I've been the About.com Guide to Autism since 2006. Since I began writing about autism, the same questions have plagued our community - is there a "real" rise in autism? do environmental toxins cause autism, and if so which ones? - and debate has raged. In fact, of course, as parents we don't have real answers to these population-based questions; we only have the studies that seem to contradict one another at every turn.
There is, however, one question which we can answer from our personal, individual experience. That is - are children with autism sicker than other children? If so, what does that mean to our definition of autism itself and how it should be thought of and treated? As with all things autism-related, of course, the answer to that question varies from person to person. Some people with autism are very sick indeed; others are perfectly healthy - but do have the social/communications delays which presently define autism spectrum disorders.
As a non-scientist, I have no claim to "truth" relative to this issue. I can say my own son - like many other kids I know with autism - seems not only healthy, but sometimes healthier than many other youngsters in our community. In addition, I can say that I honestly never saw a regression in my son; rather, I saw a slowing of development in certain areas. Tom's development continues to be slower than it should be, and he has serious problems with social communication. But he isn't sick; never has been; and he has developed new skills slowly and steadily throughout his childhood.
Yet I personally have met many parents who have spent unending hours in the emergency room with their children on the autism spectrum, and I've certainly read many books and anecdotes about extreme physical illness in young children on the autism spectrum. The vast majority of those kids seem to have the same issues, too: explosive, uncontrollable diarrhea or vomiting, seizures, severe sleep issues, and serious skin problems.
Many of the families I've met with autistic kids who have significant health problems describe their children as having developed typically until a sudden regression not only undermined their speech and social skills but also destroyed their health. One day, parents say, their child was a healthy, happy, chatting two year old; the next he was in the emergency room with a high fever, seizures, or other major problems. From that time forward, parents say, their child was never fully functional or truly well again.
There's been much debate about the question of "regressive autism," which is not an actual diagnosis within the autism spectrum. Video and anecdote suggest that the disorder is real, but there are also those who say they can see subtle signs of autism in very early videos of children who then "regressed." Part of the debate, of course, swirls around the question of whether regression, assuming it is real, occurred as a result of particular vaccinations.
Based on my own knowledge and research, it seems reasonable to me to suggest that we are actually looking at multiple disorders that happen to share certain symptoms. Yes, all of our kids have social communication delays and challenges - but they seem to have very different sets of physical symptoms. I can't help but wonder whether those children who suddenly wound up in an emergency room at age two, and continue to have serious physical and developmental symptoms, are suffering from something very different than the "autism spectrum disorder" that affects my son and youngsters like him.
Does your child with autism have physical symptoms?
Sorry, I’m very uncomfortable with this post… I am a parent, and not a self-labeled card-carrying neuro-diversity proponent…
Autism, ASD – is afflicted with fuzzy definitions that continue to hamper any progress… while we can attest to our own direct experience the collected data is useless because the etiology is not formulated. And while it’s great to share with peers, let’s not forget the relativity/degree of the term “sick”: is a person with SIBs, OCD, and all the other highly-involved-denoting alphabetics, sicker than a person with stage 4 cancer? Is a person with HFA sicker than a person with a cleft palate? SO:
sick=afflicted by an impairment of normal physical or mental function.
“afflicted” – who’s afflicted? the person with ASD or the people around that person? for that matter, what’s an impairment, and who defines “impaired”? for that matter, who are these “other children?”
sorry if I wasn’t clear, vmgillen. the question I am raising is not “is your child afflicted/disabled by autism,” but rather is “is your child with autism also PHYSICALLY ILL.”
Many people with autism are, in fact, developmentally challenged – yet are physically well. And many people with autism are developmentally challenged – and ALSO physically ill.
Lisa
Not being sick (showing symptoms of illness such as fever, vomiting, diarrhea, etc) is NOT an indication that the body is healthy. In fact, it usually is an indication that the immune system is not working well enough to clear the germs it meets in the environment and thus stores them where they block the bodies ability to function like it should. This is what I have found with those on the spectrum I work with.
One of the more fascinating things about autism is that autistic symptoms decrease and/or disappear when an individual is ’sick’ (such as having a fever). This, to me, is a clear indication that the immune system plays a major role in this spectrum…..when it is not working, we have autism. When it is working, the autism subsides.
