Autism

We spent yesterday morning at the Autism Walk. This is the second year we've done it, and it's really a great time. There are lots of fun activities for the kids. We had some great buttons made with pictures of me and Trouble and Blackstone and LT. There was a bouncy house, obstical course, face painting, arts and crafts. We do it as part of a team Curls organizes.

I know many families who have been touched by autism, language disabilities and speech delays. It is absolutely astounding and terrifying to me how prevalent this has become in our society. It is now 1 in 150 children who are diagnosed with some form of autism. To me, arguments that this is due simply to a broader definition and higher awareness of the disease don't quite justify the sheer magnitude of it.

The CDC's assurances that there is no link between immunizations and autism are not all that reassuring to me. There are many parents out there who have been arguing there's a connection for years. Since my pediatrician is homeopathic, immunizations are not given unless the parent wants them. Trouble started out with a different pediatrician, so his immunization course had been started as normal, and we decided to continue it, with one exception. He didn't get his MMR boosters until he was five. Dr. H's personal belief is that there may be a connection between the MMR booster and autism for children who have a history of autoimmune disease in their family. Blackstone and I both have autoimmune diseases in the family, so we decided to procrastinate the MMR. LT has yet to get his two MMR boosters, normally given at 18 and 24 months. He'll get them to start kindergarten. On their pre-school forms, I noted that we abstained from the MMR booster for religious reasons. Why religious reasons? Because that's how Dr. H told me I could get around it. I might have even been able to do this with the public school, but I wasn't as worried about Trouble getting the booster at five. He's what? like tripled in size? So the dose isn't quite as concentrated in his little body. And it's broken up the quantity of vaccines he received as an infant. Some concern is that it is not any particular booster, but the vast number of vaccines that children receive in a short time span.

Now, I haven't found any research that specifically supports Dr. H's theory, but there is more and more information out there supporting the concept that for children who have some sort of genetic pre-disposition, that immunizations or some environmental stimulus can then trigger autism. And as recently as last month, one family has won a case that vaccinations triggered their daughter's autism. Now is it the MMR booster, or is it that too many vaccines are given too close together, or is it the thimerosal, or is it like the CDC claims, that it's simply speculation that there's a connection because language development and the timing of the vaccinations coincide?

I don't claim to have any of the answers, but as a parent of two children who thus far seem to be successfully beating the odds, I'm wondering - am I just lucky, or does it have something to do with the fact that we've chosen to delay their MMR boosters? I personally know four families who have had one of their children tested for autism and have or have had those children in speech therapy for language delay. And I don't have that many friends. Now, every child is unique, and by no means are any of these children alike, and most of these children have not been diagnosed with autism. It's just scary to me,  that it's something like half of my friends have had a child tested for autism due to language delays. This just doesn't seem to be how it was when I was a kid. It just seems the CDC should be spending a good deal of time and money figuring out what the causes could be. And call me a conspiracy theorist if you want, but I'd recommend to anyone with a baby right now, wait on that MMR vaccine. I'm not saying get all paranoid and don't vaccinate your baby. Because I'm sure that's the CDC's fear, if any connection is ever found, that people will stop vaccinating altogether and we'll start having outbreaks of diseases we haven't seen in decades, and overwhelm hospitals. But what is really the risk of splitting the MMR into three separate shots? Really? We're that terrified our kid's going to get the mumps if we spread it out for a year more? Because I'm actually much more terrified of my kid developing autism. The chances seem to be much higher and at least we have ways of treating and curing the mumps or measles. It seems about as likely that my kid will die of the mumps between 18 mos and five-years-old as my hitting the Power Ball, and I don't even play Power Ball.

I always in my life, search for the most reasonable path. I try to find balance in everything - between work and family, saving and spending, eating the foods I love and keeping my weight under control, modern medicine and homeopathy. It just doesn't seem reasonable to me, all the vaccinations we pump our kids full of in such a short time span. I believe vaccinations are necessary and they serve a very viable purpose, but I also believe there can be too much of a good thing.

Comments

[Liz]

I just had a big long drawn out discussion with Tobys doctor about his vaccinations and how necessray they are. I went ahead with them per her opinion but I agree - it just seems so many parents must take their kids and they get all of these shots in their first two years of life and do the parents even think twice about it because of course they trust the doctors.....

Dont people interview their doctors anymore?

[Curls]

Thank you for taking the time to question what causes Autism! With 1 in 150 children being diagnosised with Autism I think it is important that all parents start to question their doctors, start to question each other and most importantly listen to the parents of children with Autism who have been questioning the CDC for years. Raising Awareness is so important to finding a cure!
I also want to stress that teaching your children to show concern and compassion for these kids is an invaluable lesson.
I heard Trouble was asking questions at the Autism walk! That is wonderful and I cannot express how grateful I am that I have such wonderful and supportive friends!

[J]

Are you sure you mean boosters, on the MMR? MMR is usually given between 18 & 24m of age, boosters are given on top of it before school age to boost immunity.

I am *not* anti-vaccine, I am however concerned about the exposure of too many at once, especially given that my twins were born 11 weeks early.

None of my kids has been given the 'MMR' vaccine. My twins were given each dose individually over the course of 2 years. In addition, neither will be given a booster because I chose instead to do a titer. A titer can tell you exactly what immunities you've received from vaccinations thus avoiding any excess exposure. We did titers for ALL immunizations and my kids don't actually need any boosters-a big relief to me, particularly since my son had a reaction to the Mumps vaccine.

