The Age of Autism: 'A pretty big secret'

[Thom Little]

It's a far piece from the horse-and-buggies of Lancaster County, Pa., to the cars and freeways of Cook County, Ill. But thousands of children cared for by Homefirst Health Services in metropolitan Chicago have at least two things in common with thousands of Amish children in rural Lancaster: They have never been vaccinated. And they don't have autism.

"We have a fairly large practice. We have about 30,000 or 35,000 children that we've taken care of over the years, and I don't think we have a single case of autism in children delivered by us who never received vaccines," said Dr. Mayer Eisenstein, Homefirst's medical director who founded the practice in 1973. Homefirst doctors have delivered more than 15,000 babies at home, and thousands of them have never been vaccinated.

The few autistic children Homefirst sees were vaccinated before their families became patients, Eisenstein said. "I can think of two or three autistic children who we've delivered their mother's next baby, and we aren't really totally taking care of that child -- they have special care needs. But they bring the younger children to us. I don't have a single case that I can think of that wasn't vaccinated."

.......

"We do have enough of a sample," Eisenstein said. "The numbers are too large to not see it. We would absolutely know. We're all family doctors. If I have a child with autism come in, there's no communication. It's frightening. You can't touch them. It's not something that anyone would miss."


http://www.upi.com/ConsumerHealthDaily/view.php?StoryID=20051204-060313-6829r

[garybeck]

1. aren't vaccines safe now?

I got all hyped about this when my kids were getting ready for their first shots. I did some research and found that all the mercury was taken out of the vaccines (at least the children's vaccines, supposedly the flu shot still has it).

[OnionPatch]

27. According to our pediatrician

You are right, they don't put mercury (thimerosol) in vaccines anymore. Not sure of the details but that's what she told me two weeks ago.

[Angry Girl]

2. The Mercury-Autism Coverup (great Rollingstone article) - KnR

Deadly Immunity
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. investigates the government cover-up of a mercury/autism scandal
....Even for scientists and doctors accustomed to confronting issues of life and death, the findings were frightening. "You can play with this all you want," Dr. Bill Weil, a consultant for the American Academy of Pediatrics, told the group. The results "are statistically significant." Dr. Richard Johnston, an immunologist and pediatrician from the University of Colorado whose grandson had been born early on the morning of the meeting's first day, was even more alarmed. "My gut feeling?" he said. "Forgive this personal comment -- I do not want my grandson to get a thimerosal-containing vaccine until we know better what is going on."

But instead of taking immediate steps to alert the public and rid the vaccine supply of thimerosal, the officials and executives at Simpsonwood spent most of the next two days discussing how to cover up the damaging data....

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/_/id/7395411?has-player=unknown&version=0&show-guide=true

[EFerrari]

3. This cr!p cost my sister in law her life and my husband the

quality of his life.

And, they still deny it.

[Spider Jerusalem]

4. Anecdotal evidence...

based on what probably isn't a truly statistically random sample (controlled studies have found similar rates of prevalence for autism in vaccinated and unvaccinated populations). Not to mention that documentation of autism predates widespread vaccination. And as far as "not being able to miss it"...I'm autistic (I have Asperger's Syndrome, which is an autistic spectrum disorder), and I wasn't diagnosed until I was 25. This sounds like irresponsible fear-mongering.

[JCMach1]

6. Precisely....

[lildreamer316]

8. WHERE have you BEEN?

Haven't seen you post for quite awhile! Everything ok? Just wondering....

[Spider Jerusalem]

18. I've just been taking a bit of a break...

kind of needed it. I was kind of burned out on politics/current events...but other than that, I've been fine...thanks for asking. :hi:

[spooky3]

17. Thanks for speaking up; I have a nephew with AS and

wanted to say the same thing. Professionals "missed it" for a number of years for him too. Autism does not take the same form in every case. Controlled studies, not more anecdotes, are what is needed.

[phylny]

26. One of the seminars at my conference was short and sweet:

How to help pediatricians diagnose ASD in the kids we see.

And here's another anecdote :)

I cannot tell you how many times I gently advise parents to seek a medical diagnosis, as I stated earlier, "to rule out any other factors that may be impacting his speech-language impairment" and the doctor pronounces everything "fine."