Gail, while I agree that studies have found an interesting correlation between cognitive/behavioral improvements and fever, the rest of your statement makes little sense to me.
It sounds like you’re saying “if a person does NOTcome down with a wide variety of physical illnesses, that shows he/she is UNhealthy, and has a poorly functioning immune system.”
By that reasoning, a person who is constantly ill and suffering from flu, infections and allergies, would be HEALTHIER than a person who has none of those ailments.
That in itself sounds highly unlikely. Even more significantly, though:
Many people with autism DO have significant physical ailments, which some say is “proof” of a link between autism and a compromised immune system. Yet you’re saying that the ailments are actually proof of a STRONG immune system. Which would argue AGAINST a link between autism and a compromised immune system.
It’s a logical conundrum!
Gail’s assertion is actually fairly common knowledge in the DAN community. Granted if your son is “healthy” you may not have first person knowledge of the struggles we face as parents of sick kids but I thank you for raising the issue. In our case our son was well. He became ill at 15 months and he no longer got sick normally, no longer caught colds or flus that everyone in the house had and illness that should be standard fare for a 2 y o or 3 y o. He became more and more “autistic.” From time to time he would spike a fever for days and after the fever broke be significantly, relieved of “autistic” behaviors and far more verbal. It only lasts for a few days. Yes, it is maddening. He is what is known as a “viral kid” meaning that he cycles up and down with viruses, his body is burdened with viral activity that it does not address completely. It also means that he has severe immune disregulation. He is only partially immune to bacterias like strep that most children his age have developed full immunity in the course of their school age life but when he is on antibiotics he is better. When other children get colds he sometimes gets migraines, usually he does not react, he does not get the stuffy nose with boogies, unless he’s on antivirals in which case, oddly, he gets a normal cold and gets on with his life after 2-3 days like most kids. Sadly, I like most parents here I know kids who are far worse off than mine, and I know kids who are recovering.
Lisa, perhaps it is time to revisit some of the more important literature on the subject: Children with Starving Brains: A Medical Treatment Guide for Autism Spectrum Disorder or http://www.starvingbrains.com, Changing the Course of Autism: A Scientific Approach for Parents and Physicians, both books are great, either would be a good place to start.
–
Lisa, it is important for you to familiarize yourself and your readership with autism as an illness, and it’s treatment. I appreciate your post.
Hi Lisa,
I think this is an excellent post. To those who do not see the value of this discussion all I can say is that until you have lived with a severely medically affected child you just cannot imagine how horrible it can be. My son has been through dozens of medical procedures, ER visits, day after day of screaming in pain. So yes, I do find the discussions of subpopulations helpful.
I believe that regressive autism is a largely environmentally form of ASD. Hundreds of thousands of toddlers are not coincidentally developing typically and then enduring terrible regressions due to genetic causes. 95% of of our kids have no chromosomal abnormalities. Believe me, the doctors really, really looked- hoping that was what they would find.
What these kids do have in common is a family history of autoimmune disease: Parkinsons, thyroid disease, arthritis…When a genetic susceptibility like this is combined with a tremendous challenge to the immune system (i.e. the the 7 shots my son got in 1 day) the body starts to attack itself. Hence the onset of regressive autism coinciding w/ total body inflammation- especially in the GI tract and working up to the brain.
This subset appears to be younger than children like your son Lisa. Most of the kids similar to my own seem to be around 12 and under. The vaccine schedule greatly increased shortly before my son was born in 2001. When my son was first dx, I sought out the advice of experienced ASD parents. It was clear from the start we were talking about completely different autisms. They could not relate, at all, to Christian’s issues.
So, in short, autism seems to have gotten worse as we are in the midst of the most environmentally triggered autism generation.
Study after study, journal upon journal have been giving us this information, and it’s not in a “subset” it appears to be in a majority. Immune dysfunction is clearly a part of the very physical disease of autism.
BTW Gail is correct, when one’s immune system is functioning poorly a simple cold will not come on with symptoms , as in the elderly sometimes it’s hard to tell they are sick because the body isn’t providing a proper immune response to the illness.
It appears autoimmune responses are more likely, as odd immune resonses seem to be apparent in studies. ..such as this..
