Often the answer to questions like this is something like "Well, there's no evidence that X contributes to [bad outcome] Y, so we can't rule it out, but we also have no reason to think that X was bad."

In the case of the standard APA (American Pediatrics Association) recommended vaccine schedule, and in particular even the most controversial injections in that schedule such as the MMR combined vaccine, we can actually do better. This is a rare case in which there is compelling epidemiological evidence, from several independent studies in different countries, that can RULE OUT the possibility that these vaccines are in any way associates with changes in developmental disabilities. In other words, we can actually say "There is compelling evidence that X DOES NOT cause Y."

The list of things to worry about instead of vaccines is nearly endless. You ought to be more worried about shark attacks. And even more worried about pig attacks, which historically are far more deadly than shark attacks, and still more worried about bee stings, which are still not worth worrying about (unless you're quite allergic).

But something that is really, truly frightening is the range of diseases that your child might contract if he is not vaccinated. Rubella is a really tragic and dangerous disease, for example, and according to the CDC, more than 400 children die worldwide every day of measles. The spurious idea that vaccines contribute to developmental disabilities has been spread out of ignorance by a minority of parents (no doubt concerned for their children) in the US and EU. Unfortunately that irresponsible meme has no doubt caused the deaths of thousands of children. It's really important for researchers in every field to try to eliminate this harmful -- deadly, really -- misinformation.

When a vaccine with a strong adjuvant is given to any infant before its immunology is adequately established we risk delaying that child's development for years to come. For that reason I advocate strongly, based on decades of experience, that there be a delay in the MMR vaccines at least for 6 months for boys (the most vulnerable to learning disorders) and 4-5 months for females born full term, longer waits for premature babies. Not doing so will continue to add markedly with the exploding numbers of learning disordered children in the population. How long we have to be in denial and increase the enormous societal costs of not heeding this common sense parameter will determine in my mind when we stop listening to politicians, bureaucrats, and assorted vested interests, and start listening to the human body. The trends in Autism Spectrum etc. can be reversed by going back to basics, no matter what poorly designed, biased, turf protecting studies say. We have endless anecdotal and empirical evidence of this already. We as a scientific community need to listen to this evidence until we can prove it to the naysayers (if that is possible).

Great question, Bujar. Hope we all tune in!

Thank You so much Dr. Chrtand.

I am as You can see a total ignorant in the topic. And I honestly thank to Your answer.

The problem is my 4 year old son, who after that vaccine on 18 month's age, had a delay in his developmental progressing. Here people do not know what autism is, which I doubt because of my son's behavior. I suspect the vaccine is the direct cause of it. He is being treated on behavioral basis, but not on biological and organic bases. I have decided to open this question publicly, as I need experts' opinions, which I cannot find here.

He lacks the verbal component, his non-verbal behavior is advancing slowly but significantly, he doesn't have a problem of the emotional sphere, he has instead on the cognitive sphere. In one word, he doesn't have a functional representation or a symbolic one like Piaget has long ago claimed.. All l I could do in my semiotics, which attempt at giving meaning to certain given forms and context, was my "meddling with" people who do not give medicines to destroy the biochemistry off his brain, and ask advice from them.

In conclusion, I hope You do understand my problem, and the reason why I had to go in various Conferences which treat mental disorders, so as to try and find a clue.

Thank You so much for this information.

My very best wishes,

Bujar.

Bujar, it sounds as if your child had (or still has) something else in their early developmental profile--most like elevated lead levels from birth (via the mother) or other environmental exposure. At age 3 immunology is pretty well established, but that does not mean it was not compromised by high lead levels or other reason. Gentle, attenuated chelation is in order to be sure, in my opinion. The good news is that out experience demonstrates that such assaults do not have to be permanent, that the child can outgrow just about all of it, unless denial keeps us from addressing it (smile).

Thank You again. His repetitive and stereotypical behavior is evident. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to examine his possible biological conditions.

I have read so much about this problem, but I am helpless, since I don't know how to cure him. Your opinion of an expert is very valuable to me. Through my "Normality vs. Abnormality in a Child's Behavior" I have tried to describe the problem out of the viewpoint of the semiotics of passions. In case I need assistance, may I be encouraged to ask You more, sometimes in the future?

Thank You so much, in advance.

Absolutely, Bujar.

Thank You. I only hoped that with my reading, or as Umberto Eco says ( my Ph D) is about his works), "semiotics is a science about lies" ( Eco, 1975). Therefore, even if my information on my child may not be correct, please don't mind it. It is understandable, sometimes, I behave just like a parent. This is also because the psychologists here say: "since you have read so much about psychology, make exercises yourself with the boy". Of course, I am not an expert and I cannot do that.

Otherwise, semiotics is interdisciplinary, and there is a branch called "biosemiotics" , that talks of "human cell's behavior". It is still only a hypothesis.

My best,

Bujar.

You may go to www.drmachartrand.org and go into the Health Library for topics to read about overcoming developmental delays and also into the Parent Resource portion of my site. One of the keys for your son is exposure to good music and to learn to play a musical instrument when he is old enough to do so.

very happy. I shall tell to my wife: and believe me, she is constantly trying. She is a well-known classical music violin player; and Your information shall encourage her indeed. I shall have a look, by all means.

Studies I have observed show no relationship between vaccines and any impairment. Im afraid the only situation that might be true in this case is that vaccine can negatively affect someone due to a reaction or family gene affect.

I have read a huge amount of evidence. The problem is that vaccines have to be sold. Of course, when one like me, t reads these issues, it sounds terrible. But, again, hopefully we do the right thing about our children.

Often the answer to questions like this is something like "Well, there's no evidence that X contributes to [bad outcome] Y, so we can't rule it out, but we also have no reason to think that X was bad."

In the case of the standard APA (American Pediatrics Association) recommended vaccine schedule, and in particular even the most controversial injections in that schedule such as the MMR combined vaccine, we can actually do better. This is a rare case in which there is compelling epidemiological evidence, from several independent studies in different countries, that can RULE OUT the possibility that these vaccines are in any way associates with changes in developmental disabilities. In other words, we can actually say "There is compelling evidence that X DOES NOT cause Y."

The list of things to worry about instead of vaccines is nearly endless. You ought to be more worried about shark attacks. And even more worried about pig attacks, which historically are far more deadly than shark attacks, and still more worried about bee stings, which are still not worth worrying about (unless you're quite allergic).

But something that is really, truly frightening is the range of diseases that your child might contract if he is not vaccinated. Rubella is a really tragic and dangerous disease, for example, and according to the CDC, more than 400 children die worldwide every day of measles. The spurious idea that vaccines contribute to developmental disabilities has been spread out of ignorance by a minority of parents (no doubt concerned for their children) in the US and EU. Unfortunately that irresponsible meme has no doubt caused the deaths of thousands of children. It's really important for researchers in every field to try to eliminate this harmful -- deadly, really -- misinformation.

Our now 40 year old son was clearly a vaccine-inspired autistic case, when the local health department practically forced my wife to have our 4 week old son receive his first MMR combination vaccine. He immediately went into a 105 fever and stayed there for 2 days before coming back down and losing his Moro reflex and other indicators of normal development. As a professional I have worked with thousands of similar cases, everyone of them being boys, early vaccines, fever (most not as high as our son's), most delayed in speech up to age 4 or 5, and redoing first grade in every case.

