What Causes Autism

The subject of what causes autism is a highly controversial one. One thing I have learned on our journey is that everyone and their dog has an opinion on this. But of course opinions are merely that - opinions and not facts. When you realise there is something wrong with your child your first thought goes back to your pregnancy, or at least mine did. Did I do something wrong? Did I take something I shouldn't have? A lot of women don't realise they are pregnant yet in those very first weeks when so many vital things are happening in your embryo's development. Did I take something then? I remember having a rotten cold and taking different painkillers. Was it that? Did they cause my sons brain to develop differently? Your mind goes round in circles as you beat yourself up.  The frustrating truth is, myself along with most parents will never know the cause of their child's autism, because even scientists and medical professionals still can't find a certain cause of it. So it will continue to haunt us unless we ever find out for sure.

The original cause of autism was thought to be down to bad parenting. The phrase 'refrigerator mothers' was made, suggesting mothers who were so cold towards their babies that their brains failed to develop appropriately. Thankfully, that theory was thrown out long ago.  Of course in some cases autism is genetic. If autism is in your family, your chance of having a child with autism will increase. Just the same as us knowing this before we had a second child as our risk was also increased.  But the frightening and controversial topic centres around vaccines and the man in the midst of it all - former Dr Andrew Wakefield. His original study alleged that the MMR vaccine caused intestinal problems which then led on to regressive autism. This study was widely discredited and stripped him of his medical licence - as you will hear many pro-vaccine parents shout at the mere mention of autism and the MMR - but there has been many studies since (which strangely no one hears about) linking infants immature immune systems being overloaded with vaccine ingredients such as mercury, aluminium, MSG, formaldehyde etc and causing irreparable damage. There is a vaccine damaged children fund for families claiming compensation and there has been rulings in courtrooms that children have been left brain damaged and with conditions such as autism following vaccinations. Medical professionals continue to refute these claims but there is a massive community of parents who saw very real changes in their children after being vaccinated.  The medical world says it's merely a coincidence but for me there are too many coincidences. I just want to add here that I'm not saying that I think vaccines caused L's autism, but with so much uncertainty surrounding the subject, I don't think they can be ruled out either. 

It's because of all this that we have declined to vaccinate R and we are 100% confident in our decision. She is 6 months old and has never had a needle anywhere near her. We also opted out of the vitamin K injection at birth. I believe vaccines are safe for most children but I'm pretty sure they are not safe for all. And after doing a lot of research I also don't believe they are even effective. When infections are injected into the body, your immune system doesn't recognise it properly. This was mentioned by the World Health Organisation in their report titled "Immunisation, Vaccines and Biologicals". They reported that children under age 2 do not consistently develop immunity following vaccination" so really many vaccines are completely ineffective. Also, in the book How to raise a healthy child in spite of your Doctor, the author Dr Robert Mendelsohn MD showed that people who received the MMR were 14 times more likely to contract mumps than people who hadn't received the jag. Interesting. To add to this, the makers of the Tripedia vaccine for DTaP (diphtheria, pertussis & tetanus) state some of these reactions to their vaccine:

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome

Anaphylactic Reaction

Autism

Convulsions 

Brain Dysfunction

Nerve Damage

So I'm sure after reading this people will understand why we haven't and will not vaccinate R. My only regret in life is that I didn't do the research prior to L being vaccinated and I will be eternally sorry for that. Maybe it would have made a difference, maybe it wouldn't have. We will never know. But we are choosing to let R build some natural immunity and of course that comes with its own risks but we are happy with our decision and that's all we can ask for right now.