Proinflammatory and regulatory cytokine production associated with innate and adaptive immune responses in children with autism spectrum disorders and developmental regression☆
Harumi Jyonouchi, Sining Sun, Hoa Le
Received 3 April 2001; received in revised form 7 August 2001; accepted 28 August 2001.
Abstract
We determined innate and adaptive immune responses in children with developmental regression and autism spectrum disorders (ASD, N=71), developmentally normal siblings (N=23), and controls (N=17). With lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a stimulant for innate immunity, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from 59/71 (83.1%) ASD patients produced >2 SD above the control mean (CM) values of TNF-α, IL-1β, and/or IL-6 produced by control PBMCs. ASD PBMCs produced higher levels of proinflammatory/counter-regulatory cytokines without stimuli than controls. With stimulants of phytohemagglutinin (PHA), tetanus, IL-12p70, and IL-18, PBMCs from 47.9% to 60% of ASD patients produced >2 SD above the CM values of TNF-α depending on stimulants. Our results indicate excessive innate immune responses in a number of ASD children that may be most evident in TNF-α production.
Whatever that means, it doesn’t seem to be normal..and this is what most studies indicate among asd patients, something is wrong with immune responses.
My experience with my son, I believe, fairly closely mirrors Lisa. My son has seldom come down with any cold or flu, and I often said to other moms that he was much healthier, physically, than many of his peers.
However, I failed to consider that he does suffer things in a rather stoic fashion. For example, he seldom mentions his allergies to grass pollen every spring and early summer although his nose can turn bright red whenever he gets exposed to it. He was very collicky as a baby, and then his stomach issues appeared to disappear at about age 2… right through high school. However, stresses brought on in post-secondary school, did result in the school physician sending him to the emergency room with intestinal pains. She thought it was appendicitis. After several hours and multiple tests, the pains subsided and the cause has remained undetermined.
By coincidence, he has not been put under as much stress since and has not complained about stoamachs in the two years since this happened. Will it happen again if he’s placed under a similar stress level? I suspect it may, which means I can’t really say that he’s healthy – just perhaps not exhibiting overt symptoms of being ill at this particular moment in his life. Like everything else to do with autism, it’s a complex topic.
Oops – typos… s/b “has not complained about his stomach in the two years…”
I am endowed with Asperger’s Syndrome.
I can’t find the answer that fits my situation. You only asked about CHILDREN with autism, what about the problems that follow us into adulthood?
I am fraught with allergies to medicines, pollens, animals, perfumes, cigarette smoke, insecticides and many household cleaners. I am so allergic to cigarettes I had to stop going to church because a smoker might sit near me, and just his odor would trigger an asthma attack.
My immune system seems unable to fight off fungi, and I am always getting ringworm. One most unpleasant infection I have now been fighting continuously without success for over thirty years. (And yes, I have tried doctors every ten years or so and dozens of OTC products.)
Certain foods trigger all manner of problems, from migraines to sinus headaches to asthma to rashes to massive breakouts of pimples (and I am over 50!)
I chronically alternate between diarrhea and mucus-covered stools. As a child I constantly had excruciating gas pain, and still have it quite often as an adult.
I cannot tolerate bright light or loud noise, and if I am startled my muscles jerk so violently I am seriously injured.
If I don’t chew my food so thoroughly it would pass through a window screen and if I don’t swallow only tiny amounts, I have violent diaphragmatic spasms, kinda like a single hiccup on steroids, but as painful as being punched in the solar plexus. How I wish I could have comprehended that problem and been able to articulate it to my parents as a child, as I suffered through meals of difficult to chew and swallow foods like corn and peas. I also get spasms if I swallow something cold.
I eat a pretty monotonous diet, not because I am an Aspie geek who can’t tolerate change, but because I am terrified of what an unknown, untested food will do to me; will I be wheezing, vomiting, running to the toilet, getting a violent headache or breaking out in something?
Guess this only goes to 2000 characters?
I agree with you’re body is suppose to react with a fever and throwing up, and so on. If the body isn’t doing that when there is probably an issue. When one experiences a lot of those symptoms, then one has to question why all the exposure. The thing is with those with autism, people are expressing symptoms are present including screaming in pain.
