20 replies to this topic

[bordercolliefan]

One has to wonder what's going on when you hear about a rider that was added to the 2002 Homeland Security Bill, right after it passed, that would shield pharmaceutical companies from vaccine litigation.  I'm not quite sure what that has to do with Homeland Security.

That may have to do with the smallpox vaccine. That is known to be a hazardous vaccine -- though, of course, not as deadly as smallpox itself.

[OceanGirl]

This is a very interesting topic and one that I am trying to read a lot about now. I have a 3 year old son (3 1/2 at the end of the month). We had read about the possible autism-vaccination link and even inquired about getting our son's MMR shots done separately. We could find no place that would do them separately so had them done as the regular combo shot. We did wait until he was 18 months old instead of 15 months though. A weird thing happened.......he lost all his speech. He had been saying about 10 words up until that time and after the shots.....nothing until he was 2 1/2. We don't know if it was the shots or that he was just focusing on more physical aspects of development.......but it was certainly enough to make us go.......hmmmmmmmm.

We had his hearing tested, which is fine and his language just boomed at 2 1/2......this event was pretty scary for us though.

[bordercolliefan]

That is very strange and troubling.

Did the pedi offer any explanation of why an 18 mo. old would lose his speech?

[nhardy]

This is a very interesting topic and one that I am trying to read a lot about now.  I have a 3 year old son (3 1/2 at the end of the month).  We had read about the possible autism-vaccination link and even inquired about getting our son's MMR shots done separately.  We could find no place that would do them separately so had them done as the regular combo shot.  We did wait until he was 18 months old instead of 15 months though.  A weird thing happened.......he lost all his speech.  He had been saying about 10 words up until that time and after the shots.....nothing until he was 2 1/2.  We don't know if it was the shots or that he was just focusing on more physical aspects of development.......but it was certainly enough to make us go.......hmmmmmmmm.

  We had his hearing tested, which is fine and his language just boomed at 2 1/2......this event was pretty scary for us though.

Very interesting indeed. The RFK Jr. article indicate a link between thimerosal and speech delays, attention-deficit disorder, hyperactivity and autism.

This is definitely a controversal subject since all children develop at different stages.

[bordercolliefan]

It seems that one of the difficulties with figuring out the "cause" of autism is that there may be several different things going on here.

The parents who are implicating the vaccines tell a story similar to OceanGirl: my child was developing normally until he was a year old, then he got his MMR shot and he lost all his speech and retreated into his own world, etc. Parents say, "My child slipped away before my very eyes..." (they call this scenario "regressive autism").

With other children, it is obvious from birth that something is wrong. Parents and doctors describe babies who will not make eye contact, do not smile, and who arch their backs and try to get away when touched, etc.

It could be that there are numerous different environmental (or even in utero) triggers for autism.

Indeed, one trigger that researchers have identified is if the pregnant woman contracts rubella while pregnant. In this case, there is a higher risk of bearing an autistic child.

[OceanGirl]

No- the pediatrician didn't really say anything other than that we should have his hearing tested and take him to a speech therapist. Well.......we had the hearing test done (which was all fine), but didn't feel like we needed to take him for speech therapy right away- we wanted to give him more time. Plus, he's pretty stranger shy and we knew he wouldn't perform very well for a stranger at the speech place. When he reached 2 1/2, his language just exploded. He'd always communicated in other ways before that but had very limited speech development from 18 months to 2 1/2. In my earlier post I said "nothing until 2 1/2"........well, it wasn't "nothing" exactly......but by age 2, he only had about 10 words again- way below where he was "supposed" to be for that age.

I'd like to find out if this thimersol was present in his MMR shots in 2003. Wonder if I could still find that out now.....