I asked a presenter about these many cases of non-diagnosis or misdiagnosis that comes back from doctors, saying, "Are WE blind? Do WE not see it clearly, shall we suspect our own eyes and ears, our brains and knowledge and experience?"

She smiled and said we therapists are generally right on target - that because we interact with the child for a longer period of time, in a different environment, we're able to make a long-term judgment on behavior that we see on a continual basis. The doctors sometimes see the kids for a short period of time, take a history, and make a pronouncement that turns out to be wrong.

In addition, sometimes parents overstate the child's ability or understate the behavioral difficulties, thinking that "He's a boy, of course he's going to do this" or "All two-year-olds do this." Of course, I cannot make a medical diagnosis and depend upon an educated medical community to help in this cause.

[JCMach1]

5. Please don't buy into this BS on Autism

There is not one significant scientific study that has shown a clear link between autism and vaccinations.

There has been a movement among homeschooler types (and others) for some time to stop children from getting vaccinations.

The number of non-vaccinated kids is now much greater in the U.S. than it was in the 1970's... How many of these kids have to get seriously ill before someone gets a clue.

My cousin's (who is a homeschooler) daughter was nearly rendered deaf because of their refusal to vaccinate!!! The idiot still doesn't vaccinate her Talibornagain kids.

Autism is recognized more now as a specific series of behaviors and associated disorders. Doctors know about it and diagnose it accordingly.

There is far too much anti-science (read Luddism) going on in the country as it is...

Or, would you like you non-vaccinated kids served with a side-order of creation science... Whichever you choose the reasoning is just as bogus.

[GR]

10. Well We Know Mercury As Poison...

So why take any chance...we also know that the pharma people are scared shitless of their being a proven link. The liability for them would be off the charts and they know it. That's why I don't trust the FDA and others who say it's safe.

My daughter just went through this with her daughter and couldn't find a flu shot without mercury in it...

It's cheaper to store stuff with the mercury because it doesn't have to be refrigerated. But economic reasons aren't always the best reasons.

I would fight to keep my daughter's daughter from being vaccinated with anything containing thimerasol (mercury based) preservative.

[prodigal_green]

16. Don't kids receive more mercury

through the general environment? I've long suspected that THAT was the link--with Hg accumulating in the womb and breast milk. Pregnant women are now told to eat NO fish. I think it may be easier to blame pharmeceutical companies (which, don't get me wrong, full of evil-doers) than to deal with the larger environmental cleanup issues. Parents can control whether or not they have their kids vaccinated, but it is a lot harder to control air and water quality.

When did thimerasol start being used as a preservative? I was born in the 1960s and have had all my shots. As far as I know, there is not a big autism issue among my generation.

I'm not posting this to be contrarian, I really don't know. I'll do more research on my own when I have the chance, but if anybody has this info, I'd love to be pointed in the right direction.

[lumberjack_jeff]

38. The average 6 year old...

Received 187mcg of mercury in immunizations by the time he or she was 6 months old. Although Thimerosal has been present for a long time, I suspect that the array of shots that babies recieve is greater than those we received.

Is 187mcg A lot? A little? Added to the environmental sources of mercury, perhaps it makes a difference.

http://www.healing-arts.org/children/vaccines/vaccines-mercury.htm

The use of Thimerosal was dramatically reduced in the last 4 years. If it's a meaningful contributor, the rate of increase in Autism will slow.

Much emphasis on early intervention is predicated upon identifying autism early. If it's caused by environmental factors that cause the illness to manifest later (my son had no identifiable symptoms at age 2) then early intervention is not possible.

[EVDebs]

30. Maybe the merc source isn't just vaccines but power plants etc

and I hear that China's economic expansion is mainly coal-fired...read vast mercury emissions into the atmosphere, ending up in drift to Pacific, not to mention our old 'dirty dinosaur' power plants.
Oh, and India might be doing likewise.

Fish end up being bio-accumulators and it would be interesting to see if any studies on mercury in fish vis a vis autism have been done.

Interesting theory though...

[HippieCowgirl]

15. Polio has resurfaced in Amish communities...

because of their refusal to vaccinate.

Remember when we condisdered Polio to be a conquered disease?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/13/AR2005101301733.html

[emcguffie]

32. I wonder what you think about --

-- Gulf War Illness/syndrome, chronic fatigue immune dysfunction syndrome, myalgic encephalomyelitis and/or fibromyalgia?