I disagree with why autism symptoms decrease or disappear while sick or with a fever. I’m not sure who would feel good when they’re sick and almost every person experiences changes in behavior when you’re sick, some times to the point you cant even laugh. Any time my child had a fever, just laid there doing nothing, and afterwards he regressed in speaking and went back to growling.
I’m not sure about total body inflammation. People who have genetic things that run in their families, vaccines wouldn’t nor couldn’t be the only exposure if it could cause such a total inflammation and there’s plenty children who have no effects at all. But why would it be a small subset? I also disagree with 95 percent of our kids have no chromosomal abnormalities. I’d like to see where that came from but then at the same time, 10 years ago they knew of only so many chromosomal abnormalities. Prior to 1969, those who had fragile X had no known chromosomal abnormalities either. Just because they haven’t found it doesn’t mean it still isn’t there and plays a large role. Besides that, recent studies sited 10 to 15 percent related to genetic findings, so it wouldn’t and could be that 95 percent; it ‘might’ be 85 to 90 percent.
Continued-
When my son was much younger, he seemed to catch every germ known to man and then some which there was no name for the cause. He also has always suffered from sleep issues since he was born. The topic failed to include within the list, did the children get better and how and at what age. Stress alone can cause GI issues and when my son had a particularly difficult day, I’d know what was coming later. As he’s become more verbally expressive, his GI issues became less and less. He’s also had many tests done, many ER visits and some are related to contractible illnesses as an infant other older children exposed him to. Rotavirus was horrible and so was RSV. Only after RSV did my son start to experience lung issues.
Aside from my child having autism along with other medical issues, I know many children who also have those same medical issues but do not have autism.
Bill, that is very interesting. Sometimes I have heard people speculate that Aspbergers is a totally brain/genes condition and does not involve whole body/immune system/digestive issues like some other types of autism. Yet, I often hear of people with Aspergers talk about having IBD, allergies, etc.
Lisa, this is an interesting survey. Of course not a definitive scientific study (there could be selection bias, etc.) but an interesting informal poll. Thanks for posting it.
I’m wondering about what number was used as the total for calculating percentages. The total shown is the total of all the responses, yet it appears that people can check off more than one category? So multiple responses are counted as multiple people? This would make the percentages smaller than if you just count each respondent once.
Regarding people with autism who don’t get sick, I have heard that there are some people with autism who just about never get sick. This at first seems to be a good thing, except that this can be a sign of an overactive immune system, which could be impacting cognitive functioning via inflammation and autoimmunity. I know this may sound like everything points to immune system dysregulation — whether you get sick too much or too little. But there does exist a happy medium, children whose immune systems are functioning normally and who do get sick sometimes.
Dr. Bryan Jepson says in his book, “Changing the Course of Autism…”:
“There’s a great body of evidence in the literature documenting immune dysregulation in autistic children leaving them prone to infection, chronic inflammation, and autoimmune reactions; it can affect any organ system, but the brain and the GI tract seem to be the worst hit.
“These immune system issues haven’t been traced to a single underlying abnormality, and aren’t always consistent among children on the autism spectrum. Just as there are subgroups based on behavioral characteristics, there appear to be subgroups within the autism spectrum related to the type and severity of immune abnormalities.
“The research shows that both the quantity and function of immune cells are abnormal in children with autism.” (Then he lists various types of cells which are affected, and cites about 38 studies.)
It has also been my experience that my oldest son who has a major hyped up immune system, and had severe allergies to foods when younger, ( also digestive problems and sleep issues) almost never gets sick from illnesses, and gets them very mildly when he does..
When he was younger and the flu was going around his classroom, leaving people out for weeks, he woke up one morning with a fever,and by lunch time ( I kid you not) he was fit, healthy and bouncing around the house.
I have no scientific evidence for this, but maybe his immune system is so hyped up and in overdrive, it means that regular bugs don’t get much of a chance.
Given that people with damaged immune systems may react more strongly to a wide variety of stimuli (ordinary food for example can make them sick), it makes sense to me that vaccines which contain additives DESIGNED to stimulate the immune system could potentially cause brain inflammation and or aggravate immune dysfunction.
Of course given that some of these food allergy kids may well be allergic to some of the ingredients in the vaccines also, it may well be that the body reacts badly to some of the contents of the vaccine. (Egg culture anyone..?)
