What should I do?

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I really need help on making a decision for my son. I know this is a controversial issue, but I need feedback from some of your experiences. This is the deal. I began vaccinating my son when he was born. I did research and from everything I read, I believed that it was ok to vaccinate. Well, the day after his 4 mo. old vaccinations, he began shaking his head side to side like he was saying "no" I thought he was having a seizure. The doctor said he probably just learned how to do this and enjoyed it.

By the time he was 6 mos old, I notice that he was not making an attempt to sit up. He seemed very floppy, and the doctor said he had low muscle tone. Then he did not try to crawl until he was 14 mos. old. At 12 mos old, he began lying on his back and waving his hand back and forth. The doctor noticed his hand flapping when I brought him in for his 12 mo. check up. It was time for the MMR, and I said what about the MMR shot. She said "Let's hold off until we find out more about what is going on with him" Okay. He finally walked at 21 mos.

Then at 2 years old he began memorizing lines from shows and repeating everything. He was not playing with other children, had trouble following directions, was not really talking to us. We took him to a developmental pediatrician who diagnosed him as PDD-NOS/possible Asperger's. He also became very interested in car makes and models, and that was what he talked about all of the time.

He has been receiving therapy (PT, OT, Speech) since he was a year old. He has been in special needs pre-k since he was 3. He is now 4.5--

This is my dilemma. He is improving really well. His speech is improving by leaps and bounds. He still has balance issues and does not do as much physically as his peers. He still does not interact with peers very much. He does interact with us very well, and his back and forth conversation is improving.

With all of the controversy surrounding the MMR debate, I am so afraid to give him that shot. I know many of you will have negative comments to make, but I have just heard so many stories from moms that I have met about their children regressing after that shot.

Please share any experiences that you have had as a parent in making these choices---

I really appreciate this!

My personal opinion is that vaccination is appropriate -unless- the child's physician feels that it poses an undue risk for a definite reason.

As for the MMR debate, I would suggest reading in the Autism Activism subforum on here as there are several threads regarding what is largely considered the keystone research behind the MMR theory being discarded and the doctors being discredited. While it may not answer your questions, it might give a different perspective.


M.

Most research disproves the theory on vaccination and it was not even a new theory anyway. My X-Husband's family blamed one of the grandchildren having down syndrome on them, but there is no real evidence for that either.

Having an AS kid can be very challenging, but it is not a death sentence. Like most "handicaps" your child can learn to work around the difficulties and thrive just like anyone else.

More and more they are finding causal evidence that AS is in fact the result of genetics. This is not your fault.

If my son had had his shots on schedule, I would be wondering the same thing myself. James was a preemie and was sick with RSV-related stuff a LOT the winter he was supposed to have his first MMR. We delayed it so many times that it was spring before he got vaccinated. He was about 17 months when he got his 12-month shots (which in our province include the first MMR). Anyway. Not long after his first birthday, he began losing speech and lining up all his trains. He would spend hours on the floor, lying next to his trains and rolling them back and forth, watching the wheels. He flapped. He was very late learning to walk -- he finally did about four steps at 18 months, just as we were getting ready to talk to the pediatrician about his delayed walking! This all started RIGHT AFTER he would have had his shots, had they been received as scheduled.

The problem with anecdotal evidence is that correlation doesn't equal causality. If my son's symptoms had correlated with his MMR shot (which would have been the case had he not been sick so much that winter and had his shots put off until he was feeling better), it would have seemed to indicate a correlation. Obviously, that's not how it happened and I feel safe in saying that if he does have AS, it's probably genetic.

I know that you must be SO scared after having the first symptoms arise so soon after a shot, and I think it's really normal to find things we can use to "explain" a diagnosis and feel that we are empowered to protect ourselves or our children from further problems. And I'm sure that there is a small percentage of people who actually are vulnerable to vaccine ingredients (however, I suspect this percentage is much smaller than the trial lawyers would have us believe). Definitely confer with your doctor, who sounds like a very thoughtful practitioner, but do try to remember that part of why this whole MMR mythology exists is because the MMR schedule does call for kids to be given the shot at the time when they are most likely to first exhibit signs of ASD anyway.

Despite my middle son's probable ASD, I have chosen to fully vaccinate my youngest son. He is 16 months old and has shown none of the signs his brother displayed. As for James, he did get his followup MMR shot six months later (by which time he was finally walking). He did not show any further regression and it looks like he may go into "regular" preschool once we've got him potty-trained.

Whatever your choice, good luck! As the mom of a preemie who was very often too sick to go for his own shots and depended on herd immunity, it does annoy me when people with perfectly healthy kids and no family with ASD refuse to vaccinate them just because Jenny McCarthy went on Oprah -- but for people whose kids' symptoms coincided with vaccinations, as much as I think it's coincidence, I can absolutely see why you might decide it's too risky to vaccinate that particular child again and I can't blame you for avoiding something that you honestly believe harmed your son.

I think unless the doctor specifically recommends caution to have the shot. Measles, mumps and rubella are not nice diseases.

