Originally posted by Nonchalant
I believe there may be a link between autism & vaccinations.

My sister has a 7 year old who is autistic and has never spoken a word. However when he was only a few years old & diagnosed, my sister stated she believed there was a link with his condition & vaccinations. Why im not sure.

If you do a little research however you will find there is quite a bit of documentation suggesting this link. Has the incidence of autism risen since the introduction of vaccinations? I dont know. You may want to look into it however.

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Originally posted by frozen_snowman

Yes mercury and autism are truly related.
Anyone who researches this phenomena should have a look at China where autism as unheard of since a certain vaccination program started approx 7 years ago and …boom…
Over 1 million cases of autism have been recorded since.

I know this is no help to someone who has kids with autism but it should be a consideration for anyone who will vaccinate their child.

Could be onto something there...

Mercury and Aluminium (both neurotoxins) in the vaccines. Builds to toxic levels in the third round at 18 months.

The sad part is that there is no good reason to have these elements in vaccines. These chemicals are added to stop things growing in the vaccine so big phrama can ship multiple use bottles.

I hate to break it to you but there is a very good chance your child is autistic so that a drug company could save 15 cents.

I tried to U2U you this, but I don't have enough posts.

The statistic you quote in your first post has a lot to do with a sort of mass media frenzy concerning the topic of autism (1 out of 150). Right now the NIH (national institute of health) and affiliated govt funding agencies are heavily funding autism research. How do I know? Part of my PhD thesis uses an animal model of autism. I am finding it very easy to get funded despite the huge budget cuts that have been imposed by the Bush administration compared to my colleagues. Because of the media frenzy involved a lot of misinformed people are spreading false/skewed info. Not on purpose, but because the telephone effect blows up data and scientific results into headlines that people love to read about. The whole point of this post is that from your description of your child it doesn't sound like autism at all. Right now autism is on everyone's minds and the diagnosis rates are soaring (hence the 1 in 150 stats). This happened with Depression (for example) which didn't officially exist until it became a medical diagnosis that the pharmaceutical companies could exploit. Another example is hyperactive disorders for which doctors are rampantly prescribing medications.

The push for research into autism is actually to develop some kind of treatment for the spectrum of disorders (that the drug company can charge you for). I'm worried that your son may have been diagnosed incorrectly. You should definitely get a second opinion. If he is above normal intelligence and socially well adjusted (in general) it could be that he is just very very intelligent. Very intelligent individuals have a hard time interacting with normal people sometimes (especially when a very smart child is trying to interact with normal/below normally intelligent individuals). You might just need to get him into a better school with harder more challenging curriculum. Ok this is getting long winded and I apologize. I know you said you have done a lot of research, but if you have any specific questions feel free to contact me. I know this may be a surprise, but a lot of doctors and clinicians are heavily influenced by the mass media and the pharmaceutical companies trying to push their products. I can maybe give you a different (non-agenda) perspective on the neurobiological/behavioral side of the spectrum of autistic disorders. One final question. When you said he is very smart is he ridiculously good at math, because that is a characteristic of autism. I mean can he do huge calculations in his head? Feel free to U2U me. I can make scientific journals you might not have access to available to you if you are interested in info straight from the source without the media spin.

Ok I'm going to double post concerning the above statement about vaccinations. Not that it isn't true, but an overwhelming majority of the evidence points towards teratogenic compounds that interact with genetic susceptibility concerning the etiology of the autism spectrum disorders. What I mean is that there are environmental compounds that the mother is exposed to at specific developmental periods that when coupled with specific genetic susceptibilities leads to embryological assault that induces developmental deficits that manifest as the autism disorders later in life. It was originally assumed that something was happening later (early childhood) because the symptoms manifest later, but this is more of a secondary side effect of the preliminary assault. People are good at making connections and thus its easy to come up with a lot of explanations for autism onset surrounding the actual diagnosis as opposed to the initial assault (which happens in the womb).
Refer to
Rodier P.M., Ingram J.L., Tisdale B., Nelson S. and Romano J. Embryological origin for autism: Developmental anomalies of the cranial nerve motor nuclei. J Comp Neurol 1996, 370:247-261.

for a thorough review

The figure is 1 in 80 boys in the US. You cannot rationalise this as autism being detected more frequently. It simply isn’t that case that 1 in 150 children are mentally retarded. The figure should be closer to 1 in 10000.