Either way, I believe studies have shown that family immune system dysfunctions are a risk factor for the child developing autism.
Bill, I am not giving medical advice here ;(that is up to your doctor). Wanted however to let you know about two things that have helped my youngest son with his digestive issues and they are both available over the counter, and reasonably cheap. One is probiotics, the other is digestive enzymes. They come in a variety of forms so you might be able to find one that you can stomach. ( We had to experiment to find a texture and taste that was ok). Anyway, if you have not tried them and it is ok with your doctor, you might want to consider giving them a shot. We noticed with the probiotics particularly a very big difference in less than a week.
Twyla – re the poll, I have two options: people can choose just one response or as many as they like. In this case, I allow folks to tick off as many as they like, so what you’re seeing is not the number of people who actually responded, but the number of people who responded “yes” to each individual question.
What that means is that we don’t actually know how many people actually responded to the poll, and I’m sure that many are ticking off many or all of the items. Basically, you just get a gist that the most common disorder is GI issues, etc.
Of course, as you say, there’s nothing scientific about the poll. In fact, folks can respond multiple times if they think it’d be fun!
Lisa
And I’m not complaining — just interpreting what the numbers mean. And my comment that it’s not a scientific study was just meant to pre-empt criticisms — it is just a poll, but an interesting one! I agree it’s best to allow multiple selections on this, since many kids have multiple issues.
Thanks, Twyla. I occasionally get complaints (not from you!) that I’m not scientific enough on the blog, and that polling on a site like this is pointless/misleading. But this really is an interesting discussion, and while the polls aren’t intended to uncover “truth” they do provide folks with way to respond without getting personal, and to take part in the conversation.
Cheers.
It’s probably mercury poisoning. It was almost stupid today, when reading on the effects, symptoms, hypersensitivities to mercury that all forms were mentioned and yet when they get to “thimerosal” most all avoided the topic with a quick, “it’s been suggested to be removed from most childhood vaccines”, but no one touches the subject of what that mercury does. An untouchable subject!! That seems to be the problem. Sure it’s mercury, but it can’t hurt anyone like all other mercury. Can anyone explain why it’s the “safe” mercury? Of course not.
Maybe one can explain why it’s not safe, rather than why it is. That topic has been touched alot. One thing no one mentions is the known symptoms of mercury poisoning, and why those with autism hardly ever are reported to have those symptoms.
There are probably variations of symptoms according to routes of exposure. Vaccination , direct injection , may not present the same as absorption ,inhalation, and ingestion.
Actually manner of exppsure probably wouldn’t matter. The amount of exposure would. When it comes to thimerosal exposure in vaccines at one time, and the amount of exposure the same, you’d have to show why a small subset were affected but not all.
You’d then have to show how that would be linked individually to gastrointestinal issues, prone to fevers and infections, serious sleep issues, allergies, seizure disorder, and skin disorders and how there wouldn’t or couldn’t be a genetic link within the family history for each individual item, and then finally you’d have to link all of those to autism onset.
Mercury in “pinks disease” didn’t affect the majority of children either, so yes, there must be a process of detoxification that works diferently and makes each case such an individual picture. Perhaps, as with my own children, some have only speech problems and or eczema , and only one bore the full brunt of his exposure . Maybe it’s something as simple as his being a strawberry blonde, not as tough as the brunette or the blondes, who knows? I’ve read before that melanin may play some “strange and unknown” part. Maybe he was already fighting some mild illness , not as able to fight and detoxify..I don’t know, but it jmo looks like it’s the case. Maybe because he was born in September he didn’t get dosed with sunshine as much when he was an infant as my March ,June children…I have a long list of maybes, but yes, this seems to fit for us.
Most parents don’t send their infants outside for sunshine, no matter what month they’re born. If they did, better add sunscreen to your mix of maybe’s. You probably should research methylmercury and ethylmercury and the ability of either pertaining to Pinks Disease. There’s much more exposure risk in every day life than of exposure to ethylmercury. Mercury poisoning alone causes organ damage, not just neuro.
Aside from that, all of the above medical conditions don’t have to be related to it at all or autism. Plenty children without autism have those medical issues as well. But once the onset of autism occurs, it seems everything has to be related to autism. You wonder what the parents do who don’t have a child with autism but whose child suffers from those same medical issues? Just what comes first, the medical conditions or autism. Autism and then the medical conditions?
