Children Vaccines and Autism

[Three Cedars Silkies]

I grew up with very few vaccines available. In fact I believe the only vaccination I got as a child was tyhpoid and tetanus. When I was 10 years old the oral polio vaccine became available and there were thousands of us in line to get it. One of my best childhood friends had contracted polio and died when we were 12.

I developed everyone of the "childhood illnesses"...mumps, red measles, german measels, chickenpox...and I can tell you that the possible side effects of a vaccine are nothing compared to the side effects of the illness. When the diseases hit it was usually epidemic and many children died from the disease.

When my daughter was born I was happy to be able to immunize her against the diseases that I experienced. She did have a reaction to the pertussis and was not immunized against it again. The chickenpox vaccine was in clinical trials when she was 5 and she did participate. She randomized to receive 2 vaccines instead of 1. She recently had a titer for varicella done and she is still fully immunized against it.

The Army has now vaccinated her against stuff that the general public is not vaccinated for, including anthrax.

I do agree with Ultasol that diagnosing syndromes is much better now and that is why you are seeing so many children diagnosed. Also, let's talk about all the crap kids are fed these days. When I grew up we ate out of a garden with no preservatives and artificial crap added to our food....and NOTHING was genetically modified.

I am a nurse and I've seen so much disease and suffering that could be prevented by eating healthy food, leaving out the crappy stuff. I would worry MUCH more about my child getting diabetes than having a reaction to a vaccine.

 

[HHandbasket]

I wanted to clarify about my earlier post. In re-reading it this morning, I made it sound like I am against giving vaccinations. I am absolutely NOT against it. My comments were in response to earlier discussion regarding government interference is all.

I am glad I got my kids vaccinated for the very reasons listed. I've known two people in my life who had polio as children--one because the parents didn't believe in it, and the other because the family lived in a remote area where regular vaccines were not as readily available 45-50 years ago. Both people I've known who had polio are currently 55 and 35. The young man who is 35 had polio as a child because... drumroll please.... mama didn't believe in vaccinating! Gladly, she has since changed her tune and advocates every parent she knows to get their children vaccinated.

Most of the time, the government telling us what to do and when does seem cumbersome, but those rules are there for a reason.

We did not have chicken pox vaccines when I was a kid, either. We got chicken pox and got covered in calamine lotion so we wouldn't scratch. My kids had chicken pox, too. BTW, they still do not know if getting the chicken pox vaccine will prevent you from getting shingles later in life. I had rubella when I was 4, and even though I'm almost 50 now, I remember being really, really sick. It went around. A girl we went to Sunday school with got it, then my sister got it (she had it way worse than me), and then I got it.

 

[ElioraImmanuel]

The only population in this country that doesn't have rampant autism is the Amish. They rarely vaccinate. The few non-vaccine related cases that have been found were linked to environmental mercury poisoning. As a child I knew many, many children was part of a very large extended family of 1st and 2nd cousins (my grandparents had up 14 sibs) and lived in a close knit neighborhood with scores of kids. There was never anything like autism or autism spectrum. I had contact with Downs, Cerebral Palsy, the Deaf and other Mental and Emotional Issues, but never, ever anything like what I've worked with in the autistic spectrum. Now, I very few close cousins that stem from both my father and mother, but we have 3 autism spectrum children in the family, on separate sides of the family....one is very severe. The most severe of the cases is a child who is 15 yrs younger than the oldest of the children. This 1st cousin's child received far more vaccines. I know when the damage occurred because I saw it.

An ER doctor once told me that in the 23 yrs he'd been practicing, he'd seen one terrible case of chicken pox encephalitis. Well I personally know 1 mother whose son died because of a vaccine, 5 severly autistic children, have 2 children who have been harmed by vaccines and have experienced my own severe reactions to the MMR, the Hep B Vax and Tetunus. In fact, the Tetnus caused me to have such a severe reaction that included swelling on the brain and unbreakable fever of 104 for 3 days, that the doctors have told me another dose would kill me.

Do the research. Find out why it is no longer legal for a parent to sue the pharm companies. Check into the exact ingredients. For instance, the chicken pox vaccine is derived from diploid cells from aborted babies. Read the statistics. Read about the recalls through the years because of monkey viruses, death, cancer, contamination etc. Read about the possible life long consequences: rheumatoid arthritis, autimmune disease etc. Talk to Mother's whose babies were born still within 48 hrs of the flu vaccine. Polio was on the decline before the vaccine. I worked with Post Polio patients for years. Each one of them told me they'd gotten Polio after a period of being unwell; that the Polio had piggybacked some other issue. Conversely, those who are now having the worst outbreaks of Pertussis, Measles etc are those who are fully vaccinated.

Our bodies are designed to combat disease. If this weren't the case the human race would be long gone.

http://osteomed2.com/default.aspx

http://www.drfeder.com/index.php?page=articles&action=viewArticle&articleID=258

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2003/07/12/vaccine-procedure.aspx

 

[Three Cedars Silkies]

This is a highly volatile subject. Below is a short article that addresses the "vivid perception" that some folks have about the relationship between vaccines and autism.

The Link Between Vaccines and Autism: True or False?
By JAMIE HALE

Does vaccination increase the likelihood of autism?

One hypothesis is that vaccination in general, MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) virus live vaccine, and vaccines that contain mercury cause autism. Actress Jenny McCarthy is one of the most outspoken proponents of the autism-vaccine hypothesis. She has appeared on numerous TV shows, radio shows and other media outlets where she has claimed that there is definitely a link between vaccines and autism.