I'm not saying they have anything to do with vaccinations, but there sure as hell has been a great big cover-up on Gulf War illness/syndrome.

[uppityperson]

36. Pickles eaten by pregnant women cause autism.

I bet most of the mothers of autistic children ate a pickle while pregnant. Or was that study about milk?

[phylny]

7. I was just out in California for a conference last month, and this subject

was brought up time and time again, in many different forums.

Not one country had been able to prove this link.

As an aside note, what researchers are finding is that it may be possible to diagnose autism in children as they begin to move and crawl. I saw a fascinating tape of children who had been diagnosed with autism, where parents were asked to submit videotapes of their children as infants. The findings suggest that children who are eventually diagnosed with autism have motoric difficulties with rolling over and crawling. To see the comparisons between typically developing babies and those later diagnosed with autism was visually startling.

I also learned at the conference that there are many signs that researchers can now pick up to diagnose earlier than 2 or 3 years of age, but that parents generally become concerned when their child is 18 months. Why? The child's not talking. But there are other signs, including many non-verbal/social signs, that are very apparent when researchers view videos. Some parents that they interviewed said that after a diagnosis, when they looked back, there were some very blatant things that were "different" about their infant that they could only see in retrospect.

One big, big clue that you need to start paying attention to development: A child with normal hearing who doesn't respond to his or her name.

[bananas]

9. Any comments on Dr. Bernard Rimland?

Some videos of recovered children in the second link.
http://www.autismwebsite.com/ari/about/aboutari.htm
http://autism-recoveredchildren.org/

[phylny]

19. No, none at all. In fact, all comments were from university

professors and researchers. The venue was the American Speech Language Hearing Association national convention.

[Spider Jerusalem]

20. Rimland is a fucking quack.

And "recovery" from autism is IMPOSSIBLE, since autism is due to essential differences in neurology. You can make an autistic ACT like they aren't autistic, but "recovery" is out of the question.

[phylny]

23. When I start working with a child and I suspect they're on the

spectrum, I gently and indirectly advise the parent to go to a developmental pediatrician or pediatric neurologist "To rule out any other factors that might be impacting his/her speech and language development." Many times, through therapy and of course with intensive parental involvement, we see miraculous and wonderful gains in children who've been diagnosed early and receive therapy early on. I say, "It's as though they were teetering on the edge of a cliff and we gently pull them back."

Having said that, many of these children will continue to show some signs that they're on the spectrum as they get older. Most professionals, including people at the conference I attended and in other medical areas, concur that there is no cure for autism.

I've found that some professionals who claim "cure" do so to line their own pockets. I'm not saying that there isn't a desire to help people, but these guys are sure getting rich in the meantime. In addition, these claims provide false hope for wonderful, yet grieving parents, who hang onto these claims as their salvation, only to have another dream dashed. So, I take regard any claim for a "cure" cautiously and with great trepidation, and want to know what the success rate is, and how involved the child was to begin with.

And again, I would love nothing more than for someone to find a documented cure for autism.

[GR]

11. Where Are The 20 Year Old Autistics... This Doesn't Go Away....

so if detection methods are better, why haven't a huge number been detected. This is one of those WHY TAKE ANY CHANCE IF THERE IS ANY QUESTION...The vaccines do not HAVE TO CONTAIN THIMERASOL...it's just cheaper and easier to store them with it...not a good enough reason for the level of risk, even if it's small...Most children can combat the mercury but some can't and there the one's who get it...at least there's enough probability that I wouldn't risk it for anyone close to me...You can risk it for your kids if youwant...

[phylny]

21. I'm not sure I'm understanding your question regarding "detection

methods" and why haven't a huge number been detected. As far as my caseload goes, I think the number continues to rise. I work in early intervention, and the children on my caseload are birth to three. These kids have not had Thimerasol in their vaccines, yet I see signs and symptoms that would lead me to believe that many of these children are on the spectrum - some kids in the same family and have been diagnosed with autism or PDD. Some of these children weren't born or vaccinated in this country. One wasn't vaccinated at all because she had a cousin with autism, yet she's autistic as well.