Autism is what makes any illness far worse for my son, but autism wasn’t the cause for the illness.
It’s quite plausible that immune system derangement could affect the brain in some people but not in others.
It is a documented fact that some people are better able to detoxify mercury than others, and that in general males tend to be affected worse than females.
Many of the effects of mercury exposure described in historical cases of contamination are like attributes which have been described in autism. Of course, exposure to large amounts of mercury causes worse effects, including death, which is not usually the case with vaccines.
Other sources of mercury are of great concent, too, but that does not mean that mercury in vaccines is not a concern — especially because these minute amounts in vaccines are directly injected.
http://www.safeminds.org/about/documents/SM%20Autism-Mercury%20Paper%20Long%20Version.pdf
I don’t believe that mercury is the only cause of autism, but I do believe that it is a major factor.
Thank you for this post. My only child has autism and that is lonely enough, but when I read about autism it seems like my son’s autism STILL doesn’t fit in with the others. I’m always reading about Asperger’s, not about boys like mine, the cuddly sweet 3.5 year olds with no physical symptoms, no regression, very very very slow progress, and profoundly speech delayed. Even in your poll my son fit in only at 8% when I clicked the final option.
I don’t feel like DAN! suits my son, I think he’s pretty happy and I like to accept him for who he is, which seems easier when he has a special needs preschool available to him. I remember watching Jenny McCarthy on Oprah before I had my son (or maybe he was here and I didn’t suspect ASD) and she was advocating to buckle down and “fix your kid.” It was intriguing to me back then, nowadays I find it just offensive.
I would not be opposed to the physical/regressive autism being classified differently than my son’s (who sounds more like yours.) Feeling isolated within an isolated community sort of sucks.
Gretchen – I appreciate your comment, which I think reflects a fair number of parents. In fact, I am going to use a bit of it as a “starter” for my next blog!
On an unrelated note, have been doing a little research into immune dysfunction, and am learning that it’s a very, very complex topic indeed. Physical symptoms can be a useful tool for determining immune issues, but, as I’m finding, the fact that a person does or does not have allergies, food intolerances or frequent illness may more may not indicate an immune system problem.
In addition, it seems that autism/illness issues could, in some cases, relate to autistic behaviors such as mouthing objects, pica, etc., which would increase exposure to possibly toxic or bacteria-laden substances.
To confound the issue even more, there are some who posit that our “super clean” environment (purell and disinfectant everywhere) may actually be – in some cases – supressing the normal development of kids’ immune systems!
Yet another one of the many instances in which simple observation and common sense may actually mislead us.
Lisa
Thanks Twyla. What I do not understand is how such seemingly well researched evidence doesn’t hold up to the scrutiny of those that deny, such as the pharms and the medical institutions. How can they continually suppress this info, negate it, ignore it…and on..
Everything I’ve seen in recent days , that calls for more study, suggests that mercury could well be the major factor in the development of regressive autism. I’m not sure breaking up autism into subgroups would benefit anyone. Should we ignore then, moms’ amalgams, rhogam shots, other environmental exposures that set some babies up for earlier effects and leave them out of the “new” epidemic of regressive autism? I have seen that ,yes, exposures to rubella have caused autism, and so far I’ve only seen that as the one, well proven, virus cause, yet short of live vaccines that exposure would be rare.
Can anyone yet explain how anything is directly linked to gastrointestinal issues, prone to fevers and infections, serious sleep issues, allergies, seizure disorder, and skin disorders? Can anyone yet explain how those relate to autism or even regressive autism? There’s also a large difference between the actual virus and the small amount of virus in any vaccine.
I’m not sure about the numbers of viral particles, as it would seem only a few on a doorknob, or in the shaking of a hand, can bring about full blown illness in a few days. Viruses ,once in our system multiply quickly, what effect would an adjuvant have on virus multiplication, both that involved in vaccine and that already present in the body of the vaccinee. Too many unanswerable questions, too little research on safety. All the while a preservative, designed to combat bacterial infection, could have the effect of killing off natural flora..again..too many unknowns to allow our kids to be the beneficiaries of damage from the biggest experiment in history. Putting the dangers of viral replication aside for now, jmo, the thimerosal on it’s own provides enough to cause all of the effects described in mercury exposure. What else is in vaccines to cause harm, should be the next step in the questioning of why our vaccinated kids are sick. When this poll started, I expected little differences, because we for the most part are comparing vaccinated kids against vaccinated kids, not too much to offer there.
