Is it true that Amish children (who are not vaccinated) do not get autism?

Question

I'm still in the angry stage. My 21 month old beautiful baby boy was just diagnosed autistic. It seemed like he changed overnight. Lost his speech, started staring at wheels on cars, walking on tippy toes, lines up shoes all day and bangs his head. It did all start shortly after these controversial vaccinations. I am now hating myself. I wish I had researched these vaccines then instead of now. He is starting Early Intervention and it is too soon to know what the future holds. Anyone have any thoughts?

Answer 1

Many of the previous posters are ill informed. Thirmisol isn't an "ingredient" in vacs anymore...but it is still used in processing and is still found in the vaccines. It's not 500 people in the first group of lawsuits. It's just under 5000. They are presenting the proof that their autism was caused by vaccines and the court's job is to assign blame, basically. There's no doubt that it was the cause in *those* 5000 cases. The groups that are gearing up to follow these cases weren't included in the initial group because they were either felt to be too high functioning (like aspergers) or there was at least a possibility their autism spectrum disorder was caused by something other than vaccines.

If you visit the FDA website you can look up the approvals on all vaccines. What you'll find is that almost every approval letter contains a waiver releasing the manufacturer from the requirement of providing the results of any safety testing they may have done. In some cases, it implies none was done. In several cases it states that they did not meet the FDA standards so they are waiving them of needing to, and approving the vaccine anyway. Also, no vaccine on the market to date was tested on children in the age range it is administered to. Most were tested on children 10+. Additionally, many of the vaccines that are given to babies were not approved for them at all. The FDA approved them for ages 11+ but the CDC put the vaccines on their schedule for babies and toddlers.

All of this information is availible on the FDA website, and you can view the manufacturer's inserts that your doctors are required by law to give you before your child is vaccinated. I have yet to find a doctor that does, but that law is not enforced. Those inserts warn you about the many allergens and neurotoxins that are used to process vaccines and often used as ingredients in them. Thirmisol is just one of MANY, and where it isn't present there is always something equally dangerous.

Answer 2

I'm sorry to hear that. However, the science and research community is ADAMANT that there is no link between the two. Thirmisol hasn't been in vaccines since 2000 and even before it was removed, the amount of mercury in vaccines was less than.01%. Also, after it was removed, autism rates went up, so that doesn't make sense. What you've been hearing is a class action suit agains the manufactorers of the MMR...but there isn't any scientific proof(which you don't need to proceed in the courts). What scientists and researches DO believe is that there is a genetic factor involved...look at families that have more than one autistic child, cousins etc. Please don't beat yourself up about this. I know it's probably not what you want to hear, but if you did do the research...you'd find a lot of angry parents looking for someone to blame but you'll also find more parents that believe that the scientific community is on the right track by trying to isolate the gene that is the carrier. At least, that's what I found when I did research before I DID decide to vaccinate. Good luck.

Answer 3

There have been a number of stories in the media that back this up. Mostly in the last couple of years.
Then there is also some news that showed a coorelation between the Amish and a genetic mutation that caused siezures, autism and mental retardation.
There are things to consider when thinking about this. Amish dont vaccinate...maybe (some actually do) but what else do they not do.
Many of them dont:
Eat foods outside of thier own food source. Meaning many of them grow thier own veggies, raise thier own meat.
Many dont use high tech electronics that emitt radion waves. Many dont drive cars.
There are many things that they dont do that we do that may in fact have an impact on our genes.
Lastly what the Amish dont do a whole lot is participate in Western Medicine. The research on numbers of Amish communities is small and shouldnt be used to state a fact. Amish are very private people and many may not seek out medical help or diagnosis of autism.
While in theory this may sound like a good idea to study the Amish to see the prevalence of autism I find it difficult to do. It would be awesome to be able to realy research this but with the Amish being so private I dont see it happening.

Answer 4

You did NOTHING wrong. Autism is an epidemic now... there are so many parents blaming themselves and they should not be. I did not have a complicated pregnancy and I did everything right while pregnant: no smoking, no drinking, no drugs, ate right, etc. And my son was still autistic. We do not have a history of autism in the family either.

With my daughter, I did have some complications with my pregnancy including gestational diabetes and some Rh factor issues. Yet, she did NOT get autism. I was really, really relieved that it did not afflict her.

The fact is: autism is REALLY on the rise and it may or may not be caused by the vaccines (I think it is, but that's my opinion) and it affects mainly boys. And it has NOTHING to do with anything the mom did while pregnant or anything like that - it just happens. Jenny McCarthy has an autistic son. So does John Travolta, and also Holly Robinson Peete. Autism affects a lot of people, more than you know!

I know you're angry and depressed right now but TRUST me, it gets better, it really does! My son went from a mute, clumsy, spaced out child at 18 months to a sweet, loving, kind, talkative, intelligent boy who's almost 5. He has come a LONG way and honestly, you'd never know he has autism unless you sat with him for a while. I do think autism can be defeated or ALMOST "cured" through therapy, diet, etc.