They often were milder ASD cases, but some quite severe. Our son started school, unrecognized by the school at the time, as a moderate autistic and could have repeated first grade several times before passing muster at normal levels. But they socially promoted him every grade up to high school when they realized that he was not going to be able to function at a normal level no matter how many times he repeated the coursework.

These are the cases of which we have become sensitive to the fact that society has shunted them aside as something unrelated to the pediatric guidelines. Those guidelines, in my professional observation with two doctorates (communicative disorders and behaviral medicine) and overwhelming evidence of thousands of patients and their family experiences, are not safe for many children. Boys, born in higher numbers than girls, equal the same in popuation by age 22 because of the greater number of deaths of boys by then. Special education programs (exploding in recent years) are 8 to 1 boys to girls. FIrst grade repeaters and High School dropouts are generally 9 to 1 boys. ADHD is 7-9 to 1 boys to girls, suicides and death from risk behaviors is 4-5 times as high as girls, the National Scholastic Honor Society is 1 to 8 girls over boys--girls are ahead of boys at every grade level of school as a rule, girls go to college in greater numbers and far outnumber boys in college degrees, and boys comprise 94% of inmates in our overstuffed prisons.

The larger picture tells us to: 1) delay these vaccinations until boys' lesser immunological stregnth is more developed, 2) go to a more sensory (think Montessori et al.) style of public school learning, 3) bring to honest discussion as a soceity on how to save our boys from their inclinations and risk behaviors without taking away their ability to explore life through the male prism, and 4) seriously decrease functional illiteracy, drug and substance addictions in youth, and otherwise help our boys become productive citizens instead of falling into the fringes of society.

Coming back to the Autism Spectrum (including Auspergers), which is overwhelmingly a male developmental problem, we need a frank and open discussion, not more biased research studies that tell us it is our imagination. As a parent who has helped countless other parents through the ordeal we went through, I say the standards are wrong, short sighted and deeply into denial. There is no ignorance on this topic in these quarters.

Dear respected doctors and specialists of the field,

I am really honored to discuss the topic with both of You. I was never against the vaccines. my daughter is 8 and she is "normal' and got all the vaccines. It is also true on the other hand, that very frightening diseases may come form non vaccinating the child.

I have talked out of my own experience: this happened with my son, whom they thought of being epileptic. He did not have any attacks after the age of three months.

The assaults lasted 10 seconds only.

HE WAS UNDER DEPAKINE FOR ENTIRE THREE YEARS. He has even now diminished the doze.

He had THE VERBAL COMPONENT in saying daddy and mum, until aged 18 months, and the vaccines. Until that time he had all the previous vaccines.\

But, dear experts, when I asked the pediatric neurologist of my on: " Is it autism doctor?" he said: "What do you know of medicine? Look how he is behaving; he is only crying? How can cure him?"

How would I visit him again? Would you visit him?

After this, I have started reading: developmental psychology, abnormal child psychology, etc., and found that such kind of vaccine COULD HAVE an impact to a normal child's development. I am certain, as soon as I see the smallest result, I shall continue vaccinating him.

I would be very happy if somebody here responded me in an academic fashion like You did. I am really honored with that. For me, a decent communication, a retelling of the problem, keeping an eye to the flow of events is very important.

I tried Montessori as well. They said: " We deal only with very intelligent children?" What kind of significance does the sphere of intelligence have here? Autistic children can play a huge amount of music in the instrument. They are highly intelligent. Believe me, he was accepted in the kinder-garden even now.

I treat abnormal behavior alongside with the normal ones, not like the ones do in my country.

Thank you both so much for Your professional comments. One really needs to learn from you.

My best wishes,

I am sure I cannot understand what you have been going through. I guess you recognize that you might never know with certainty what happened to your child -- or perhaps better answers will come in 10 years, or 20. These things are frustratingly unpredictable.

It would be absurd say that medicine has all the answers, or medical researchers are always right (e.g., in 1966 the Surgeon General of the US declared that we had beaten infectious diseases...see how that has held up!!). Individuals can apparently have idiosyncratic bad reactions to many sorts of things -- foods, medications, industrial products, etc. Also, we know from the horrible tragedy recently in the US due to malfeasance in compounding facilities that normally safe medicines can be mishandled so they become injurious or deadly. So many generally safe things can be made unsafe. E coli can live on spinach and people have gotten very sick or died after eating spinach. But this does not mean we should uniformly avoid spinach; spinach is not itself inherently unhealthy.

Many autism researchers believe some version of the following: Most healthy middle-class infants have a scheduled well-baby visit around 18 months. Around 18 months infants typically undergo rather rapid and overly noticeable gains in language, cognition, motor skills, and social engagement. More and more, pediatricians are aware of these changes. If an infant's language and social development, and motor development, have "stalled" (or even regressed -- a controversial phenomenon but there is converging documentation that this might rarely occur), it is at the 18 month visit that an astute pediatrician might notice something. Of course, normal vaccines are also (or should be) administered at this visit. I personally believe, admittedly without evidence, that parents of infants who are not progressing pick up some information or cues from the alert provider at this visit, and it either brings their concerns to a conscious level, or makes them aware of the behavioral norms that their infant is not meeting. The parent is now alarmed, anxious, alert...looking for signs, looking for information, explanations, answers. How could we not be, as parents?? Now the parents starts to notice "new behaviors" or signs. The parent wasn't necessarily keyed into those behaviors before, so in some cases parents interpret them as newly emerging signs. If those sign "appear" (as opposed to "start being noticed") after the 18-month peds visit, the parent naturally starts to look for something out of the ordinary that preceded these "new" signs. One out of the ordinary (and stressful and memorable, for parents!) event is watching someone stick needles into your beloved baby. It is then easy to associate this emotionally memorable event as a preceding cause of the "effects" which are interpreted as new (instead of now-noticed). As time goes on, the baby continues to diverge from age-mates more and more, not because the baby is being damaged by something, but because s/he is not developing as fast. This of course accelerates and exacerbates parents' concerns.

I hasten to add that this sort of scenario is oversimplified and cartoonish, and is far removed from the complex, painful reality of any number of individual cases. Any version of that scenario would not apply to a great number of cases. But I am a scientist, not a medical practitioner, and I think in terms of trends. Some version of the scenario I've outlined is, I believe, not completely unlike what happens in a subset of cases. Disclaimer: this is a HYPOTHESIS. I do not have adequate evidence to support the hypothesis, but I think it is consistent with a variety of facts about human development, medical practices, and cognitive biases.

