As a mother of five young children, I have had a lot of cause to think about this subject. I vaccinated my daughters but took a break before completing my sons vaccinations to read more about vaccines- this was also at a height of the vaccine/autism link scare. Ultimately, herd immunity and the protection of people who had compromised immune systems was a huge factor in my decision to continue vaccinating all of my children (beside of course the obvious- hey, let's not get polio kids) and all five of my children (and my little Lilah) are and continue to be vaccinated. The benefit to the whole seems necessary. That said, my middle son is autistic. He is sweet and smart and chatty, loves the color yellow and pandas and the number 88, lol. And although his issues are pretty appearant and have been (or maybe should have been but that's a long story) since Very early on, strangely enough, his two brothers have recently been identified (somewhat unofficially) by our special Ed doctor as falling under the autistic category as well. They are very different from orion, very 'normal' you might say and honestly, I am still not sure how I feel about this take on things.
That said, I have done a lot of searching in this area, we go to a therapist and see a dr and work with special Ed at school etc etc Although it does not appear as though vaccines are causing Autism- and the only potentially viable standing platform thAt might've had in my mind would've been the thimerasol/Mercury in the vaccines which they took out thirteen years ago- it does seem like it must be influenced by impacting environmental factors (food toxins? Herbicides? I really don't know). I beleive there is also a huge flux of diagnosis too, example my oldest boy was at the dr last Friday, we were discussing a long term issue that seemed to relate to hearing but the audiologist said he hears fine- dr says, well this sounds like what we used to call auditory processing disorder (explains it) but now we categorize that under ASD- autism. Really?? My oldest boy is nothing like my middle boy! That is why they call it a spectrum is what he says. Still not sure I buy it but either way an interesting thought toward what is being called autism that used to not be. Even so, though the numbers may be bloated with a huge categorization of issues being applied to ASD I think it is undeniable that it is more prevelant than before. it is, to say the least, a curious turn of events for the human species.
__________________ Alyssa and Lilah    |