Could this be a coincidence?

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I have never been a big believer in the "vaccine causes autism" theory because it is very clearly genetic in our family. But reading another thread on the general forum got me thinking, and I just realized that we always notice problems in the winter and spring, and our son gets his shots in early Dec. Then he makes these great improvements in the late summer and fall. This year, I postponed the shots, and he is continuing to make great progress through Jan and Feb.

It could just be that the school year starts in Sept, except that this is the first year that he is actually in a Sept-June program. The year before, he started therapies in March or April, but we started seeing huge results in Oct or Nov.

Just wondering if anyone else notices more improvements around 9-12 months after getting vaccines than at any other time, or is it just a coincidence?

I've been saying that vaccines traditionally are not the only source of mercury that children are exposed to. They still put mercury in people's mouths. It's only been about ten years since topical medications containing mercury were banned. The other trade name for thimerosal is "merthiolate", which could be purchased at any grocery store or pharmacy. Even mercury-free vaccinations might cause inflammation of the brain. People also haven't been taking a serious look at manganese, which is added to the water that cattle drink and is present in insecticides that some cattle are exposed to. Manganese has neurological effects.

There are also auto-immune reactions, or allergic reactions that may not be easy to detect. Different people have different tolerances for mercury and other poisons. People's sulfur levels may vary for simple reasons including the avoidance or use of egg yolks, and higher levels of sulfur increase tolerance to mercury. Higher copper levels increase tolerance to manganese. Children need cholesterol a bit more than adults do. Forming brains need cholesterol so low cholesterol diets are a threat to children for more than one reason.

I might as well mention sinus problems, too, because when I have inflamed sinuses I can't think well and the symptoms include headache and fuzzy thinking.

There is no connection between Autism and mercury or vaccines.This barmy theory was started by parents who like to `blame` others for their offsprings lack of neurotypicalness.

I have noticed that my autism or Asperger's is cyclic too (i.e. experiencing more symptoms and then less symptoms.) As I look back on my childhood the cycles were much closer together perhaps in months) and as I aged my cycles broadened out to 8 to 12 year cycles.

When my Asperger's Syndrome symptoms were in the decline I got good jobs and paid rent and had a car, money in the bank, I was a going concern. When my symptoms were on the rise, I dwindled into no job, no car nor housing and wandered on the roads and streets, homeless. After a while my 'gumption' would seem to come back and I would become employed again, using my salary to get an apartment and later a car again. I am in the 2nd year of my 8 to 12 year 'up' cycle and this time I became aware that I am Asperger's Syndrome (DXing adults is problematic) and able to see perhaps a reason for this big life changing swing.

perhaps this is what you are noticing, that his cycles are extending and being vaccinated or school shots is just coincidental?

Merle

hard to say...could just be coincidence....

Have you read anything about S.A.D. - Seasonal Affective Disorder? It's generally worse in the winter.

We used to have four quarters in our school year (we were off school from about June 20 - Sept 1). I'd do very well every year in the first quarter, less well in the second, do horrifically badly in the third, and then do a diving save in the fourth.

My theory is that I was tired. I was doing the normal intellectual load that all the kids had, but also having to deal with the sensory and other Aspies issues that they were not. I would run out of energy by the third quarter, and it was only the fear of failing (and the beating I'd have gotten at home if I did) that rallied me to pull my grades up in the final quarter.

I lived in two different environments - one rather north, near New York City, and one in the deep south - during my childhood and adolescence, so I don't think SAD really played a part in it. If anything, I felt better when the light was less bright. Except for those fluorescent lamps in school, which buzzed so horribly and hurt my eyes - very distracting and it took even more energy to deal with that....

I've never been a big fan of traditional school years. I'd much rather see them broken up into shorter segments that ran year-round with breaks spaced evenly throughout, rather than a big two-month block in the summers where the other kids would have forgotten so much that we'd all have to sit through "refresher" sessions until they brought us back up to speed again.