Thank you, Gedeon. This is a difficult topic for parents who have been shunted aside by a system that is more afraid of lawsuits (there have been many in the past) than getting to honest answers. The boy issues is a big one that the entire field of science is in denial for a variety of reasons. The data is there for anyone to see if they care to look in the archives and dig through the obfuscation thrown in its path. Boys are falling behind, period. Their immunology is not as robust as girls', even under identical environmental assaults. I have been pounding on the unresponsive US Dept of Ed's door almost since its inception over these issues. They are in lockstep with Big Pharma and treat these developmental delays (which is exactly what they are--years ago I wrote a paper on "What happened to the autistic kids--which found that many outgrew their autism as they mature, though many were admittedly very late bloomers) as if they are drug deficiencies. I say this tongue in cheek because there is no such thing as a drug deficiency, but with their promotion of drugs over REAL answers is a good example of how far off we are as a society in truly addressing developmental issues of our young, which are growing and are legion today.

I am not against immunizations, just the very early ones. I speak with the voice of experience and studied authority that we should not be herding in the mothers of newborn males (or even females) so early. Give them at least 6 months to grow some immunology before burdening them with the adjuvants (which ARE most challenging for undeveloped immune systems). But this modest proposal is swept aside as so much paranoia.

In addition, we need to reinstitute music education into our public schools--the best cognitive development program in the world, look at the top three nations in the annual Math and Science Survey, all have music as core curriculum and have a tiny fraction of the special educatiion population as we do. Special ed and remedial ed dominate the US education lanscape because of the ignorance and stubborn resistance by policy makers. The top performing schools anywhere in the world ALL have music and fine arts central to their programs. Autistic kids grow corpus collosums and attain higher levels of performance with music. I am attaching one of my parent resource monographs here. The third page of this monograph is the item to which I intended to draw attention. The Power of Music is where its at for all children--watch special ed programs shrink (that is my minor in four of my advanced degrees) and yes vested interests (mainly teachers unions and Big Pharma) may fight it tooth and nail. But that is the way to go regardless of other considerations. Our kids come first.

Bujar, on the Montesorri issue, each school is different. I once served on a school board of a Montessori School that had about 25%-50% of their load were special education students--most of whom developed to grade level over a few years' time in a self-paced program designed for such a population. On the other hand, our grandaughter went to an upscale public Montessori school in New Zealand where I do not believe they accepted any special ed children. If your son is under the age of six, he can probably attend a Montesorri Pre-School, but a parent may have to be in attendance with them as a volunteer. But there are many fine programs that can cater to the needs of such children, but may not be plentiful in your region.

I've long said, even with our personal experience, that it is not the vaccines themselves--they are a public health necessity. But the timing on immune system development and on boys in particular is being a societal policy mistake writ large--you can take a female baby next to an otherwise male baby and pretty well tell who is going to have the problem.

Another aspect that is passed over in public health policy in our country is the increasing levels of lead and cadmium, exposure to mercury through breakage of mercury-containing light bulbs that have been mandated in the US. This is a public health threat of the first order and 16-pages of EPA warnings on those bulbs is not reaching a totally unsuspecting public--so we will have to learn from terrible mistakes as we always do before we wise up and get honest in our discussion about such helath threats to the young. Billions of broken mercury laden bulbs are going to teach us another lesson we wish we had learned BEFORE we passed such short-sighted laws. hoping that parents will protect their children while the public policy people work to get their act in order. The mercury thing is a time-bomb---millions of broken bulbs in landfills, in living rooms with carpet where toddlers crawl, the lamp the cat knocked over, the ones lying in the trash--and our survey of the matter is yielding a virtual blackout on the public health side.

The campaign to get everyone off of table salt combined with the increase in bromides in baked goods and sodas, perchlorates in drinking water in some regions, and we are about to see another reduction in cognitive performance from all the kids who have iodine deficiencies like we have not seen since the 1920s when federal legislation mandated iodine added to table salf became the nation's principal source of iodine and incidence in mental retardation dropped for the first time in our nation.

So you see we have a lot of threats to the young--again, it is up to parents to learn of these things and someday the public policy experts will eventually catch up with concerned parents. I wish you well in your quest to help your son. I believe you will find the pathway to giving him every advantage available. Thank you for raising such a timely question.

Thank You again for Your thorough answer on all issues concerned. As a parent, I was forced to "steal" a tiny bit of Your honored, human, profession. My knowledge of this is naturally limited. Out of seeing no way out, I suddenly saw that at least there is some truth in what I tried to raise as a question.

It is beyond any hesitation that this is a worldwide question. And experts are eligible to raise it.

In my country, my question would fall among gossiping, being against the law, etc. My not vaccinating of my child, from that time until now, of course, was done with my full awareness. Medical staff of the Government started to come at my home, FORCING me to continue the vaccination. My "suspicion" at the time when this occurred with my child, was just a speculation. I had no idea what mental disorders are. Of course I was not a total ignorant about psychology, as my MA was entitled: "The Semiotics of the Characters of Othello and Rigoletto". And I had to see whether Iago's actions were acquired or were inherited. But again, such visions , it beyond any thought cannot come true to realistic life issues and social contexts.

I am happy in conclusion that my question raised some issues which are very specific to Your field of study.

Of course, I was threatened by the Government by a fee, going to the Court; even some parents could have been sent to prison, because of this. I fully respect public health and vaccines: and I am aware of everything. This information was given to me by a specialist ( not living i my country).

Let us leave this things aside, as it is time at least to concentrate on my son's issue. There are so many things I haven't done with him ( such as the MRI of his brain) as I don't trust the experts in my country ( very sorry to say this, I apologize to You on the behalf of medical ethics), I know that nobody knows the exact causes of autism, but they could have talked with me about the consequences. Why don't they accept " abnormal children " in the educational system? Etc.

Your suggested music issue made me happy. At least for that his mother is an expert. ( It was "God's will" as I like to express myself, that our daughter was born after 12 years of marriage).

My very best wishes, and thanks again for Your advice,

Bujar.

Music is likely your son's way back, Bujar. The force of the state can be terrible and ought not be. That is why such matters should be left in the hands of experts and the parents of the children--the parents can never be left out of the question, as the family is the most fundamental unit of society and deserves the protection of government, not to be its subject. I wish you the best.

Remember, some of us look at autism as a developmental delay to be overcome (as it was for my son who today has broken all the barriers of autism--is gainfully employed, married, owns a home, and leading a happy life--his was not an easy journey, but utilizing everything we knew to do, he grew into a thriving, high functioning adult.

Timing and dosage could not be emphasized enough, as far as I am aware. We do know that mercury is a problem, and yes, it is nearly impossible to formulate, then answer research questions regarding issues like this one, but when warnings about mercury are given to pregnant women (and apparently about light bulbs), you could say that at some point 'science' is not your answer and you must go about making your decision differently. I am not suggesting we don't vaccinate; I have four male children, now 18-23 all whom were vaccinated, but when one showed mild autism symptoms and the questions started, I did a great deal of reading. Even colleagues from other countries verified that for young infants, since vaccines need preservatives to be stored, and mercury has been the preservative of choice, where they are from your infant gets 6 to 8 shots, less mercury at a time, and everyone involved (parents, scientistists, educators) work together NOT to argue the merits of the right kind of study, or data, but how to make the best of the situation. I asked my peds why we didn't use that schedule here and he said the Am Ped Assoc had considered different schedules but concluded it would be more dangerous and far more likely that American parents would get, say, the first 3 shots, but then due to our lifestyles, fail to complete the cycle. So for the most part, pediatricians would not offer a different schedule. This is no different than using arsenic to preserve wood... yes, there was (assuming we are no longer selling arsenic wood) a nice bright ticket on 2 x 4's stating the dangers of cutting and building with it; but as multiple instances showed, we generally failed to heed the warnings and cut into this wood, inhaling the dust and becoming very ill. Further, even after explaining to parents of toddlers why the wood was slightly green and had that smell, and showing them other wood that could not last as long before rotting but its wood and it is no longer living so its supposed to rot, they still choose arsenic wood, so their children pressed their very porous palms into and around new playgrounds or crawled on new decks, absorbing the arsenic that way. Our answer? Get rid of mercury, get rid of arsenic, and replace them with other preservatives. And we discuss here, on this forum, issues about knowledge and human advancement. The problem isn't mercury per se, its not understanding the function of a preservative. Remember the frogs in formaldehyde in middle school? Attempting to preserve substances to the point of endangering ourselves is ignorance in all its glory.

