Do you think autism is caused by vaccines?

Question

My son is 16 years old and has autism. He is highly functional but still has his outbursts.

I know how to deal with the autism. In fact, he is very smart but he freaks out when he is around people. I have been watching the news and wondering if the vaccine he recieved may have contributed to it. My own opinion, I think it could be possible because mercury is poison!! But I wanted different views on it

Answer 1

Thank you Allison for your query. I'll directly cut and paste my answer posted earlier today at Y!A.

Hope to see you and your family succeed at the highest level!

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Before I begin, I'd like to ask you if you have heard of the term "refrigerator mother"? [please see my ref. at the bottom]
The term refrigerator mother was coined in the 1940s as a label for mothers of autistic children. These mothers were often blamed [by researchers and theorists] for their children's atypical behaviours. Thank goodness, researches on autism have advanced since then.

I am a mother of a 5-year-old child with autism. I am also a professional ABA (Applied Behaviour Analysis) therapist.
I have contacts with many parents of children who are on the autistic spectrum.

Hmmm...not sure what is the best way to communicate my thoughts to you. Please allow me to make an *emphasis* on a point that a mother's gut feeling/ intuition about her child is one of the most powerful diagnostic tools in the universe. We know our newborn babies more than we know our own selves. It is a blessing from God/ mother nature [whatever you may call it] in order to protect the planet's future progeny. I hope I don't sound too emotional.

As for my own child, I believe she was born with autism. B-U-T, I know of parents - first hand -- whose children were *perfectly* neurotypical [meaning "normal"] until the day before getting the vaccination and *suddenly* regressed [lost all the skills already acquired] significantly within a very short period of receiving the vaccination. Please note, these children usually have severe allergic reactions to food, medication, several environmental elements etc. There do exist alternative ways to alter this tragedy. For an instance, it is *not* a vaccination which is directly linked to autism. Some vaccines are cultured in egg protein, some contain "thimesoral" [that is 50% mercury by weight], and it is *possible* to prepare vaccines without these components. Newborn babies are not generally tested for allergies to egg etc. and those vaccines may very well damage their yet developing and vulnerable brain tissues [biological fact].

To cut a long story short, think about this. Just less than 10 years ago, autism was found in 1 in 2000 children. Last year, the ratio was 1 in 166 children. This year it is 1 in 150 children. Like it or not, autism is on epidemic rise. Why? Only improvement in diagnosis techniques cannot reasonably account for this strange sky-rocketing phenomenon.

Think about this. Diagnoses of autism within two years of introducing of this special type of MMR vaccination increased to a high of 27.3 cases per 100,000 children compared with just 1.45 cases per 100,000 in non-vaccinated children. The children who had had that special type of MMR vaccination were 45% more likely to have developed autism than the children who had not had the MMR vaccination. None of the above won any mainstream media attention.

Last but far from least, today's science is not an absolute/ final word about anything. The official symbol of autism is "an unfinished puzzle" -- denoting that the causes of this condition is not yet fully known. Scientific findings are changing all the time. Do you know that about half of Sir Isaac Newton's theories have now been proven wrong? Science has just discovered what "the mother nature" knew ages ago -- that breast milk is the best milk for the newborn babies, just to cite an example. This fact was *not* known even in 1970s. So, a mother's intuition about her child should *never* be underestimated. I feel dismayed to notice how people like to label a parent as someone lacking in common sense, a hatemonger ready to blame things on the doctors, vaccinations etc. It is not quite the case.

Hope this helps a little. Your feedback to my answer would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for listening to me.

Answer 2

The Center for Disease Control did some studies on that in recent years. As far as I know, they found no definite connection between mercury in vaccines and autism (or other neurological disorders).

I work for a mental health agency. Some of our clients were part of a research sample regarding possible causes of Autism. A local university was involved, but the funding was provided by the CDC.

In my own "unofficial" research, I have noticed that 60 to 70% of our clients who have Autism Spectrum Disorders have relatives with major mental illnesses, especially Schizophrenia and Bipolar DIsorder. I don't know if there is any real connection; it's just something I noticed.

Answer 3

I am not convinced either way. There are compelling arguments on both sides AND compelling evidence for both sides. I have chosen to get my children vaccinated, however, at a slower pace. Vaccinations CAN make a child sick though. My son was vaccinated with the Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis... vaccine and he was sick the next day. I didn't think anything of it until he broke out with a nasty case of eczema. We brought him to an allergist because it was thought that it could be an allergy and the testing showed no allergy to food or environment. About a week and a half later the eczema just cleared up on its own. I asked the allergist if something in the vaccination could have caused this and he said absolutely. My son could have had a sensitivity to something within the shot itself that caused the outbreak of eczema.