The conclusions are not even far fetched. We know mercury explodes brain cells causing brain damage, we know aluminium causes Alzheimer’s disease. Now you put these elements in vaccines and shoot them into little kids… And you are shocked when 1 in 150 is mentally retarded?

Western medicine is a joke. Lets cut people up and sew them back together and hope they get better.

Originally posted by halocleptic
Ok I'm going to double post concerning the above statement about vaccinations. Not that it isn't true, but an overwhelming majority of the evidence points towards teratogenic compounds that interact with genetic susceptibility concerning the etiology of the autism spectrum disorders.

Not to mention that if it were true, the military children (like myself and my brother) would have an extremely high rate of autism. We received vaccinations for nearly everything under the sun.

Likewise missionary kids and diplomats' kids.

Originally posted by Essedarius

Originally posted by Yandros
I hate to break it to you but there is a very good chance your child is autistic so that a drug company could save 15 cents.

WTF.
Seriously Yandros, where the f'ing hell do you get off pulling a statement like that out of your ass.

Wow ... getting angry is not a solution either and I believe that was not the intention of the original poster. I believe he wanted some info on the subject and unfortunately this 'mercury thing' does not fall far behind...

I have to agree with Yandros on this one. I'm sure Yandros intention was not to make fun of the Child's situation.
I'm also sure that it is in every parent’s intention to do the best for their child....

BTW I work for more than 5 years with autistic people and did lots of research....

People don't need to be bashed for their opinion.

All these studies are of Danish kids. The autism rate in Denmark is much lower (although still extremely high) i.e. 1 in 500.

Do you see whats wrong with these studies:
a) They are reported by the New York times, which is a highly controled publication.
b) None of the studies are done in the U.S.
c) All of the studies are more than 7 years old or apply to periods pre 2000.
d) Two of them conclude that Autism increased after they removed the mercury. Mercury is a well known neurotoxin, so whatever they replaced it with must be worse.
e) None of the studies looked at a control group of kids who took NO vaccines to see if there was a definite difference in rates of Autism. WHY?

And you can knock my teeth out all you want (or pretend to if it makes you happy) but I would put these studies in the same category as "smoking does not cause cancer" studies done by cigarette companies.

To have this published by the NY Times the person paying for the studies must have been very influential. You can guess it was big Pharam, and we all know that whoever pays the piper picks the tune.

Originally posted by robertfenix
I am not sold that it is actually a "problem" social interaction can be taught, he can learn how to express and experience emotions and to develop sympathy.

You can not teach intelligence.

Do not worry, but as his parent you MUST provide him with an enviroment where he is forced to interact with other kids, it might take a while to find the right sport or activity but once you do and he begins to feel that the other people are of equal capacity to him he will begin to build the social interaction skills he is missing.

People with High IQ as children can regard those people that they feel are not as smart as them with a sort of distain and almost treat them like they do not exist.

This is why IMO Autistic children with High IQ's are viewed as withdrawn. It is not that they do not know how to interact, its that they feel it is not required or not vital or even important to their current activity to then turn their attention to interact with someone else.

Its a type of self only personality shell that you as a parent have to break open by giving the child a compelling reason to interact with another person. Yet it must be done in an enviroment where the child feels it was his personal choice to interact with another person.

Whatever you do, do not shelter the child and do not allow them to alienate themselves from playmates. There should be an agreement that he can have X number of hours as alone play time, but that he must spend X number of hours in a group activity. As long as it is fun for him over time he will begin to want more "group" time vs alone time.

I have autism. I'm 34 now, but when I was a kid I had a really rough time.
People were very uneducated about it back then. They tried to put me on ritulin, change me from left handed to right handed, sent me to various psychologists etc. I went from special classes for kids with "problems" to special advanced subject classes in school. But the thing was I never had interest in any of it. I was disruptive to the other kids, and extremely critical of others to the point where it got me in a lot of trouble.