My son reads very well. He knows his states and capitals. He knows the planets, numbers, knows how to play lots of games beyond his age level. You know that little electronic handheld game 20 Questions? He's not even 5 yet and that's been his favorite game for almost a year, he sits there, reads the words on the screen which goes by VERY fast and plays twenty questions by himself with the little computer. I can't even read as fast as he can.

My point is - you will have frustrations but you also have a wonderful little boy who will surprise you!!

Answer 5

There is no proven scientific link between the vaccines and autism. I honestly believe that the rise is due to better diagnoses, and the fact that the autism spectrum is so broad now. I look at my son, who has PDD NOS.... and I think 10 or 20 years ago, he would've been the kid people would've said was a "hyper boy" and talked late "because he was a boy", etc.... I don't know.

I don't blame you for being angry, having your child diagnosed as autistic is devastating (I know from experience!). But you can't beat yourself up about this. I went through the same stages... first overwhelming grief, then anger... then moved into (and still am in) the fighting stage. I'm fighting this autism with all my might for my son. And it can be done! With proper therapies and a ton of hard work (both on my son's part and mine!), my son is making remarkable progress and the future is looking much brighter.
Ages 2-3 was such a scary point for me... could not remotely see the light at the end of the tunnel. My son just turned four.... I can almost make out a dim light now.... future still a little fuzzy but its looking better every day.

Don't hate yourself. There is nothing, I repeat, nothing you could've done differently to prevent this. Put all your efforts into helping your son from this point on, channel your anger, if you can, into hard work with your son. Its so hard, I know, but you will see the rewards soon. Children are so remarkable, and your son is so young, he will make SO much progress... Its hard to see now (I couldn't see it at all when my son was 2, felt so hopeless)... but you will get there. I wish you all the best!

Answer 6

I am very sorry for you and your son, and your whole family.

I know that when bad things happen it's normal to be angry, and normal to look for what went wrong, and normal to hate yourself. Please get some counseling for yourself to help you cope with this news.

About autism and Amish kids, I do not know. I'd be surprised. The supposed link is in the mercury that used to be (and in some places/shots still is) in the shots. Look at Denmark. It's been well over a decade since kids' shots there no longer had thimerosal in them, and their autism rate appears to be increasing in the same manner as in the US. Kids who get autism often get it at this age - which coincides with a series of shots. Correlation does not imply causation.

I very much hope that EI can help your child. Research suggests better outcomes for children who get therapy early!

Editing to add: Okay, I just did a google search. In ONE county, there is a reported much, much lower rate of autism in Amish people. It also looks as though throughout the US, this is the case, though not as low necessarily as mentioned for that one county. Even still, I have two points to make. Vaccinations are not the only point where Amish people differ from the general population. They don't watch TV or play video games, spend much time around cars (I think?), etc. Also, they are a genetically isolated group. If there is genetic condition (or a set of genetic conditions) that predispose a person to autism, then there is a good possibility that the Amish genome does not contain this/these condition/s, or has it/them at a very, very low frequency. It would be interesting to see immigration (into the Amish community) rates in different areas to number of kids with autism.

Answer 7

Yes, I work doing vaccinations and I have one woman who didn't vaccinate because she was scared they would get autism. She came back a year later with her 3 year old who couldn't talk, and was autistic, and on the more severe end of the spectrum. She has since vaccinated. The link between MMR and autism is BS. My children were both clearly autistic before MMR too. I saw no difference in their behaviour.

Answer 8

I am a mother of a 3yro, autistic boy and an Autism Parent Consultant by profession. I can relate to the "angry stage." I assure you that you, as a parent, did nothing wrong.

There are many theories surrounding the cause(s) of autism. Although many parents are adament that the vaccinations caused autism in their children, there is clearly not scientific evidence to back this. Although yesterday began the court proceedings regarding 500 families whom are suing the government over vaccinations and autism. They court very well may rule in these families favors as in this specific case it does not have to be ruled "without a shadow of a doubt."

I am more inclined to believe autism is caused by a combination of factors. Genetic (this HAS been proven), enviromental, neurological and intestinal. All of these have research to confirm some sincere concerns.

I promise you will find real joy with your son and encourage you to join a parent support group. One thing that helped me was to be grateful it is autism and not a life threatening disease.

Best wishes!
By the way, I know 2 Amish families with autistic children!

Answer 9

I work for a state mental health agency, Some of our clients were part of a study done by the Center for Disease Control on the causes of Autism. Apparently, they found no obvious connection with Autism and vaccines.

Also, our agency has clients with Autism who have other problems such as Down's, Klinefelter's, and Praeder-Willi Syndromes; Vaccines can't cause chromosomal anomalies.

We don't have any Amish children that I know of, but we do have some kids with Autism who are from other countries such as Ethiopia, Somalia, Boznia, Albania,
Guatemala, India, Romania, Russia, etc.,--I really don't know, but I suspect a lot of those kids didn't get the same vaccines that American children get.

I not sure if any of this helps you or not, but I hope you don't blame yourself.

Answer 10

My brother was diagnosed with asperger syndrome (which is high functioning autism) about 14 years ago. There has been no link between vaccinations and autism yet. The number of diagnosed has actually been on the rise since taking out or reducing Thimerosal, the ingredient in the MMR vaccine that has been linked to autism.