An additional positive to breaking the vaccine into each of its components is that each one is a single dose vial. I do not allow, ever, my kids to have anything from a multi dosing bottle. This is where the preservatives come into play because once that seal is broken for the first child, its needed to make the remainder available. Single dose vaccinations do not contain preservatives.

My 3 year old has had none of the MMR because our new pediatricians office hasn't ordered the single dose vials for me yet. He'll start them at his 4 year check up and do one every 6 months.

Don't even get me started on the flu shot ;)

[J]

One additional thought...

Doesn't it seem, in some respects, as if the doctors are quick to panic parents as well? The fact of the matter is that kids don't all develop at the same rate or within someone else's perception of 'normal range'. Just because a child has a delay in one, or even more, area doesn't necessarily warrant a doctor suggesting it might be wise to do an autism screening.

My twins, again born 11 weeks early, didn't hit milestones at actual age and who would expect them to. By age 18 months they were caught up to their peers and now, finishing kindergarten, are the top 2 students in the class. Sure, my son has some clumsiness and minor fine motor issues, but nothing more severe than those of any of his full term classmates.

My youngest, born full term, has a speech delay. He had no words at age 2. We did have him screened...for speech therapy. Not once did we ever concern ourselves with autism because we saw no red flags and, thank goodness, our doctor didn't suggest it. Though it seems many around our area jump right to that conclusion.

As for my son, today at almost 3.5 he has a vocabulary bigger than many adults. Sure he's still missing and substituting a few sounds but those are just his thing to work on.

That's all folks...

[Diosa]

Obviously this is a real hot button topic, and by no means am I an expert on the subject.

J - I'm just using booster interchangeably with vaccine, which is probably incorrect. I've never heard of a titer. And yes, I think you're right - doctors, teachers, anyone who works with kids, will be quick to bring up autism if your child has a language delay.

Curls - You're welcome! I'm just putting my two cents out there. And I know I'm not even scratching the surface here when it comes to autism.

Liz - I think many people just go ahead with whatever their doctor says, and will trust anyone with an MD next to their name. But that is certainly not true of everyone. There are lots of concerned parents out there that are not satisfied with the answers they're getting, especially regarding autism, as you can see already in these comments.

[J]

fwiw, a titer is a simple blood draw. One draw can test immunity for all prior given vaccinations. Many doctors routinely booster around school-age unnecessarily. With the titer you can find out exactly what your child is lacking and only actually give those boosters.

A question for you though. What do you think about things like the varicella vaccination?

[Lissfull]

There are so many interesting and potentially valid theories on what causes autism. One I learned about recently is a surge of testosterone during pregnancy, and the timing of when it happens during pregnancy would affect the severity of symptoms. Very interesting seeing that more boys than girls are affected by autism.

I think another interesting point, in addition to immunizations, is what is going on in our environment. Is it just a coincidence that we eat so many preservatives and our environment is so polluted and the number of children diagnosed with autism is rising so significantly.

I think some children are diagnosed mistakenly. I think that these are the kids we read about who are miraculously cured. That's only my opinion though and I certainly do not consider myself an expert. People are very quick to slap a label on kids. Working in Early intervention, I see that a lot. I avoided it for quite some time with my own child, because I didn't want to label him something he wasn't. I knew something wasn't right, but he made progress in fits and starts. I was really just hoping he would pull it together. For the most part he did, but he has recently reached a point when the progress just wasn't coming as fast.

Some kids are just obviously autistic, others more subtlety so. I am all for early services regardless of delays and I firmly believe that most of the kids I treat for speech and language delays would pull it together without me eventually, but why make the family wait, why not help the skills along. Then there are the kids that won't pull it together and need every bit of help they can get.

I meant to take the Things to the Autism walk, but lost track of it yet again. Hopefully I can pull it together to be there next year. Excellent post Diosa.

[Diosa]

J - I know Dr. H questions it's effectiveness. He says what they're seeing now is mutated versions of the chickenpox, but not full blown cases. We think that Trouble had a case of it, but the rash didn't look anything like chickenpox.

Lissfull - I really only got into the possible vaccination connection, but you're right to bring up the other possible causes. I was thinking about the same kind of thing with all the controversy over the plastic water bottles last week, and of course it's not just water bottles. The chemicals and preservatives are everywhere, in everything.

And I definitely agree that a child and their parents should take advantage of every support available to them, regardless of how serious or not the delay is. You (and some other people I know) could probably answer this question better than most, is there a much greater percentage of kids with language delays? Or does it just seem that way? Is it because we expect more and pay more attention than we did 30 years ago? I'm guessing there's no easy answer to my question.

We'll catch you at the walk next year.

[J]

Lissfull,

I agree 100%! The services are there, use them. My twins were in early intervention from the age of 4 months actual (a little over 1 adjusted). I believe whole-heartedly that this is the reason they've excelled with no issues from their very scary gestation and delivery.

My youngest also has been receiving Speech Therapy since he was 18 months old :)

We've been fortunate to have caring, dedicated teachers who love what they do!

[Lissfull]

I think more people are aware of the development. More people do play dates and day care and so there is much more comparing than used to happen and therefore we have a lot of children being referred for services for speech and language delays. It's funny though, because many kids that are referred catch up so quickly that by the time we get to the house to do the evaluation, the baby doesn't even qualify anymore.

I know the early intervention programs are stuffed to the gills with many different delays. and funding sucks.