The reason I quoted this post was because it is pretty accurate. I never cared to socialize or compete with anyone since I saw no point in it. And believe me, that takes a lot to change. It doesn't mean there is no possibility of a social life (I am married with a little boy and have friends), but rather means that anyone I deem to possess a minimum level of intelligence in my mind does not exist to me. I ignore them. I often find myself frustrated with a lot of other people, especially people who lack abstract or diverse thought. I have no care to socialize with them. I am lucky that my wife is of substantial intelligence and we have very deep conversations. I think that is what attracted me to her, among other things.

And I have become a consistent over-achiever in everything I do with all the time I spend doing things, but again, I agree I take it all for granted. (I have to be reminded frequently) Where I am currently at is never good enough, so I often find myself spending a majority of my time perfecting things I do. But this is not necessarily a bad thing. I make a very good living. In fact, I won't get into specifics but I am also a pretty popular pro boxer like my father and grandfather before me. I have an advanced knowledge of electronics, mechanics, and I am an accomplished self-taught guitar player. The emphasis here is that I am a success, I have happines, love and all the other things other people have. Autism doesn't separate you from all of that. I find that the only time I am really separated from everyone else is when I am in pursuit of a goal. I get pretty "fierce" when anyone gets in my way so to speak. I am also NOT a team player. I have to call the shots. I refuse to put my name on anything
that I didn't have complete control of myself. Hope that helps....

Mod Edit: Post Removed At Member's Request.








[edit on 14/4/2007 by Mirthful Me]

Oh and as a sidenote, I find that the more I grew and matured as a person, the less problems I encountered in life. It's no different from a the process of a "normal" person growing up in structure, but rather a different approach and perspective on things I guess.

We often for reasons of insecurity deem things we don't understand to be "abnormal", but who is to say what normal is with all of the variables we see in individuals? If we wera all designed to be "normal" I wouldn;t want to be here at all.

To me "normal' is what I call a "junk word". It makes no sense. "Normal" is a word that to me keeps people in their comfort zone and creates a false sense of security. Everyone has "defects" or what I call variables, and that's what makes us all beautiful and unique by design.

As far as what is a proper approach in dealing with an autistic child, my opinion is that they should be treated NO DIFFERENT than you would treat any other kid. You do the best you can with what you have. There is no proper way contrary to what a lot fo these self-proclaimed experts in the field say. Stay away from those people. It's people like that, who caused me al of the problems I had as a kid. Some kids like chicken nuggets for dinner and others like filet mignon. Some like to draw with crayons, and others are accomplished oil painters. It's all relative.

lombozo it sounds to me that you are in the very same sitiuation as i am my son is 6 yrs old but very smart and has minor physical issues that he deals with realy well.

He cant run as good as the other kids because he has realy tight ligaments in his lower extremeties, so alot of the major sports kids play he probebaly wont play.

i decided to get him involved in golf he has upper body strength like no other 6 yr old (I wouldnt want to be the first school kid to decide to pick on him if you know what i mean).

At first when he was diagnosed i took it realy hard because you know what does every parent want they want a good healthy child and it took me awhile but i realised i do have a good healthy child just things are different.

He finds it realy hard to focus when working on things can be very hyper active, but we have found 1 thing that has helped him and that is reike healing, i myself had no belief in it what so ever but my wife was determined to try and i actualy learned first hand that it does have positive effects.

So i can give you this advice if he has any issues with listining and paying attention hang in thier because thier can be some rough days but no matter what that kid does they always make up for it when they cuddle up to you and show you that they love you.

