Vaccines And Autism 

Why do parents of autistic children believe there is a link between Vaccines and Autism?

Are we just desperate parents looking for something to blame? Are we giving into the hype

of the media and the celebrities that have come out against vaccines? Or are we witnesses

to a reaction in our children to Vaccines?

There are to many parents out there with stories to tell about the differences in our

children after a set of immunizations. You can take to youtube and watch video after

video of parents telling their stories of personally witnessing the regression in their child,

the severe reactions to immunizations. No one child on the spectrum is the same but the

most common thing we seem to share is we all noticed something different about our

children after they were vaccinated.

My Personal Account Of My Sons Vaccines

 My Sons  first set of Vaccines were given to him at two months of age. He received

five shots. He was given these shots he almost immediately screamed, his legs began

turning red and swelling before we left the doctors office. Nothing was calming him

down and wouldn't for several more days. I can remember when my other children were

that age, they might have screamed because it hurt for a minute and the needles might

have scared them, but by the next day what ever fever, if any, was gone. They might

have favored their legs or arms from the injection sights being sore but nothing Motrin

would not make go away.



My son was different, it made him sick, he had a high fever and had swelling of the

injection sights for days. His reactions were unlike my other children's. He ran a

high temperature in the first two days, and low grade for several days afterwards.

Out of concern we took him back to the doctor within four days of the immunizations,

he was still running a low grade fever but it was at least breaking. The doctor was sure

he must have had a virus before he got these shots and that was the cause of his fever

and reaction.

If we had followed the schedule for immunizations my son would have gotten his next set

of shots the following month. After the reaction to the first set we waited three more

months, causing our child to be behind the recommended schedule. We still didn't realize

he was autistic, we were only worried about his physical health and wondering if his

was allergic to the injections. As Parents we were scared to follow the schedule of

immunizations, and that was before we even knew their was a debate over the link

between autism and vaccines. At five months old his was given his second round of shots.

When we arrived at the doctors office my son was in good spirits and cooperated with taking

all the shots. He screamed almost immediately afterwards, and didn't stop until he wore

himself out. The fever lasted days, his legs swelled up, and back to the doctor we went just a

few days later. We heard the same thing, he must have had a virus. 



As parents we knew that this reaction was not typical to immunizations, we wanted to

believe the  doctor that it was just some coincidental timing, but Wow! Who wants to

take their child to get five shots at one time knowing that they would be sick and miserable

for days or a week afterwards. Still we had no idea what Autism was or what causes it.

Because of the reactions, we were nervous as parents. We wouldn't give our son anymore then

three shots at a time. The doctor humored our fears by putting my son on a delayed shot

schedule. With each set of shots came days of fever, followed by days of us wanting to pull

our hair out because of how sick and miserable our child was from them. When my son was

thirteen months old he began saying daddy with total comprehension for the sound and the

meaning for this word. By fourteen months old he had said momma a few times but nothing

that let us know for certain whether he understood the true meaning. It was more like a

demand when he was asking for daddy but the word mommy seemed like an accident that

happened while he was just trying to start babbling. It was precious and made us hopeful that

he would become verbal.

By the time my son became a toddler he began to resist going to the doctors office.

I truly believe my son knew he was getting sick over and over again from the injections

and he began to fight with us about going in the doctors office. The more time that lapsed

between shots the more willing he was to go back in the office, but the next appointment

after a set of Vaccines were full on fights about even walking through the door. We

would have to pick him up and make him go into the office, he would of course cause

a seen on total protest. He would throw these fits from the time he arrived at the doctors

office, until he made it safe and sound back home in his room. If he had to get a shot for

something else after an immunization appointment then we had to get several nurses to

 come in and hold him down to administered it. He had no problem letting them prick his

fingers, or draw his blood.

By sixteen months he had started saying daddy pretty regular, but mommy was still

occasional. We took him to get his vaccines. His hands, legs, and feet warmed up before

we had even left the office. The nurse told us to take him home and rotate Tylenol and

Motrin every four hours. He went home and went straight to bed. He slept for three hours,

No signs of life, his body temperature was raising the whole time in spite of the medicine.

We had to make him get up so we could put him in the tub to cool him off. His eyes were

glazed over and he just laid in the tub almost lifeless. We tried not to panic because we knew

he had been given the pain reliever and could have just gotten sleepy from that. When we

got him out of the tub, within twenty minutes his temperature started climbing back up.

We gave him pop sickles, turn the air conditioning up and began rubbing his feet with cool

wash clothes. The fever spiked all the way up to 104.5 after we had given him medicine, we

called the doctors office and they told us to put him back in the tub.



By far this is still to date the highest fever my son has ever ran.He was sick for days,

and quiet. He cried but there was no sound. He drifted further into his world of autism.

He made no eye contact with us for weeks after that set of immunizations. I am no doctor

but I am a parent who has not only seen a bad reaction to the vaccines but a regression of

my sons abilities. Functions he had, affections he did show, and the words mommy and

daddy both were lost for two more years.

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