I would LOVE for someone to find SOMETHING that we can all point the finger at, and have no stake in the pharmaceutical industry and I'm not advocating having mercury in anything that is injected or otherwise introduced into our bodies or in any of us ingests. I was reporting what I heard at my conference.

Thanks, though, for the *kind* words regarding my children. My kids are aged 13-20, and I did "risk" it for my kids. What a crappy thing to say.

I have told my three daughters to cease eating any seafood until after they're finished having children.

[Midlodemocrat]

24. From what I remember in diagnosing and treating

children with ASDs, there appears to be evidence that there is a biological factor, which can be triggered by a variety of things. There are children out there who weren't vaccinated who have autism; I treated some.

I think that we really need to start focusing on the biological link rather than essentially going round and round with the same arguments about vaccinations.

[phylny]

25. I absolutely, positively agree.

There is a genetic component and something, maybe many things, is triggering the rise in autism. It could be a million and one things, including mercury found in our food supply, in the air we breathe, in the dirt the seeds are planted in!

The fact that there's a genetic link shows that there's a predisposition (I know no one is disputing that) and the fact that children continue to be diagnosed with autism after mercury has been removed from vaccines points to something else - again, maybe many different things for many different children.

What, if I may ask, is your profession?

[Midlodemocrat]

33. You may, and I will gladly answer.

I am a psychologist, although currently not practicing. I practiced in CT for several years prior to having my own children, and discovered that while I thoroughly enjoyed the work, the hours were not conducive to raising my own kids.

I am considering getting licensed here to re-enter the force, but my youngest is only 9 and my husband travels a great deal for his job, so I am not sure if the idea is feasible just yet.

[spinbaby]

22. There are many 20-year-old autistics

One is my nephew.

[purji]

28. Of course there are 20 year old Autistics

I spent 10 years working with them ,they live in group homes,in family homes,and in institutions.
Just because YOU don't see them doesn't mean they aren't there.

[Fovea]

34. The high functioning ones

work in the IT and EE industries.
I suspect many of the others are in prison.

[Spider Jerusalem]

35. Actually, even among high-functioning autistics...

and those with Asperger's Syndrome, the unemployment rate is estimated at between sixty and eighty percent. (Lacking the requisite social skills to get through the interview process can be a hindrance despite other qualifications.)

[Lydia Leftcoast]

37. Autism is nothing new

I remember magazine articles about it from the 1960s (I'm 55).

At that time, some therapists believed that it was a psychiatric illness caused by poor mothering, but the syndrome definitely existed.

Autistic people were treated as either mentally ill or retarded, especially since some are retarded.

People with Asperger's were simply considered extreme nerds. I knew some people in grad school who, now that I think back, must have had Asperger's, due to their complete lack of social skills coupled with intellectual obsessiveness. I didn't know that there was a name for that condition until a few years ago, but when I saw the symptoms, I recognized the type immediately.

If there is a genetic component to autism, then the lack of it among the Amish may be due to their extreme inbreeding. The gene for it simply may not exist in those communities where everyone is marrying their cousins. (This inbreeding causes problems with other genetic conditions such as extra fingers and toes or dwarfism.)

[sweetheart]

29. child who doesn't respond to its name

When i was a kid, i was like this.
My parents thought i was deaf, but hearing
tests showed i was of sound hearing.

Why does not responding to your name as a child mean something?

[phylny]

31. Because it's a social skill, something that a child should be

doing relatively early (by about 7-12 months of age, earlier in some children). It's a sign that something may be amiss with development. It does not ALWAYS mean this, but is considered a red flag.

[RazzleDazzle]

12. Wow. 30 - 35K children. Statistically significant?

Naw, nothin' there. Move along folks, nothin' there. Just "junk science."

Yeah, right.

Thanks for posting this.

[lumberjack_jeff]

39. One would expect to see as much as 210 children with autism...

in a population of 35,000.

[mopinko]

13. hey, that's my doc!

3 of those home birthed babies are mine.
their stats on c-sections are something to behold, also. i think their babies and families really ought to be studied.

[donsu]

14. kicking for justice for children

nt

[Clara T]

40. You can tell people

who are seemingly sane on every other issue on the planet about the extraordinary risks of vaccinating children and you will get stares, glares and looks of disbelief. Some might even froth a bit. Chemical medicine has done us a great disservice in total.