Hi. I have been living with asperger’s for a long time. I’m not here to ask any questions, as when I read the book on symptoms I fit about 500% of them and could have diagnosed myself although I was diagnosed by about 3 doctors. Anyway, I am in need of meeting other as/developmental disabilities people from 18 and up. I am from new jersey and any help connecting with others who I could share friendship or more with would be appreciated. I have never made one friend, never had one date, never kissed a girl, and never experienced so many things everyone else around me has and at this point I am just growing very frustrated and lonely. thanks.
email sean : thrash2967@yahoo.com
. I have been living with asperger’s for a long time. I’m not here to ask any questions, as when I read the book on symptoms I fit about 500% of them and could have diagnosed myself although I was diagnosed by about 3 doctors. Anyway, I am in need of meeting other as/developmental disabilities people from 18 and up. I am from new jersey and any help connecting with others who I could share friendship or more with would be appreciated. I have never made one friend, never had one date, never kissed a girl, and never experienced so many things everyone else around me has and at this point I am just growing very frustrated and lonely. thanks.
email sean : thrash2967@yahoo.com
Meth lab cleanup contractors estimate that up to 1.5 million homes in the U.S. may be contaminated with the chemicals used to illegally manufacture methamphetmaine. The chemicals used to make meth remain within the homes where it has been “cooked” until they are removed, typically by those certified to clean and test them for chemical contaminants. Law enforcement officials, all over the country, estimate that nine of ten homes where meth is being manufactured are not being found by the police, leaving a nation full of toxin filled homes. Considering that scientists believe that ASD may be caused by a combination of a genetic predisposition that gets triggered by something in the environment causes me to believe that these contaminated homes may be attributing to the rise of Autism in the U.S.
Personally, I have a grandson whose mother was pregnant while unknowingly living in a contaminated meth lab home. My grandson lived in a contaminated home for three years before my son and his wife found out that they had been living in a former meth lab home. It cost them $16,000 to decontaminate their home to make it safe for “human inhabitation”. Although they no longer live in that home, the struggles that they and their son will go through are likely to be lifelong.
The federal government is now turning its attention to the connection between meth lab chemicals and health by asking researchers to study the problem. Considering the fact that the federal government will be paying the researchers, the accuracy of their results are likely to be questionable. To get to the truth of the matter, we will need researchers who are not being funded by federal funds to determine that the federal government’s findings are valid ones.
If you’re not familiar with the connection between meth lab chemicals and their effect on human health or would like to learn more about homes being used to make meth, please visit my website methlabhomes.com.
Just wanted to add that mercury is one of several chemicals that can be found in homes where meth has been manufactured.
Lisa, The idea for this poll is a good one but is not in my estimation complete. I answered your poll for one of my autistic sons [with food allergies/skin problems], but for our other son I couldn’t. He is diabetic, and of course when this goes out of control it makes him seriously ill. [Thank GOd lately he has been pretty healthy.] I have read there is a higher incidence of autistic kids being diabetic than in the general population too so I think you should include this in your list. I also wonder if you should include ‘other’ but realize this might be too vague…
Lisa,
My son had reflux as a young child but now he does not have that anymore . He did but many things in his mouth and if he did get sick a bit more then other kids but i think it was because he was picking up more germs . I did not see signs of autism until my son was about 2 1/2 but looking back at it now i realize that he was slower to develop then other kids in certain ways. I could see how someone could say that my son ” lost skills” at around 2 1/2 but i think that would be stretching the truth, my son may have seemed fine to me until a certain age but i think i missed signs because i was not looking for them and they were not overt signs until he was older. Some kids seem to fit in more when they are young but when speech starts to really progress by age 2 we start to really see how behind some of these kids are. Some parents may think that their children regressed, when really it was just not clear that these kids were not learning like the other kids. I think some parents have stated that their kids regressed because they believe that shots are causing autism and it makes sense to them, but sometimes these delays are just not that clear until kids are older. There are many kids like my son , Gretchen should not feel alone, she is just being honest with herself and others. Some kids maybe did regress but some may have had these issues since birth but it is hard to tell with very young children, we all think our babies are perfect when they are young because that is what we want to see because we love them so much. I know that there are many other parents that feel like i do but they may be harder to find at certain types of meetings or blogs even.
