible scientific basis for concluding that immunizations cause autism. 

There's not even a consensus on how to diagnose autism, much less on how to assign a direct "cause" to it.  What of all the children who have been immunized, even when thimerisol was still in them, who did not become autistic?

As for the "too much coincidence" thing - it may seem like that, but it's really a classic "post hoc ergo propter hoc" (after it therfore because of it) fallacy commonly made in statistics.  Correlation does not mean causation.

Believe me, I understand the need to find an answer, the need to find out why this happened to my son.  But, IMO, without better evidence, this is grasping.

If you are concerned you can push back the shots.  My first 2 had their needles on schedule but my last I pushed all recommended time lines back by 3 months.  So her 2 month needle was given at 5 months and so on.

I did this only b/c at 11 days old she caught the chicken pox from me when I was deliverying and even though the docs gave her the v zig shot then she still got them.  We ended up in the hospital with her for 16 days on anti viral meds as chicken pox in babies under 6 months even if you breastfeed and pass your immunity on to them can get Very ill and go into liver and kidney failure.  My docs were fine with pushing her schedule back a bit.

There has been a lot of recent documentation over autism and a know a # of scientists discreditted all the papers saying autism is linked to the shots.  A recent one in japan prompted parents in the last 5 years to cancel the mmr 2 yr shot and their rates are still climbing.

Santonacci- you more than any of us are perhaps the one to listen to? Its encouraging to hear that you don't place much credance with it.

There was a campaign (by private clinics surprise surprise!) to promote the individual immunisations here in the UK, but Docs have said that because they have to be spaced out by 6mths or more it's more risky as the child may catch the disease in the meantime- plus the costs are out of reach of most parents- approx. $300 per shot!

Original Post by irishmum:

Santonacci- you more than any of us are perhaps the one to listen to? Its encouraging to hear that you don't place much credance with it.

Well, I'm no expert, but like most parents with an autistic child, I read up on this a lot in addition to talking with lots of parents, doctors, and therapists. 

I mean, the auto-immune connection can't totally dismissed, as there is increasing evidence that food allergies/sensitivities as well as higher than normal susceptability to conditions like asthma are linked to it as well.  (We are currently suspecting a gluten sensitivity in our son, and we've been dealing with his asthma for several years now.)  There are so many factors that are probably involved, so to say that any one thing is responsible seems to me to be rather premature.  They're still researching genetic influences on it as well.

There have been no credible studies linking the two. The risks of not vaccinating, however, are immediate and concerning.

hello everyone :)

I have a 7 month old baby boy and he has received all his shots except his 6 month shots.  I had started doing research around when he was 5 months old when I saw a news report on the link between immunizations and autism.  Since then I have done plenty of research and spoke with a few doctors and Ive decided to space out his shots just in case.  :)

I just hope our doctors and scientists are really researching this to find out some cause and cure for it.

Good luck! 

I watched the congressional hearings on TV (around year 2000) and all the CDC could say to all the evidence is "stop scaring people."  Which is scary.  So what I did for my boys is give them separate MMR vaccine's.  They are still being vaccinated for measles, and it is more expensive but it is not the combined vaccine that they believe causes the link to autism. There is a theory that the young children's immune system can't handle all these vaccine's at one time - or it is shock to the system.  I am in no way a medical doctor, but a suspicious concerned parent.  I vaccinate all my children, but I ask lots of questions.  They are also concerned about the preservative Thimerol in the vaccine's which contains mercury.  You can ask your pediatrician if the vaccine contains Thimersol and ask if one is available without the preservative. 

I'm not 100% sure on this, but I believe that the US removed thimerosol from childhood vaccines in 2005.  One of the later studies showed that even though thimerosol was eliminated, autism rates have continued to increase.  Tends to lead to 2 conclusions:  (1) It's extremely unlikely thimerosol is a primary cause of autism; and (2) even if it were, that cause has now been largely eliminated.

In the uk you can opt for separate injections for which you pay yourself.  I did a lot of my own research as my first ds was due these round the time of the scare.  I ended up getting the separate jabs.  The guys that gave him the separate jabs actually admitted that they believed the mmr was perfectly safe but they were providing a service to allay peoples fears otherwise their children wouldn't be immunized at all.  Their own children got the mmr!  Then later with my 2nd ds I let him have the mmr.

I did a LOT of looking into this and the only time now that I would call a rethink is if a child had severe bowel difficulties.  If I recall correctly Denmark had separate jabs all along and their rates of autism are the same.

Original Post by lysistrata:

I'm not 100% sure on this, but I believe that the US removed thimerosol from childhood vaccines in 2005.  One of the later studies showed that even though thimerosol was eliminated, autism rates have continued to increase.  Tends to lead to 2 conclusions:  (1) It's extremely unlikely thimerosol is a primary cause of autism; and (2) even if it were, that cause has now been largely eliminated.

 I looked it up on the FDA website and found the following:

Thimerosal as a Preservative

Thimerosal, which is approximately 50% mercury by weight, has been one of the most widely used preservatives in vaccines. It is metabolized or degraded to ethylmercury and thiosalicylate. Ethylmercury is an organomercurial that should be distinguished from methylmercury, a related substance that has been the focus of considerable study (see "Guidelines on Exposure to Organomercurials" and "Thimerosal Toxicity", below).