Answer 4

What causes autism?

Autism tends to run in families, suggesting a genetic link. Because people with autism can be vastly different, scientists suspect a number of genes are responsible. Ongoing research is targeted at pinpointing these genes. Some experts also believe that environmental factors may play a part in causing autism, although scientists have studied several factors, including vaccines, and have yet to identify such a cause.

Brain scans of people with autism have shown abnormalities in several areas of the brain, including those responsible for emotion and social relations. Other studies suggest that people with autism have high levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin, a chemical that sends messages in the brain. However, these findings are preliminary, and ongoing studies seek to explain the brain and autism.

Answer 5

There's absolutely no evidence to suggest that vaccinations increase the risk of autism or play any causitive role in the disorder. Over the last 100 years global temperatures have increased, and the number of pirates have decreased. Therefore the disappearance of pirates must be responsible for global warming. It's the same logic that says that vaccinations are responsible for autism. And I've yet to see any actual scientists supporting this theory - it's predominantly anti-science wack-jobs who think that modern technology is the root of all evil.

These people who tell parents not to have their children vaccinated fail to realize that refusing to vaccinate your child is both extremely selfish and extremely stupid. If all parents choose not to have their children vaccinated, the diseases currently prevented by routine childhood vaccines would reemerge in epidemic proportions. The only thing keeping your kid safe would be the fact that other parents choose to vaccinate their kids, so if vaccines were actually harmful, then the parents who refuse to vaccinate their kids would be saying that other kids should suffer to keep their own child safe. That's the selfish part. The stupid part is that the illnesses prevented by vaccines still kill people, and the risk of dying of a such a disease is much higher than the risk of any of the potential side effects of the vaccines. Even supposing that all cases of autism in the population are caused by vaccines, which they clearly are not, the current autism rate is still significantly lower than the rate of death in childhood from the diseases these vaccines prevent was before the vaccines existed.

I'm sorry that you and your son have had to face the extra challenges presented by autism, but your son's disorder was not caused by vaccines. And even if it were, you would still have made the right decision when you had him vaccinated because the risks of not vaccinating would still outweigh the risks of vaccinating.

Answer 6

Absolutely. If you doubt it, call the CDC in Atlanta, Georgia and (lie) tell them that your child is crying and screaming then getting real still and then doing it again after a dpt shot and see what they tell you.

My grandson was having focal seizures (I did not know what to call his behavior). The CDC in Atlanta named it when I described his behavior.

The Pediatrician informed my daughter that his behavior was normal. We knew better and I called the CDC in Atlanta, GA and described (used the same wording as I did to the Pediatrican). The representative immediately said, "That's a focal seizure." She explained that it was a typical reaction to the pertussin in the DPT.

Since the Pediatrician failed to recognize the allergic reaction and report it to the CDC there was nothing that could be done. I asked for her superviser and told the supervisor that I wanted to know which branch of the government I was going to own. After a few minutes of talking to her because I was not going to get off their phone under any circumstances she finally agreed to contact the Pediatrican and our problems were over. No one could force more shots on Gabriel.

My grandson was just months old and after that he would take his little hands and push us away. We called him "Snuggle Bug" until he had that shot. After the shot he never liked to snuggle anymore.

He did not have the remaining 2 shots, but he has trouble looking us in the eye and does not like to be cuddled. I wholeheartedly believe that because health care professionals do not recognize the mild allergic reaction that they fail to report it, which would stop further damage to the child.

Google this information and read all the stories where the parents are telling health care professions for years that something is wrong with the child after a DPT and look at how long they have ignored parents. There is not this much information without a basis.

Answer 7

Well there are no established studies that prove that vaccines can cause autism. And as you would know outbursts are a part of it.

Answer 8

No one knows what causes autism. But if you're asking for opinions then I would say no. In fact, the most wonderful thing about vaccines is that whatever the mother is immune to she will pass on to her child, well before becoming pregnant with that child.

Besides autism affects the functioning of the brain. Memory, behavior, and so on. Vaccines do not affect the brain in any way.

Why do you think this? As a mother of a child with autism I would expect you to be the expert on the condition.

Answer 9

I believe autism goes back further than vaccinations. I believe it is caused by something in the womb. Perhaps a 'glitch' in the DNA that is responsible for forming the brain.

I am not going off of scientific research here - just personal interpretation.

Answer 10

I worked with children that had autism for two years. We were doing research to prove that it was genetic and all our findings showed that it was. Now this doesn't mean that you have it or anyone specific in your family has it. All it means is that you or your spouse had the genetic genes that passes down autism.