"Ignorance in all its glory", Kelly, describes too much of what passes for public health policies in the United States today. This is not being cynical as some might suggest as it is having one's eyes opened to the dangers in making decisions for millions of people and then denying the effects of those decisions, whether it is mass flouridation and mottled teeth, innoculating newborns before their immune systems know how to process deadly bacteria, degerminating of the nation's grains and wondering why its our health markers are on a perpetual downward trend, tiptoeing around the drug cartels and their million-man distribution network while plotting to make drugs legal--yes, this is a huge public health issue (there never was a serious war on drugs), and brace ourselves while our kids are made to believe some drugs are safe for everyday consumption, whether it be America's consumption of 82% of the world's opium medication (what ever are we going to do when the Taliban come back and burn the opium fields we've so carefully protected these past 10 years?) or legalization of a drug that is nothing short of being a gateway drug and nearly always leads to..more drugs, tobacco, alcohol, etc...caffeine consumption allowed to proliferate among our young (who do they think is consuming the tens of billions of dollars of "high energy" drinks? not us old folks) and then drugging 16.5 million of our kids to calm them down with...you guessed it...with prescription methamphetamines...

Big business all the way around, and we wonder why Johnny's academic performance is dragging at the bottom of advanced nations. Yes, public health policies are less than the stellar safe havens they should be if we applied unbiased judgement and wisdom. Instead, vested interests speak louder and the uninformed masses allow it.

But I feel more and more parents and grandparents are awakening---and just maybe enough to protect the next generation from the same fate. But what a lot of work we have yet to do.

I recall in the 1950s seeing public service messages warning us of not chewing on window sills but never hearing a word about the lead in the paint on the pencils we chewed on all day at school. Now the lightbulbs--to "save the environment" (a good thing), but the horrendous cost we will pay in human costs (a much graver price to pay) virtually ignored.

Thanks for the thorough and very fruitful answers. The problem for this issue, as You know much, much better than me, who is a parent, and who was forced to do some readings in relation to such and similar issues, in order to be able to get rid some at least of the stress and unnecessary emotional burdening within me and my wife.

It is on the other hand, very evident that it is not me who should be eligible in discussing such matters. The problem is as a matter of fact, simply , of getting better in terms of understanding of the problem

Another issue: a known psychiatrist came into my home some day ago. he said: 'You are an egoist because You read so much about this, since You can't resolve the problem". He added that my child's problem is of an organic nature due to a wrong pediatric evaluation of the baby after birth.I would most kindly ask You experts, what kind of evidence did he have to come to such a conclusion?

I have already initiated a meeting with pediatric neurologists ( not with the one that tricked me, but with others), to do the MRI. As a parent I am so much worried about the fact that he has to be under sedation when the MRI is performed. To my opinion, his narrative identity is still not developed well, although his non-verbal communication functions well.I don't see any coordination problems, any other problems as a parent, which might suggest a deficit in his motor functions, etc. This doctor that came at my home works at the Columbia University and is a researcher: he thinks it is a biological problem. And finally, as I have already described, in my case, his verbal and behavioral problems started at the age of 18 months, after the vaccine.

Anyway, of course, thanking to all of You in advance for all the answers given, I shall continue to look after him, and do the best I can.

Dr. Chartand, my son makes rhythmic movements ( resembling to a dance), when listening to music. Thank You indeed.,

Bujar.

Biological is for sure--biological responses to toxins is no less real than by any other means. Children outgrow most such assaults on their development, but some think of such damage as permanent. The important thing to remember that growth and overcoming developmental challenges is what childhood is all about. Many high function autistics as children grew into fully functioning adults.

Max, I appreciate your willingness to post in such a way that you allow yourself to be 'seen'. I tend to do that, and had as you can imagine a terrible time in grad school having that tendency drilled out of me :) And I believe, but am open to the possibility I am wrong that you are probably more idealistic than I am. Once, one of my dearest friends and colleagues said I was the most pessimistic optimist they had ever met...a compliment I treasure to this day.

Bujar, you identified a huge issue when you mentioned having knowledge, or at least enought skills and knowledge to not necessarily solve a particular problem but to then become very stressed about it. Having lived my entire life in the U.S., I could list the hundreds, if not thousands of examples that involve essentially the same features. I could fret (!!) that I live in a place where my life doesn't matter, and I think I was in that place mentally for awhile, but when I really accepted the breadth and number of similar issues, and acknowledged my very strong desire for happy endings (reading Shah and other mystics was and is invaluable for me in terms of balancing myself and being able to integrate the 'big picture': thousands of years of problems, and according to Shah, the main one? "Being human"), I found a way to still be open and non-judgmental, to tolerate cog dissonance, with the simple realization that in general, NOT believing about 80% of what is handed down to us in the US (drink 3 glasses of wine, tomatoes that can sit out for several months are good for you...) is in all likelihood wrong. Making the gentle, intentional choice to believe what I am reading, thus what often becomes part of science in the funds it receives, the specialists on tv, and so on, may mean I am wrong part of the time. I can live with that as I think statistically I come out ahead, thus no stress. So when Baby Einstein came out, I lectured about the apparent problems, our TV addiction, seizures related to electronic devices, and the biggest give away....Einstein didn't have Baby Einstein, and it worked out. None of my arguments were remotely scientific but as data has been examined, we see developmental psychologists among others are catching up and seeing the problems. I hope you can find some peace on this matter, Kelly

*to intentionally NOT believe... and sorry, I haven't yet attempted the built in corrections.