At concentrations found in vaccines, thimerosal meets the requirements for a preservative as set forth by the United States Pharmacopeia; that is, it kills the specified challenge organisms and is able to prevent the growth of the challenge fungi (U.S. Pharmacopeia 2004). Thimerosal in concentrations of 0.001% (1 part in 100,000) to 0.01% (1 part in 10,000) has been shown to be effective in clearing a broad spectrum of pathogens. A vaccine containing 0.01% thimerosal as a preservative contains 50 micrograms of thimerosal per 0.5 mL dose or approximately 25 micrograms of mercury per 0.5 mL dose.

Prior to its introduction in the 1930's, data were available in several animal species and humans providing evidence for its safety and effectiveness as a preservative (Powell and Jamieson 1931). Since then, thimerosal has been the subject of several studies (see Bibliography) and has a long record of safe and effective use preventing bacterial and fungal contamination of vaccines, with no ill effects established other than minor local reactions at the site of injection.

While the use of mercury-containing preservatives has declined in recent years with the development of new products formulated with alternative or no preservatives, thimerosal has been used in some immune globulin preparations, anti-venins, skin test antigens, and ophthalmic and nasal products, in addition to certain vaccines. Under the FDA Modernization Act of 1997, the FDA compiled a list of regulated products containing mercury, including those with thimerosal (Federal Register 1999). It is important to note that this list was compiled in 1999; some products listed are no longer manufactured and many products have been reformulated without thimerosal. Updated lists of vaccines and their thimerosal content can be found in Table 1 (routinely recommended pediatric vaccines) and Table 3 (expanded list of vaccines).

and then on this page, it said:

FDA is continuing its efforts toward reducing or removing thimerosal from all existing vaccines. Much progress has been made to date. FDA has been actively working with manufacturers, particularly those that manufacture childhood vaccines, to reach the goal of eliminating thimerosal from vaccines, and has been collaborating with other PHS agencies to further evaluate the potential health effects of thimerosal. Since 2001, all vaccines recommended for children 6 years of age and younger have contained either no thimerosal or only trace amounts, with the exception of inactivated influenza vaccines, which are marketed in both the preservative-free and thimerosal-preservative-containing formulations. Thimerosal-preservative free influenza vaccine licensed for use in children six to 59 months of age is available in limited supply. Nevertheless, FDA is in discussions with manufacturers of influenza vaccine regarding their capacity to increase the supply of vaccine without thimerosal as a preservative. Additionally, new pediatric vaccines that have received licensure do not contain thimerosal.

I did proceed with my son getting his immunizations as normal.  He, however, has not gotten the flu shot before.  His pediatrician and I discussed this greatly and felt that the mercury contained in the flu shots was not worth the risk.  He did say that there is a new flu vaccine coming out next year minus the mercury and he will recommend that.  My mother tagged along for this doctor's visit and felt my son really should have the flu vaccine.  His doctor asked why and she said "Because on the news..." and he politely told her that the news anchors were not medical professionals and these matters should be researched and discussed with doctors. 

It is your personal decision, as mentioned by many above, do the research extensively. 

"there is increasing evidence that food allergies/sensitivities as well as higher than normal susceptability to conditions like asthma are linked to it as well. "

Santonacci-  My nephew has autism.  My sister has battled his autism for 6 years now.  One thing that has helped brenden greatly is a gluten-free diet!  I can't express into words the changes we have seen in him.  Just FYI.

I also read a really interesting article about a woman who had a son with autism,  but she wasn't married and the child had been fathered by a sperm bank donor.    Well it turns out that there are other children who were fathered by this same donor who also have autism.   

I thought at this point that people were starting to focus more on genetics and other influences rather than immunizations.

Also there are very varied degrees of autism and many adults even have some form of it and don't realise.  I think that today healthcare services etc are more sensitive to children's development then a few decades ago and thus are uncovering forms of autism that may have previously gone unnoticed.  So it would be interesting to see the figures after the 'less debilitating previously undiagnosed' (for want of a better way to put it) autism figures were removed.

My husband had a customer that was a case study for this. Both parents are doctors and actually have hair clippings from their child before vaccinations and after. The before clippings show normal mercury levels and the after clippings show sky high levels. The study is in a book called Evidence of Harm. You should check it out.

But what about cases in which it has been verified that the immunizations received by the child did not contain any amount of thimerisol or mercury?  I may check the book out, but I'm still skeptical, if for no other reason than the number of kids that receive immunizations every year and don't develop autism.  There might be a tangential link at best, but I still haven't seen evidence to suggest that it's causal.

What about the fact that we are injecting our kids with a whole bunch of diseases while their little brains are trying to develop....   Im not sure about the autism thing but gosh why do the shots have to be so close together and so many at once?  I dunno...

Original Post by anoxa:

Im not sure about the autism thing but gosh why do the shots have to be so close together and so many at once?  I dunno...

 I think a lot of it has to do with CDC and governmental regulations as to what children are required to have in order to attend public schools.  There are so many diseases that "require" immunization before the age of 5 or 6 (when kids enter kindergarten), that they can only get them in if they're given close together and in multiple shots at a time.

Now, parents aren't forced to immunize their kids (particularly if it's against their beliefs), but accessibility to public schools will be limited because of it, and the CDC will argue "public safety" and liability so it's not a discrimination issue.