I cannot recommend Temple Grandin's books enough. "Animals in TRanslation" is the first one I read. She is a highly-functioning autistic with a Ph.D. SHe is an expert in her field, that of working with ranchers, etc. to help them understand the psychology of animals. She designed a special cattle shute for the cattle and since she was so in tune with animals, she wanted to know what the animal felt when it went through her cattle chute; so she got in the chute herself. She then discovered that doing that, helped her greatly with the anxiety she felt from autism. Whenever she feels anxiety coming on, she crawls into the cattle chute. Something about the closeness of the chute walls helps her feel secure, just like it does for the cattle. There are many similarities between autistics and animals and Ms. Grandin proves it. I think that's why many autistics seem to have a special affinity for animals. They experience some things in the same way. For example, feeding an animal in a brightly colored container can make an animal nervous. They are very, very sensitive to light, bright colors, etc. I have a horse who's very gentle and sweet, but she really freaks out when I put her feed in a bright blue bowl. She won't eat from it, because it's too unnerving to her.
My mother and I have always suspected that I may be a highly functioning autistic. In some ways it makes alot of sense. I have always been highly intelligent and a little antisocial, although I now have learned alot of good people skills. As a kid, I spent most of my time playing alone. I liked it, it didn't bother me, but it did concern my mother. The thing is, you see though, that very intelligent people NEED to spend alot of time alone, thinking. And I know I have trouble with people who are not very intelligent, usually people who are narrow-minded and don't think logically. For me, they don't exist almost, as someone else said earlier.
I had a hard time making friends and was very shy around strangers. I have always just thought differently and marched to a different tune from others. In the end, though, I did very well. I was a flight attendant and then I got my Master's degree and was a therapist for 15 years. Now, I'm running my own online ezine.
I am married to a wonderful man, who is himself highly intelligent and wonderfully eccentric, I live on a bit of beautiful land with lots of animals and I'm very, very happy. I also have lots of friends, having found a community of other geniuses. Since we think in similar ways and due to the fact that geniuses will tolerate weird, eccentric behavior more than most, we all feel like a family. It would be a good thing if your son could meet other highly intelligent people.
The one thing I would advise for your son, Lombozo, is to give your boy everything he wants in the way of learning and creativity. Get him all the books, games, toys, etc. that will inspire his creativity. HIs brain needs to be constantly engaged, learning new things, or else he will get bored adn that's when behavioral problems start or he becomes very frustrated. He will do much better if his brain is engaged in learning, reasoning, thinking and problem solving. He needs to have as rich an environment as you can provide him. Animals are also excellent companions for autistics. The autistic doesn't have to talk or socialize, but he/she can learn about emotions from animals and form very close bonds, all while they are improving their social skills in some way.
But the best thing, Lombozo, is soemthing you've already given him in spades and that is your infinite love and pride in him. Good job, Lombozo, keep us posted, will you? Your son sounds absolutely fascinating.

Man, you look optimistic about your child "difference" . Anyway, just keep it that way. Autism is often described as a huge handicap for people, but nowadays we are developing services dedicated to these people and they have good people taking care of them and showing them they have potential no matter what the others say. How many tales of super-skilled autistic people have we heard ? Thank god he was born in the 21st century, so the world can accept him much better than the 20th century. For as long as you love him, the rest just doesn't matter at all

Hi,all! The OP of this thread is the only reason I registered. This is my first time. I also have a son(11) with Aspergers. People associate Aspergers with low functioning autism, but there is a HUGE difference. Their brains are wired differently, but you won't find a more intelligent group of people to be around. They are so unique! Some believe it's a step up in our evolution. You'd be amazed if you knew the number of geniuses with Aspergers Syndrome and I think Einstein was one.

I homeschool, too, because the public school was not good for him. You are a wonderful father! Here is a website I'd like to direct you to, and like I said, you won't find a group of more intelligent people. I could go on and on about my son. The Low Functioning Autistic(from vaccines) is not in the group of the very intelligent Aspergers. This very intelligent group is being studied at Cambridge. Many professors and expecially the area of California computer specialists have a very high rate of Aspergers.

Here is the website. www.aspergerinfo.com

I'd also like to say, that I'm sure your son has an extremely high IQ like my son. Most of them do. Whatever their interest is, they thoroughly research that area and become an authority on the subject. Their thoughts are taken up with their interests, hence the one track mind, LOL. Dan Ackroyd, Newton, Einstein,John Denver...can't remember all of the. The list is long.