Thanks for your most cogent and insightful comments, Kelly. Having been through grad school four times (2 masters and 2 doctorates) and still not have my openness in my observations drilled out of me--and taught grad school a number of years, to boot--I find most often truth stranger than fiction. I'm often against the tide of public opinion, which public opinion in my observation is being led around by the nose of politicians and those with vested interests. Being profoundly deaf all my life (cochlear implant and oral/aural in communication, incidently) I tend to see behind the scenes. Mass hysteria and mass innoculations without careful consideration share much in common--both are without logic or reason. And the consequences as expected are not good ones. Mass hysteria gets many more killed than the thing from which they are scampering, while mass innoculations without reason, as has proved over and over, has produced far more detriments to immunology, human development, and health in general than the thing from which one is being innoculated. In 2010, far more suffered from the over-adjuvanted H1N1 vaccine side/main effects than from the man-made virus itself--only those with one leg already in the grave actually died from the virus, everyone else took a beating from an overwrought campaign to get everyone vaccinated (to cover the masses, the concentration of adjuvant was many times higher than in the initial beta test). The same applies to the rush to get newborns innoculated before they can even fend off the mildest allergens. So much so that ASD has zoomed exponentially upward from one out of thousands in days gone by to one in 66 and now one in 33--and 8-9:1 boys to girls. But who is paying attention that this is a boys problem and that our prisons are packed with them? Or that boys are falling further and further behind? But, again, being "seen" on this issue and others I invite all to a vigorous, but respectful discussion. The facts speak for themselves, but few are listening. Thank you again, Kelly.

Thank You both for the honest, highly professional opinion, and what's more important, understandable for my way of interpreting it. One issue, we all have to aware of, and which I earned through the time: we all have to face reality so as to change it. After all, one of science's goal is exactly this: changing it as much as possible in the positive sense of the word.

Otherwise, in my country there is an on-going campaign against the vaccines. Some 2-3000 parents with autistic children are on the path of gather money and paying a lawyer to fight the Government rules. Obviously, I ma not a part of them. Vaccine is not the only cause of autism, and may not be at all; or may be triggering a visible sign, which comes from who knows where. However, I repeat, such was my case. I am positive on the other hand, that Your honored research and efforts, which are not at all similar with "ours" who care abut social, linguistic etc., sciences, where sometimes there is a lack of the impact factor in various journals due to the nature of our fields. show that empiric results vary individually, from place to place, from an individual to another.

The important thing is that due to Your answers I feel my son's development, I feel his non-verbal messages, and start to understand him. That is I can communicate with him.

I honestly remain hopeful for Your assistance in making such important issues clear to me.

Thank You in advance, to both of You.

This is the type of discussion that could easily branch out and sustain several thoughtful Q and A's. Bujar, if any of the discussion helps you to fulfill your role as a father, which is clearly an imperative to you, then I am incredibly happy to have been a part of it. I'll work on the 'facing reality' issue, but I am pretty comfortable doing what I can when I can for typically the underserved, and sticking to the practice of not believing what is presented (and in the cases it seems there is something to go on, having the energy and desire to follow the threads until I reach a point where I make a leap of faith). I am not saying this is the correct path, but I do know I have gone up against Deans, mentors, professors, employers, heads of schools, corporations, other parents, psychologists, teachers, and the hardest group...my kids. I have come out on the other side NOT the unibomber, which we can all be thankful for, not bitter, and more clear about limits, evidence, and the ever present Ph.D. I truly have to thank my mentor who, after all the years we spent working together, put up with a difficult at best student who was (at the time) idealistic, extremely quick, able to find information, and I have a wicked memory, meaning I was a nightmare as a grad student. I'm more mellow now but clearly remember the day she said to me (for the 1,000th time, "Ok, enough! Who has the Ph.D.? Oh yes, ME. We're done. And if you are going to take on issues as a professional, then GET yours, GET extra training, earn a reputation, work, and you'll be ok." And she was right. Academic honors, skills and ideas aren't all that important developmentally (IMO), or to live a rich life, but they are important in academia. Accepting certain realities allows me to have the energy, to desire, the ability to do what are, to me, very hard things: upset people by simply asking questions, and the hardest? If I am going to say something, then I'll say it out loud, not behind a person's back. And risk losing all kinds of professional necessities. Somewhere along the way, I began to see that at least at this point in history, THIS is science, flawed, training/education problems, application problems and yet, space to think, and read, and grow and collaborate and move forward, maybe? Thanks to both of you for your thoughtful answers, too. Kelly

Kelly,

of course this kind of discussions are of an enormous help to me. Besides, they assist my academic life as well. "My semiotics" is inter-disciplinary. I treat such tiny elements as signs are, which luckily or unluckily have recently "meddled with" human cells as well. It is called biosemiotics. One of its founder is Thomas A. Sebeok, whom I was honored to meet personally in Helsinki, in 1998. Naturally, each of us with the vast fields of science tries to concentrate, and/or become a specialist in on sub-field only. This ofr me is an extremely difficult task, as sciences and arts in general have become multi-dimensional, highly r relational to one another etc.

Your observation is a truth by all means. I was fired 6 times from my University and again got back there. I used to contradict each and every academic step which looked non-academic and arbitrary.

My Ph D ( 2008) is on the overall works of Umberto Eco, the known writer and semiotician. I have translated one of his books, had personal contacts with him, - that was irrelevant for my University. I therefore concluded that it is useless to contradict generally established rules, which sometimes really burden us as highly individualistic human characters ( if You allow me to say so), in our overall attempt to change social reality.

Finally, I am perfectly aware of this: I have stopped working research for entire 10 years, owing to the fact that my University was not keen on that, and then was forced to visit a psychiatrist. he said: "Go back to your books and science". he was right.

The last two years I m relying on important international events, and have decided to write only in English and be a part of a world academic competition.

There are lots of issues that make me happy about my son's suspected ASD which was never diagnosed : such as the intelligence sphere, eye-contact, love and affection towards his parents, and his excellent receptive skills. Now, he even starts understanding orders.

The reason why I have opened this discussion is not personal: it is academic, it is scientific as well as human. This is another proof for the academic world that there is a chance to solve problems in various life spheres.

Thank You for encouraging me to work, as a psychiatrist here told me I was an egoist why I try to read and continue my academic life. I think, that is a therapy for me at least, and for my wife playing her violin. She is an artist who has concerts all over the world.

After all, like I have written in my paper on Autism that still waits to be peer-reviewed: "What does a parent do to a child to behave abnormally instead of normally?"

And good luck in Your academic life, professor!

Bujar, good diet, not microwaved or overproessed, lots of fresh fruits and vegetables as you can get them, whole grains, take it easy with dairy, avoid the drugs and alcohol traps, and raise your boy with music lessons and give him all the love he needs to know that he is secure and valued, avoid labeling, teach him good life skills, and he will surprise everyone.

By all means Dr. Chartand. Hoping to be a good father!

Thank You indeed!

Sorry I missed your final thoughts, Bujar. I know a little about signs, and if I ever want to know more, I will reach you, giving me another reason to be grateful for a forum like this.

I absolutely love research but chose, as a single mother of 4 boys to teach as an adjunct professor (due to finances, teach 4 classes/term, year round, in person), to consult in research endeavors whenever possible, and to have a small private practice and still be with the boys 2 or so days/week. I was never ok with the idea I was trained for a position that may have secured my finances, reputation, etc. in developmental psychopathology, but raise 4 kids with problems that I had been fortunate enough to be given information about avoiding. I wouldn't trade the choice for anything, and its absolutely wonderful to connect to another soul who thinks, and speaks, about these issues.