Sorry to go off topic, but how does that work unless it post-natally changed the kid's chromosomes?

The change in behavior is more likely attributable to something else. Vaccinations occur during a period of time in which your child is changing in a lot of different ways so the fact that this happened after the vaccine does not support a vaccine causality. Vaccines are safe and you shouldn't feel bad for being a good parent and vaccinating your child against deadly diseases.

That's the point, it doesn't, my X-Husband's family is a mess of Morons of the highest order. It is fully of lying manipulative sociopaths, drug addicts and alcoholics. The only reason I married him was that I was young, stupid, and didn't believe I deserved any better.

There is no controversy. Claims of causation between vaccinations and ASDs have been objectively debunked.

My experience: two kids, same pediatrician, same shots, one AS and the other NT.

It's really clear there is no relation between the vaccines and autism. The people who started the debate were proved to have forged evidence, and not vaccinating has led to massive outbreaks of disease and even the deaths of children.

Google "Andrew Wakefield."

The link between autism and vaccines is a MYTH and has been disproven and retracted by the journal that published the original study.

[Subsequent attack on OP removed - M.]

Do you even have children? Parents worry and look for ways to blame themselves for what seems to be wrong with their children. Really that attacking behavior is not needed.

There is a difference between being honest and just being a louse. Right now, you are being a louse.

Last edited by MorbidMiss on 04 Feb 2010, 2:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I knew that I was going to get comments like this. This is why I particularly asked for parents that have experience with their own children to reply. Do you have children? If you do, please share with me what your experience has been.

Like you said, you are being brutally honest, but I do take offense to the comments you made. I have done plenty of research and I have been reading and listening to the news and that is why I am asking questions. I have read both sides of the story, and not all scientists and doctors 100% agree on this. I have talked to numerous parents who felt that their children's regressions began after the MMR shot.

Also, my doctor advised me to hold off on the shot until we knew more about how my son's development was going to go. FYI, I am planning on getting my son vaccinated, but for you to say that I have not done any research on this, and am stupid and dumb is very offensive.

The there was an article either today, or yesterday in the paper (NY Times) that said the original report linking autism and vaccines had been thoroughly debunked. Don't feel bad about being concerned, you are gathering as much information as you can from all sides. Only you can make your decisions.
http://esciencenews.com/sources/ny.time ... .retracted
(I had to edit to include the link)

Thanks for all of the input. Thanks Hethera and DenvreDave for specific examples. Thanks Penguin mom for the link to the articles. It was most helpful.

Both my kids have had all their vaccines. One is AS and one is NT. While some things about my son have changed and "regressed" or "frozen in time" development wise, it was never timed to any of the vaccines. It was just the way he developed and, as I understand it, the way most spectrum kids develop.

My son was a total sensory seeker as an infant, and I look back now and wonder if at some point he just "tripped," like kids do when developing allergies - it's all good to a point, but then the body reacts and say, "too much." Someone recently hinted at some research that says just that. Recently we attempted to adopt a cat that went through the whole process in the two weeks he was in our home: eating up all the noise and activity, and then getting totally flipped out by it (the rescue agency is going to find him a calmer home). Who knows why these things happen or what drives the timing, but they do happen and, well, if it coincided with a vaccine, you are going to have a parent that believes it is all connected. But the science just isn't there.

So many things about my son's AS WERE there from birth. The co-morbid in the joints that makes writing so difficult? This is the same infant that learned to push up into a sitting position using a center split. So I thought we had a future gymnast at the time ... turns out not (poor muscle tone), but a child with very different gifts. So many perceptions we develop of our children as infants are flat out wrong. It is just the way it is.

Definitely make sure your child does not have michocondrial issues or anything else underlying that could trigger a reaction, and then take a deep breath and move on. Vaccines have always carried risk; that is why there IS a vaccine reimbursement program, but the science continues to say that the risk to your child is greater if you do NOT vaccinate. No one can predict which part of the odds your child will eventually become. You have to trust that your doctor is making the best recommendation based on the information available.

Hi. I have two children, and both are neurotypical (I have an almost uncontrollable urge NOT to write this because, of course, they're my kids and they seem anything but typical!! )

I live in Seattle, and the pressure here to not vaccinate is intense. But the reality is parents noticing their children regressing is correlative, but not causative. Obviously as parents, we desperately want to accept blame for something. Even if it's horrible to consider, at least self blame makes some sense out of something which seems to make no sense.

I knew the science and I was 100% committed to vaccinate my children. I wasn't as fearful with my daughter. But, when I had to hand off my little boy for shots, it was scary for me. Completely irrational, I knew - but so is the fear I feel in the woods at night and I still feel it. He *did* have a bad physical reaction - he had a horrible wound at the injection site with his 1 year shots - it was awful, like someone had injected 12 or 14 hard marbles into his leg, bubbly and pitch red and swollen. I rushed him to the ER. He also had a very high fever and shakes. But within 72 hours, he was OK again and he has continued to develop along typically.

I know how terrifying it is to hand our little ones over for shots, but vaccines are much safer than the alternative.

Good luck.