There is some thought that children with autism may not be able to clear chemicals like mercury from their systems like normal children do. So, the theory is that children are born with a susceptibility and the vaccines cause the damage.
Another theory is that children with autism have faulty immune systems, and the practice of giving so many vaccines at one time, or close together overwhelms their immune systems and thus leads to brain damage.
Personally, I think there are many different kinds of autism and they are not all caused by the same thing. I don't believe vaccines played a part in my own children's autism, but I think for some children vaccines do a play a role.
This site gives an overview of the different vaccine theories, there are more than what I mentioned above, the site also talks about many other different causal theories for autism. http://www.healing-arts.org/children/autism-overview.htm
Suzi T,
I like you for a long time was undecided. To some extent I still am. These are the things that I know. My first two children are not in the spectrum. One born in 92 and the other in 94. Neither of these children recieved a vaccination at birth. My 3 year old was the only one to recieve a Hep B in the hospital hours after he was born. I have no idea why 2 of my children (first two from previous marriage) are not ASD and why my youngest (from current marriage) is. All that i DO know is this: Everything I read about mercury sounds to me like it is possible. I am pregnant again with my 4th child. With something seemingly possible I will do everything I can to prevent my child getting a vaccination with mercury in it. Especially since they have the vaccines that do not have the mercury. And if for some reason I can not avoid the mercury.....This time around I will do things differently. I will put off certain vaccines until later and then when they do have to be administered i will make sure it is done slowly. I am not saying that this is what everyone should do. This is a personal choice. And if my next child ends up being in the spectrum I will know that I have done what I could to at least avoid the mercury "possibility".
Karrie
I have been reading all the strings regarding mercury in vaccines. I have not made up my own mind on the subject yet. I have a few questions that haven't been answered in prior posts.
My children are 19 months apart and received the same shots at the appropriate times from the same pediatrician. How come some children are effected and some are not? My dd is at the top of her class and my son has pdd-nos. Why one and not both? (not that I want it)
My son seemed to have symptoms from the moment he was born. He never regressed just very slow progress. Could the shots have made it worse?
Thanks for your input.
Hi Suzi T