I really wanted to say that my son with mild autism has required an enormous amount of work on my part, as schools have a formula for the most part here: these kids love computers, lets keep them on computers, that way they at least improve in certain areas. I wasn't willing to decrease social skills, and any other skills that may show up later (and have; luckily I heard Dante Cicchetti speak years ago on a collection of studies that showed in a lot of areas, autism is simply a state of being out of order, meaning the child/individual can do some things earlier than peers, some later, and how we react to this 'inconsistent' behavior, esp. without the typical signs of understanding, enjoyment, satisfaction we have come to need, seems to determine how far these kids go). Someone mentioned Temple Grandin, and I had heard her speak and read her books, so I knew I didn't know his limits. I put in the work, and today he's in college, but to me, more importantly, very close to his family, spent years training in muay thai, has a best friend, goes to karaoke (!I'm too scared for that...), and guest lectures for me every semester. Your child's future is unpredictable, but he has an educated (and persistent...6 times!) father who will be instrumental in every way. The best to you, Professor.

Thank You so much.

I don't don't know if I take such good words to be true, but anyway, that is life.

My academic life goes through many barriers, After two years of doing so much research, they have yesterday informed me, that I am too late for my next position as an associate professor.

Surprisingly enough, I have never stopped. I am actually reading a 1000 pages book on the identity formation, as I have to go in Rome to present a paper. For that International Conference, the University of Helsinki is paying to me everything. I honestly don't know how to thank dr. Tarasti ( the best musicologist and semiotician, ever now), who sees some kind of academic potential in me.

I am also writing on the non-verbal communication in children with ASD, as the Department of Psychology here has required a workshop for ti.

Very happy to hear such good words for Your son as well.

Mine follows the kindergarten and progresses well. Unfortunately, I had to learn something that I had no idea for.

I am also making efforts to bring Dr. Lew Hemmer here from the States, who is 70 year old therapist and has cured so many autistic children only with behavioral techniques and no medicines. He follows T. Grandin's models in learning to speak through pictures. I had such a hard work for including my son in the country's educational system.

My very best wishes, and hope to be able to consult You for advice in the future!

I am honestly honored, Kelly

If you want his corpus collosum to grow, development of musical skills is by far the best approach. We have seen spectacular and consistently positive growth in every case that has ever taken us up on this. You can start with very low cost online Piano Marvel (www.pianomarvel.com) on whose scientific advisory board I've served. Their online program requires a MIDI-compatible electronic piano keyboard (about $130 US) and a special cord from your computer to the keyboard. It is designed for learning delayed children and will take them one step at a time as they move their own speed. As they master each level, allowing them to go the next level, their brain develops. I am attaching my slideset for you on the Power of Music to give you some ideas on this. Old studies and data, because it is time proven and effective--allows kids to overcome their developmental delays, but needs close parental guidance at first until they get off the ground.

I shall be looking at this very carefully Dr. Chartand,

I am really honored.

Thanks.

Of course it's a side effect of the vaccine. Read the insert!

Where can I find it Dr. Powell? Please let me know. Thanks.

First, if you have ever had a child vaccinated you can ask for the manufacture's insert that comes with vaccine and list side effects. If you want an easy to read book I would recommend Tim O'Shea's book "Vaccination is Not Immunization" at www.the doctor within.com. Not super technical but will begin your desire to research thousand of studies showing vaccines do cause brain damage, autoimmune, illness, etc. Russell Blaylock, MD has books and YouTube lectures. Dr. Tenpenny, MD also is a great recourse, Viera Scheibner's research is mind changing when you understand SIDS and see there was no recall, just a slow changeover from DPT to DPaT. There is a blog below with some sources.

http://adventuresinautism.blogspot.com/2007/06/no-evidence-of-any-link.html. Educate before you vaccinate. No question you will see the truth.

Tami, even though mainsream medicine totally denies what you have written above I agree with you totally. The same goes to a lot of other egregious practices in allopathic medicine, Big Pharma, and environmental assaults against humanity. You mentioned Russell Blaylock, whose conclusions match my own, but in the mainstream scientific world he is considered a total heretic, along with anyone else that agrees with him. It is a sad commentary that research and science cannot be objective and show that the current state of decline in the US health picture is a direct result of short-sighted public policy, hired gun "research", and wrong-headed medicine. With increasing numbers of our kids not developing normally, it is up to the parents now to protect their families and communities from these assaults on humanity.

I believe Professor Deak's response is right on target. Is it possible that in very rare cases, a vaccination might in autism--yes, possibly. Is this possibility enough not to have your child vaccinated and risk his/her health and that of the broader population with whom he/she comes into contact--NO.

Daniel, the question from my viewpoint is not whether or not to vaccinate, but when to vaccinate. This current push to rush newborns in during their first days or weeks of life is totally unncessary and is contributing mightily to developmental delays in boys. Some in girls, but most certainly in boys. The self-serving research that bulwarks the government's and vested interest's positions does not erase the fact that ASD spectrum, primarily a male problem, has skyrocketed in recent decades. I personally do not subscribe to the mecury connection as much as the adjuvant stress connection. Immature immune systems, as for our son who is autistic and was rushed in for early vaccinations by the local health deparment, cannot handle the unbeleivable stress, the high fevers, etc. that these powerful adjuvants give. Our experience is legion and ongoing and as long as a society continues to place commonsense in the timing of these vaccines we will continue to fill our public schools, prisons, and public assistance agencies with the chronically growing population of males with ASD in our own country. This dogged "it's safe and therefore cannot be causing the problem" stance is cutting short the potential of too many lives in our society. The same with a number of environmental assaults--the high lead levels in mining/smelting/industrial areas that are still unsafe for our mothers and children, the incredibly high chemical additives to our water supplies, the percholarates of our rivers and lakes, and now the incredible and hidden dangers of the new mercury filled light bulbs for which EPA has issued a 16-page fine print warning to the public for broken bulbs that is virtually ignored by an unsuspecting society. It is possibly smart economics to disregard these avoidable dangers in public health policy, but it is not smart human development or health policy.

Thank you for your contribution to the discussion, and I hope you will consider the points above even if biased vested interest research has not yet supported my findings and observations. I realize we have an entire dichotomy of thought on this issue, but those of us who have suffered the fate of the vested interests approach are more convinced than ever that if one of us is wrong, let's side with caution and not rush these newborns in so quickly for vaccinations.

I admit to knowing virtually nothing about the issue of the timing of vaccinations. Is there any research on that particular topic you could point me toward? Thanks.

I doubt there is, Daniel. The big money is always on the hypotheses that defend against lawsuits and liability on such questions. But I will tell you from thousands of patient observations we note that mature immunological systems rarely exhibit deleterious effects from the vaccines, while among the newborns, a high percentage of the boys run high temperatures immediately following the first round of vaccinations. I am beside myself why public health agencies still keep encouraging uninformed and trusting parents to rush the baby right down for the vaccines, as if to get a pin their caps. There is almost no danger of the child getting any of the diseases for which they are being vaccinated, and refusing to advise parents to wait a few months before assualting the body with the heavy IMs from the vaccines only hardens the position of parents who refuse to vaccinate their children at all. I believe we can exercise more caution than this. The same goes for the incredible dangers of mercury exposure on the new light bulbs that a misinformed Congress forced on the American people. Children play with these bulbs, children and pets knock over the lamps that break the bulbs, parents nonchalantly toss them into the trash bin in their kitchens for the mercury gas to permeate their kitchens, bedrooms, bathrooms, etc. Without a major education campaign by industry and agencies we will soon have a nation with billions of these bulbs, broken, open everywhere in the environment until we have the same backlash that is now evident in early vaccines. Ever hopeful we will educate everyone on the (often) hidden trade-offs encountered when we strive to do anything good on a mass scale. Those trade-offs, in their own right, can erase the value of the intended good.