Former presidential candidate John McCain stated, “It’s indisputable that autism is on the rise amongst children, the question is what’s causing it… There’s strong evidence that indicates that it’s got to do with a preservative in vaccines.”

President Obama stated, “We’ve seen just a skyrocketing autism rate. Some people are suspicious that it’s connected to the vaccines — this person included.”

What Science Says About Vaccines and Autism
Solt and Bornstein reviewed studies that investigated the autism-vaccine hypothesis. The researchers concluded that:

Studies that investigated this theory [hypothesis] did not find an association between vaccine administration and between digestive system symptoms and autism. According to a second hypothesis, an organomercury compound (Thimerosal), used as a preservative in vaccines that do not include live viruses, is a cause of autism. Like the former, this hypothesis has been well researched, and refuted. Some studies have in fact found an increase in autism diagnosis among children who were vaccinated after Thimerosal was removed from the vaccine preparation. Recent studies have refuted the theory that the consecutive administration of vaccines weakens the young immune system in children, and leads to an autoimmune process that causes autism.

Exposure to thimerosal, a mercury-containing preservative found in vaccines and immunoglobulin preparations, has been hypothesized to be associated with increased risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A study conducted by Price and colleagues (2010) examined relationships between prenatal and infant ethylmercury exposure from thimerosal-containing vaccines or immunoglobulin preparations, and ASD and 2 ASD subcategories (autistic disorder and autism spectrum disorder with regression). The researchers concluded that prenatal and early-life exposure to ethylmercury from thimerosal-containing vaccines and immunoglobulin preparations was not related to increased risk of ASDs.

Lilienfeld and colleagues (2010, p.198) point out:

[T]here’s no solid evidence for any link between autism and vaccinations — including either injections containing thimerosal or injections for MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella; Institute of Medicine, 2004; Offit, 2008)

everal large American, European, and Japanese studies revealed that even as the rates of vaccinations stayed the same or went down, the rates of diagnosed autism increased (Herbert, Sharp, & Gaudiano, 2002; Honda, Shimizu, & Rutter, 2005). Even after the government removed thimerosal from vaccines in 2001, the rates of autism in California continued to climb rapidly until 2007 (Schechter & Grether, 2008).

Vividness Effect

Scientific evidence does not support the autism-vaccine link. However, compelling personal testimonials often dissuade people from accepting the scientific evidence. The vividness of personal testimony often trumps evidence of higher reliability. This problem in belief formation occurs due to what cognitive psychologists call the vividness effect. Society is replete with examples of the vividness effect. To further illustrate this point consider the following scenario. You are deciding whether you should try a dietary supplement that is purported to decrease appetite. After reading the scientific research on the product you conclude that the supplement does not decrease appetite. The next day you mention the supplement to your friend, who suggests the supplement worked great for her. Should this anecdote persuade you to purchase the supplement, even though scientific data suggests otherwise? There is a good chance that the friend’s testimony would outweigh the scientific evidence. The vividness effect is evident with the acceptance of the autism-vaccine link. Most people don’t read scientific journals and the majority of media reports aren’t concerned with what science says, but with what makes good headlines.

The public’s misunderstandings of the autism-vaccine link may be very dangerous. In 2008, the New York Times reported increases in measles in the U.S., Italy, Switzerland, Austria, and Italy; these are all areas where many parents have declined vaccinations for their children.

 

[HeatherLynn]

You can request vaccines without thimerosal if thats a worry. I know my ob/gyn and our pediatrician only offer vaccines without it. They have never made a big deal of it but when I asked that is what I was told. Its standard practice for them.

 

[babylady4]

The Thimerisol preservative in the vaccines is inert inside the human body. We do not metabolize it in any way; it leaves our systems in 24-48 hours in the exact same chemical composition as it was when injected.

The Oral Polio vaccine that was given to babies contained live (attenuated) virus that could still be capable of infecting someone with a weakened immune system; the practice of giving the oral vaccine has been halted and the injection of the killed virus is now favored for I believe the first 4 vaccinations (?).


I did not want to give my kids the chicken pox vaccine, I wanted them to get the pox and have the immunity the natural way. The problem with that was everyone else had immunized their kids; there was no way my kids would get it (herd immunity) so I had them get the vaccine since my oldest DD was pushing into her teens and I did NOT want her to get the disease then.

All in all it is a catch-22; you know the risks of the illness and the risks of the vaccines so you figure out the lesser of the two and go for it. Most of the time nothing happens either way.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

1.Yes, my husbands' family has a friend with a child that "got" his autism the next day after immunizations- fever, then autistic.

2. My oldest son came down with a KIDNEY infection and fever not even 24 hours after a bunch of immunizations- (age = 6 months) requiring hospitalization and IVs. Perfectly healthy before. He had to live on antibiotics for years after that.

3. My mom's next door neighbor has Guillan-Barre syndrome (I think I may have misspelled it) FROM a flu shot. Her words. She hobbles around.

4. I do not immunize anymore. I have two children. I have it listed under religious exemption at school because, happily, I AM against it too because of religion.

 

[SarahFair]

Im so on the edge about this!

 

[cheri222]

Ive attended CDC conferences in PA re vaccines. They have great information on their site. You can get free vaccines from the health dept where you live. Many of these vaccines are required for your child to start school , even college requires proof. We (even the kids)all received extra vaccines after consulting with a private infectious disease dr prior to traveling overseas. Seek out expert advice to help ease your mind.

 

[Livinzoo]

Well keep researching. Once they are given you can't take them back, but you can always give them later if that is what you decide to do.