As a parent, though, I know that would create absolute havoc with finding childcare. So, there's no really obvious solution that I can see. Unless you're wealthy enough to home-school your child or make arrangements for an alternate environment in which they can learn.

I align myself with NAN....

I always do well the first quarter of the year..... by the time the end of the semester comes around I am tired, stressed and just about done, then i have to go through all of the socializing of x-mas, screw-up my schedule, then go back into school, and my 3rd quarter is atrocious, and I kick my butt in order to pull a miracle out for the 4th quarter...

so look at his school... is his IEP working... are the teachers and staff actually doing what they should be... maybe he is just working with a really good group of people this year... or the kids are better adjusted with him...

Yes, very good points. There are so many factors that I didnt even think of. I never really saw any regressions after the vaccines, although he did get a couple of fevers afterward. Since aspieness runs in the family, I never really considered it to be a possibility before.

But after we found out about all his allergies and considering how sensitivities just build upon each other, I have started to reconsider the whole vaccine thing. Then I skipped his vaccines in Dec, and he is doing so incredibly well.

But there are so many other factors involved that it really is hard to know.

I've read that in something like 5% of these kids changing their diets makes a huge improvement. I'd say it's also possible that for another small percentage of these kids changing or eliminating the vaccines could make a huge improvement as well. These are things that need more research and testing, but unfortunately all the money for research seems to go towards developing more medications - which ironically may be causing the problem in the first place.

I am very curious. What improves? When diet or eschewing vaccines 'improves' - what is it that improves, please?

physical? emotional? mental? How would I expect to improve if I start a recommended diet? I have not had vaccinations since I was a child, and quite some time since even a tetanus shot.
Would my supervisor at work notice my improvement? In what way would I improve? How would I notice what my improvement would be?

respectfully,

Merle

right on merle.

anyways replying again to the original post... you said he had allergies.... did you just find out about them and place him on allergy medication? because allergies ascerbate autism (say that five times fast)..... so if he normally acts up during the spring and he usually gets hayfever, but he is now on allergy medication, you have fixed a trigger.... congratulations.

Might not be related, and it's a heck of a stretch, but during the second and third quarters of our school year, it was typically quite cold where we lived (both places). When I lived by NYC, we had a house that had the garage directly under our bedroom. My dad used to go start the car early every morning to let it warm up to drive. We could always smell the fumes in our bedroom when we woke up. I would wake up with a headache more times than not, though I didn't on days my father didn't drive the car or warm it up in the garage.

I also used to ride the school bus to school. During the winters they always made us have the windows up. I was almost always smelling diesel exhaust fumes the whole way to school, and without the feeling of air moving on my face while my eyes saw movement, I got nauseous. It used to take a couple of hours of actually being at school - usually by the time we went out to recess and I got some fresh (as fresh as you could get near NYC at that time) air....

Wow, this describes my own pattern in school perfectly. I also don't like bright direct sunlight, and always used to get positively manic with happiness during autumn (the start of the school year). But by the third quarter, I was always in trouble, and had to really scramble (and ask for extra credit work, whatever I could do) to pull myself back from the brink. I was once grounded for 10 weeks (nearly an entire quarter) for bad grades. Since I was very bright, a C was simply not tolerated at my house (but my little brother, they were thrilled if he got a C). Strange that no one asked why a student in gifted classes was about to graduate with just a 2.5 GPA. I swear, every space in my life not filled by ignorance was occupied by denial.

I don't know if I've suffered from SAD. I do know that I hate bright, direct sunlight that I can't get away from - yet I really enjoy being outside. Needless to say, southern Arizona has been a bit of a nightmare for me, and I'm very glad to be leaving soon. I feel like a bug on a skillet here. I can't wait to be back beneath the comfort and protection of trees and clouds.

Ditto on the sunlight. Sunlight is EVIL! I live in So.California, so I hear ya there. I'm SO sick of people saying "isn't it just a lovely day out" when the brilliant sunlight cuts my retinas like a butcher knife! Ewwwww.