There is a small chance of encephalitis infection from the early vaccinations, and that is on the insert, and such a brain infection and very high fever can result in devastating brain damage. The resulting condition might meet some of the criteria for ASD, but profound ID will make ASD characteristics the least of the child's problems. Of course, measles itself can cause a brain infection, and perhaps with a greater probability.

As for the timing of vaccination, one consideration is the probability of infection with the disease to be prevented. That will in part depend on the local socio economic factors, placement in group day care, the rates of vaccination in the local population (or the population to which the child may travel), and related exposure demographics. In England, because of the vaccination scare propagated by scientist-frauds and conmen (not to mention fear mongers of the general sort), the rate of vaccination has been as low as 50%, leading to a loss of herd immunity (the increased probably of meeting someone from whom you could be infected). If you want your child to have a higher probability of growing up, you'd be better of refraining from transporting the child in a motor vehical rather than avoiding vaccination of the sometimes fatal childhood diseases.

Thanks Dr. Mulick. As a matter of fact, my awareness as an ignorant about the undesired effects came too late. After he had neo-natal convulsions, which lasted until his age of 4 months, doctors thought he had epilepsy. In conclusion, they themselves did not want to continue the vaccination of my child. And unfortunately, I started reading.

Now, his skills have improved, but not enough. he has recognizable autistic symptoms, which here, they are not able to diagnose. He gets basic behavioral treatment, and soon will be 5. he has a big improvements in non-verbal and social skills, but unfortunately does not speak yet.

There is here a campaign to stop the vaccines by the side of over 3000 parents who have autistic children, paying a lawyer, etc., but I am not a part of that. To my understanding, only two of such vaccines only make the symptoms visible, rather than causing it. Of course, it was too late when I understood that. I am actually now trying to perform a blood analysis to him, so as to see the biological preconditions, and or neurological ones, so as to bring a conclusion.

Finally, all of this advice here, was never offered to me . After all, I am a parent of a child suspected to have ASD.

Thank You so much for Your contribution.

Things are changing fast in this field, which happens to be within my specialty. It sounds like your child has what is most often know as Infantile Spasms. This condition has been recognized for as long as I have been working. It is characterized most often as associated with a poor outcome in terms of ability to learn. I have heard of a handfull of babies who seem not to be as impaired after getting this diagnosis, and suppression of the seizures is probably an important factor in outcome because seizures can further damage the brain and wipe of recent learning. When psychologists study learning and memory in animal models, inducing seizures is one method of disrupting completely the consolidation of recent learning. The early postnatal years, say from 0 to 3, are important for the establishment of the neural network that will serve the child's elaboration of learning. Then too, myelination, the insulaion of nerves to facilitate the electrical charge down the neuron, is facilitated by neuronal activity in childhooh. One can see that seizures could affect this process improperly and without regard to environmental stimulation, which is how the brain is actually programmed in humans. By stimulation, I mean that the environment provides the events from with the child is supposed to react and experience events that reinforce behavior. In short, and especially in early childhood (but also for life for a lesser extent) you become only what you do, and you only get better at what you practice. Most of what we are as individuals is activity dependent.

James, I've had to encourage many parents to have their children vaccinated and have been disappointed, like you, to see people misunderstand the risks involved. I can say from years of experience with this issue that timing is important and also making sure the child has some immunological development before immunizing the full battery. The risks only increase when those factors are ignored as I see so often in most local health departments. One case of a boy whose mother was addicted to narcotic pain meds before and during most of her pregnancy--we all expected the baby to have severe developmental probelms, and she was advised to hold off until the child was six months old for the vaccines, and now some time later there have been no problems for the boy. That was a clear cut case compared to the millions for which there is no clear cut indication for caution. When we inject good judgement into the situation the risks practically dissolve.

In my own family's case we have an adult son who suffered ASD as a result of his too early vaccination--of that I have no doubt because I was there and saw the immediate effects and worked to help him to overcome much of his developmental challenges throughout his life. The connection is obvously there with all the anecdotal evidence we have at hand, but I feel it is a matter of immunology. Caution rather than abstinance is the answer. On the hope side of the equation, most of these delays can and will be overcome if a healthy lifestyle and good parenting are in the matrix of the child's life.

We are now in the midst of a mumps epidemic at Ohio State and surrounding Columbus Ohio. Nuanced caution is very hard to communicate to physicians, much less the general public. Still, anecdotal evidence is not really evidence.

What are the ages of the mumps victims, James? My contention has been the rush to have newborns vaccinated before their immune systems can handle it--I had mumps at age 3 (am 66 now), which left me severely hearing impaired and later profoundly deaf. In the tens of thousands of infants and children I've seen clinically and in research I've never seen a newborn child or even a child under 6 months with mumps, but am sure there have been some. Most are around 1 year and up. You are correct that nuancing our communication to say get the vaccines, just not too early (especially for the boys) is hard to get to the public and to physicians. But I think we can do it. The anecdotal evidence of one's child being developmental clearly delayed from early vaccines is all the evidence a parent needs. I can tell you firsthard that there was no mistaking our now 40-year-old son's source of autism as a result of vaccines at a few weeks old. The dangerous effects on his body and mind were unmistakable, and today the number are legion in our population.

In looking up the CDC stats on mumps and age groups I ran into this site for parents found at http://www.cdc.gov/features/mumps/ which I totally concur with. Why county health officials keep pushing these early infant vaccines is beyond me. I ask them and their reply is that parents will forget if they don't, but my reply to that is that we are hurting a lot of boys (and some girls) unintentionally by doing it so early. Why there is any controversy over this is most perpexing to those of us who have working to overcome the challenges to children's development for so many years.

During the follow-up period, trained providers reported 792 AEFIs. Parotitis was the most frequent event occurring in 1.8% of recipients. Of 14,109 children vaccinated at 12 months of age the following AEFIs occurred: parotitis (147), fever and convulsions (8), convulsions (7), encephalopathy (1), and anaphylactic reactions (1). Of 29,338 children vaccinated at 4 to 6 years of age, parotitis, fever and convulsions, encephalopathy, and anaphylaxis occurred in 626, 5, 1, and 1 child, respectively; no convulsions without fever were reported in this age group.

CONCLUSION:

Parotitis is the most frequent AEFI among MMR vaccine recipients in Iran. Incidence rates of AEFIs following MMR vaccination in Iran are similar to rates of AEFIs reported in other studies.

Thanks for reminding of the parotitis response to vaccines, James. I recall that the overwhelming majority of these were in boys and also that it causes developmental delaying OME in infants. I would think the rate of both conditions (and all other adverse effects) would be significantly higher in the first 6 weeks of life as compared to 12 months where immune systems are much more developed. What do studies of similar design show for infants 0-6 weeks?

