Just wondering if anyone out there has a child w/ autism who HASN"T recieved any vaccines??

My 7 yr old: vaccinated ~ NT
My 5 yr old: vaccinated ~ moderately autistic
My 2 yr old: NOT vaccinated~ speech delay....

(All boys)

-Thanks for sharing!!!

Kim W.
Seattle

Kim, You might want to research the incidence of autism in populations that refuse vaccination, such as the Amish.

OOOhhhh! Very interesting. I am personally of the genetic theory. I have a 7 yo boy diagnosed with PDD-NOS. I have seen more and more characteristics in my husband going through this all with our son. I am dead set my father-in-law and my brother-in-law are.
Ironically, my sisiter-in-law has not immunized her 2 boys, due to new religious belief, they are distant from the family, but according to other family, her children (5 and 3) have severe speech delays, problems with "behavior" and structure. I am very interested to see if they are ever offically diagnosed with anything.
I think if you look at the Amish like the previous poster mentioned, you are going to have a discrepancy because most Amish marry within their community and you are not going to have the gene pool as if in the general population. I think the only true way to test the immunization theory is when they find the exact cause and cure for Autism.

When I was pregnant with my second son I came across a site about how damaging vaccinations were so I decided not to get my second son vaccinated. He has never recieved a vaccination, not even the one they give them a few hours after they are born and he is autistic.

Both of my kids have been vaccinated. My son has Autism, my daughter (the oldest) is NT.

I am curious about this too.. and I'd also be interested to know if anybody who had their Autistic children vaccinated, then went on to get booster shots? (My son is supposed to have booster shots at age 5.. I'm not sure if this would have any effect on him? He is "high functioning").

I was wondering this as well. In places where they don't have the vaccinations we do (poor 3rd world countries, etc..) are there instances of autism? I am pregnant with my 3rd child and until very recently, lived in NJ my whole life (autism capital of the USA). My 2 other children are fine. They were born in the early 90's when the vaccination link wasn't even made yet (I don't think).

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The vaccination debate continues!! I was convinced for a long time that mmr caused my boy's autism. However, these days when I look back (he's five and a half now), I can see that there were signs as a baby and a toddler, which I had no idea were signs at all. For example, although he started to use speech at around the right times, when I look back now I think it was echolalia and not truly learnt speech. I am also pretty sure that he wasn't understanding words at that point (this is still his major area of difficulty) and was responding to other cues and signals. He was an incredibly good baby and toddler - I've read quite a few books now that feature children who were very good babies, and he did start getting faddy with food - at the time I paid no attention, looking back I think it was textures he didn't like? He didn't make a murmer through teething (maybe showing a high pain threshold?) and he was doing the repetetive stuff from a young age.

So to get back to the question - I know of people whose kids are autistic and they didn't vaccinate and there are, of course, millions of people who do vaccinate and their kids aren't autistic. I do feel quite strongly that vaccinations are not suitable for some children and that they can and do increase autistic symptoms and problems with the gut that may pre-exist (as well as maybe other health problems in later life). I try as much as possible to avoid anything un-natural with my son now, and that includes vaccinations. He hasn't had (and won't have) any boosters although, where I am in the UK that can flag you up as a 'neglectful' parent and bring social services to your door.

My personal bug bear with the government is their adamance that vaccinations are safe. There isn't conculsive proof of this and, most 'vaccine damage' advocates say there 'may' be a link - they are fine about admitting they don't have conculsive proof. I don't believe there are absolutes either way and I don't trust governments that insist there are!

I was wondering this as well. In places where they don't have the vaccinations we do (poor 3rd world countries, etc..) are there instances of autism? I am pregnant with my 3rd child and until very recently, lived in NJ my whole life (autism capital of the USA). My 2 other children are fine. They were born in the early 90's when the vaccination link wasn't even made yet (I don't think).

I've wondered about this also Madison..........do other countries have the same high incidence of Autism that is here??

I work in education, and am always amazed at the "new" syndromes that appear each year...Autism seems to be the most prevelent in our Special Needs population.

A couple years ago, some research in my county showed a higher amount of Autism in certain areas....they called them "pods". Interesting...sounds like an environmental factor in some cases. I often wonder about food additives that parents aren't aware of giving their children...certainly not on purpose...just trusting they are doing the right thing.

These forums are such a usefull tool for sharing challenges, information, and hope...........Pam;)

My little sister has Asperger's, like me. I was vaccinated; she wasn't. The only difference between our level of Asperger's is that I stim more.

Other countries are very hard to get data from--the definition of "autism" is different in different places. Some countries' people don't bring autistic children to psychiatrists, preferring to raise them at home instead. Many countries with few doctors and psychiatrists will probably not diagnose most of the high-functioning cases at all. In some places, autism tends to be diagnosed as something else, such as selective mutism, reactive attachment disorder, or (in the higher functioning cases) ADHD or a lack of discipline.

The only way to get those stats would be to have a single group of researchers sample the population of each country to be studied, evaluate the children themselves, and, using the same criteria for autism in each place, count up the numbers.

Regarding unevenness in autism distribution: In some places, being slightly autistic is an advantage. For example, a computer programmer with Asperger's may be more successful than the same person would be without Asperger's. So, in those places, those who carry the genetic makeup that predisposes towards autism will be more likely to marry, have children, and pass on those genes. I suspect that such a predisposition is most advantageous in industrialized nations, in which jobs are highly specialized, and the corresponding highly specialized brain which borders on autism is a useful trait. (This phenomenon has already been seen with sickle-cell anemia: Carrying the sickle-cell trait makes one resistant to malaria; so in areas where malaria is common, sickle-cell anemia is also common--because being a carrier, just like being mildly autistic, confers an advantage.)

There has been lots of research into the autism/MMR vaccine argument, which was started with some very poor research. Subsequent research has shown no connection. Infection rates and complications have gone up, however as people refuse vaccinations.

There is new research that autism may be correlated with television viewing. Other research shows correlation between autism and the age of the father.