Teri
My child was always delayed, but not in such obvious autism symptom-manners. He crawled late, walked late and of course talked late. Right from the beginning he over reacted and under reacted to things, and I explained it off as ‘being a new born baby’. Everyone said their kids did the same thing even though I never seen a baby do the things my son did. He always had babble, he was the child who made up his own words. He never played peek a boo and the ceiling fan was more fun than his baby toys. You could notice a difference at a young age when he was in day care around many children, but all the delays seemed to have an explanation that was exceptable. He always gave me eye contact, he just never did others. Babies in general only eat and poop. True signs of autism wont be obvious at that age. When he did start to walk is when things became more apparent, when everything explanable was no longer exceptable. Looking back, even on the day he was born, he did odd things. My son never regressed except later, after age 4 when he had high fevers. He did go back to his main form of language which was growling. The thing too, is I lived with my son, every thing he did was ‘just my kid’, I was more or less accustomed to his behaviors. It wasn’t until he was exposed to many other same aged children and younger children when I noticed differences. Younger kids were more advanced than my son. I think some people are in shock when they learn behaviors have a name. I also think the brain growth at around 2 years old can play a large role in autism more than vaccines.
Neonatal Administration of Thimerosal Causes Persistent
Changes in Mu Opioid Receptors in the Rat Brain
http://www.springerlink.com/content/d751p01×01013627/fulltext.pdf
Abstract: Thimerosal added to some pediatric vaccines is suspected in pathogenesis of several neurodevelopmental disorders. Our previous study showed that thimerosal administered to suckling rats causes persistent, endogenous opioid-mediated hypoalgesia. Here we examined, using immunohistochemical staining technique, the density of l-opioid receptors (MORs) in the brains of rats, which in the second postnatal week received four i.m. injections of thimerosal at doses 12, 240, 1,440 or 3,000 lg Hg/kg. The periaqueductal gray, caudate putamen and hippocampus were examined. Thimerosal administration caused dosedependent statistically significant increase in MOR densities in the periaqueductal gray and caudate putamen, but decrease in the dentate gyrus, where it was accompanied by the presence of degenerating neurons and loss of synaptic vesicle marker (synaptophysin). These data document that exposure to thimerosal during early postnatal life produces lasting alterations in the densities of brain opioid receptors along with other neuropathological changes, which may disturb brain development.
I belive vaccines are harming our immune systems. Some people’s reaction to putting little bits of these diseases into our bodies is causing a multi-tude of immune disorders such as autism, etc. What make me believe vaccines are the cause of autism and so much more is the government’s reaction. In typical government form they are recommending more and more vaccines to- in the government’s mind “prove” they don’t think vaccines are doing anything. It is something they can never admit to because vaccines are mandated, therefore they will deny, deny, deny. Wake up folks, it’s the only thing that makes sense.
Thanks Twyla for that updated info, science provides the answers, yet the politics behind this disaster continues to keep that info as well hidden as possible.
NanNJ, yep, that’s the odd part, vaers was brought about by a need, we always knew vaccines caused “some” damage, we just never knew the extent, and they don’t want us to know. If one case of autistic symptoms occurs after vaccines in a population of a thousand, they may have accepted it, no one likes these new numbers . They have the power to keep that info from us, and the power to suggest “anyone” can report to vaers thereby blowing up the “real” numbers, yep that’s what we all do, send in reports, I personally no of no one that’s reported to vaers. statistics suggest there is a huge underreporting.
I can’t believe NO ONE took the time to respond to Sean, someone diagnosed with Asperger’s. Talk about how lonely your kids are living with their disorder and yet you ignore a young adult with a similar problem, who is reaching out in this community? maybe his comment was off kilter with respect to the topic, however, have you no empathy toward your own children’s social disabilities? have you not learned how to interact with people living with these hardships that you just continue on your conversation ignoring the one irrelevant comment left by someone similar to your own offspring…