I must say I don't even like the acronym AEFI. It implies that people KNOW what caused a symptom, when in many cases they don't (no matter how convinced they seem!). As case in point, James, the statistics of those events you listed provide no comparison to the incidence of the same symptoms in some control group of kids who did not recently receive an immunization (though I hope that no such a sample existed!). So they are uninterpretable and risky to cite -- that is, without the proper context, the numbers imply that the vaccination caused the symptoms. But in any group of 14,000 infants, over a 2-week period or so, you will find hundreds of upper-respiratory infections (I'm guessing, frankly), a few febrile convulsions or seizures, etc. Perhaps we should call these AEFS: Adverse Effects Following Something. This is not to say that going into a medical facility and receiving an injection of anything will never be followed by an AE; of course it might (rarely). But it's important to be cautious in using language and citing statistics. Most people aren't expert enough to interpret them (sadly).

Agreed, Gedeon. I don't see autism listed among these low rate AEFIs of unknown etiology either. One person in Columbus has already become deaf from the Mumps outbreak.

I am profoundly and bilaterally deaf from a double case of mumps at age three in 1950, and my oldest son is autistic from his full battery of vaccinations at age 4 weeks in 1973. These AEFIs are not in doubt whatsoever (autism, of course, could not be listed as an AEFIs in any study of infants even if did indeed exist). But there is no mistaking the causal relationship of an otherwise healthy male infant who is normal and bright before getting his health department provided MMR vaccination and then ran a temperature of 105-106 F for 72 hours afterward. There are many parents with the exact same experience. It is not a matter of delusion, mistaken attribution, or anything else, and is nonetheless offensive when we are told it is our vivid imagination. My contention all along has been to wait a few months for the kids, particularly the boys for their immunology and neurology to develop a bit more. But I am treated by some in the field with derision and piled into the same category as the parents who refuse to immunize their children at all. I am a scientist and educator graduating with honors in six advanced degrees, raised eight children and today have 18 grandchildren. I say we are making a terrible mistake in refusing to break through the Zeigeist of our day to nuance this issue. Meanwhile, the number of autistic boys is ever increasing by the day in our population while public heath policy pushes the risky thing. Too many kids have been diminished while the adults in their society argue in absolutes.

I don’t know what to say to you any more. You clearly state your view, state that it is unshakable, and restate your conclusion in the absence of any data other than your own personal experience. High fever sustained for three days sounds like a known, adverse reaction. Without knowing anything else, it presents an indication of severe illness. I have many personal observations that may reflect reality, but all I am willing to do is offer them as hypotheses to be verified some day or not, even if they are based on what seems to have happened to me or to those I am close to. This approach offers an opportunity to others in a position to test the idea, even if I can’t. Have a nice day.

As you know there are many vital questions lacking data, James. The problem with the question posed by millions of parents as Bujar's is that there was a powerful reason for those who could have provided the answers not to do so--or to obfuscate the data so as to avoid giving a truly objective answer. That is why in my studied opinion there has been no data from the monied and organized side of the question, and why millions of parents worldwide are struggling for answers. So the problem of lack of objectivity appears to track back to a collusion between vested interests and public policy entities NOT to allow any data through that would indicate that high fever, parotitis (and in some cases convulsions) immediately following MMR vaccines can be the major driver of ASD in boys (I mention boys because they are the overwhelming population in the ASD explosion and because of all the other data we DO have demonstrating more fragile immunology and cognitive factors). If that clear cut connection had been made years ago, public policy would have been forced to be changed and we may not have such a population of ASD and other disorders that far outstrip that of any other advanced nation. We know that smoking, drinking, and drug taking mothers make ASD babies, too--but other countries with rates of smoking and drinking mothers still have far fewer ASD kids than we do. So in the larger scheme of things, if the big money in research on the question was on the side of the parents' interest, I would expect the outcomes to point to something pervasive like too early vaccine rates. Even the CDC suggests vaccines at one year, but that is not the practice. It is immediately following birth. Your concern about a Mumps outbreak is a legitamate one--I'm on your side on that. But millions of parents who've been told there is absolutely no connection to their children's ASD and vaccination have responded with disillusion over the lack of honesty from the vested interests' stonewall of skewed research on the question: they opt out entirely, bringing a return of some of the childhood diseases that could be avoided. You might not see the collusion to which I am referring. We'd like to think that public policy is pure and not self-interested in protecting a status quo, but they are not pure and have demonstrated clear self-interest in a number of areas where mistakes were made on a grand scale too numerous to list here. Behavioral Medicine, my field, is all about public policy, and I just want us to sweep aside the denial and get to the core of the question so that parents can be told that they need to vaccinate their children, but to exercise caution over when and how it is accomplished. Once that stone wall of official denial and obfuscation crumbles I believe we will see parents being more compliant.

No question, the topic, as I can understand should be under scholarly discussions. My paper on Autism was recently refused from the Chicago University press, as they needed more medical data. I have treated the topic out of a communication and social prospective aspect only, so as to be able to see if such a child's interaction like mine is able to conceive of external social reality in terms of its future construction. no vaccines mentioned.

My fear is of course for the future generations, for the parents, which should have a clear-cut picture of the vaccines side effects. When my child was vaccinated I had no idea what is going on. Unfortunately, medical literature, which is rightfully firmly based on empirical results, is also accessible to us, who , are in a way de-contextualized from all contexts linked to professional and impartial treatment of such patients.

My child was diagnosed with epilepsy, and autism came afterwards. And then the reading started. because of the fact, here, the doctors had no answers. In a situation of helplessness, depression you have to at least to reach for a clue, which in terms of such mental disorders, is simply unreachable. All I could do was to get back to my semiotics, and to seek for a meaning to such a child's hyperactivity towards facing relatedness, and relationships with the rest of the world.

Even if now I send my child for a vaccination, the doctors wold refuse it. I have tried. And recognized this out of their behavior and non verbal language. Why shouldn't they tell things openly like they should?

In conclusion, I have found out that my child is slowly advancing due to exercises, and behavioral treatment, which is essential to my opinion. Still waiting for food analysis, blood and metals' presence tests in his organism which supposedly shall show what is it that organically prevails with him so that may represent an illness towards identifying autistic behavior.

His present diagnosis is: developmental disorders which look like an autistic behavior.

To me this does not tell much. Thank you both very much indeed. Things are getting clearer now. I used to blame myself as a bad father until now. Just starting to change my opinion.

My best wishes.

I agree that self-interest is part of the problem, but on both sides : vaccine proponents and opponents. Serious polemic during a decades started from false datas in the service of self-interests, as proved by remarkable journalistic work of Brain Deer in BMJ:

http://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.c7452

http://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.c5347

That debate created as much hope as disillusion for parents. That is nature of autism research, a very affective domain with poor answers. I recommend the reading of the most important contribution for rationality in the field of autism etiology that is the book of Laura Schreibman "Science and Fiction in Autism" (http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674025691&content=reviews).

Best regards

Thank You very much indeed. I guess this book shall clarify many issues for me.