Published on 12, July, 2020
Hello everyone,
I have a beautiful one year old I am really concerned about, in particular with his lack of imitation, babbling and excitement.
I get lulled into thinking he's ok because he is very capable physically, he is very dextrous, patient and determined. He loves toys, he just doesn't want to share the game with me. He doesn't ever show excitement that isn't about strong physical stimulation, or about recognising a familiar pattern. He does have good eye contact but the only time I feel he's 'there' behind his eyes is when I'm singing a song he recognises and the second I stop it switches off. He does make sounds but to express his state, he doesn't copy any sounds or gestures and I am terrified he won't ever learn to talk.
Worst of all I find it terribly hard work being with him because there's no back and forth which makes me feel I may as well not be there and I find it desperately hard not to just withdraw. I crowbar myself into his games, which he tolerates but does not exactly share, or I leave him to it. If I leave the room, he probably will too but not seemingly to find me, just to move on to another thing he likes to do - climb stairs, open the washer door andbite the mouldy part (sigh...)
I know any suggestion that vaccines are a cause will incense a lot of people who feel this is blaming. But this is not about you, it is my own observation of my own child and there was a definite change. This was not even the MMR, which he's not had as he's not quite one, but after his 4 month boosters, which we gave him at 6 months because he'd been ill. After the booster he stopped sleeping through the night, which he had from 4.5months. He also stopped babbling, although he had been a very chatty baby and people had commented on how like his mother he was. Although he had copied me poking out my tongue at only a few days old, he stopped imitating us completely.
Watching videos of him at 4-5 months is heartbreaking. He is 'chatting' all the time, waving his hands with excitement. It feels like he's turned from a typical, chatty baby into a busy, unnaturally calm robot. My heart is breaking. I don't want to wait and see, I need to know what this means. I need to know if there is anything I can do to bring him into the world of sociability.
Please let me know if any of this seems familiar and if it does, what is the best way to support him, in particular with learning to talk. Thank you.
I am rather tired of opinions being stated as facts, especially borrowed opinions. No one knows whether vaccines contribute to autism. If you have proof, then please do share your sources with us. When I went looking, I could not even find adequate studies to prove vaccines are safe. Instead I found a lot of highly compromised research (ie funded by vaccine manufacturers who are obviously not objective) or else hopelessly inadequate research (ie. relying on passive reporting from GPs etc, using small numbers of children over very short periods of time). In fact, I could not find any research on using double doses of MMR at all (which were brought in after they realised that one dose was not giving lasting protection).
Last year an Italian judge awarded a family compensation for the MMR causing autism in their son and in the US the Polling case was won on vaccines causing autism in their daughter as well. I do realise that legal evidence works on the balance of probabilities, which is not the same as proof in a scientific study but it is certainly a reason to keep an open mind.
I'm not telling you what opinion you should have but I will resist accepting your opinions as facts. I know my child in a deep, intimate way that no one else can and it is not for you to tell me that whether I am right or wrong in my observation that he began to regress when given the vaccines.
Having looked at the level of aluminium in the vaccines he received, I found this was well above the recommended daily safety limits. Aluminium is highly toxic, especially to a developing brain and it is hard to say what the long term effects of this exposure will be. I am not saying I know autism is caused by vaccines but I do believe for more susceptible children they can be very damaging and if my son is on the spectrum, this may turn out to be a contributing factor. Let's not forget how long it was before the evidence that smoking was bad for you became so overwhelming that no one could ignore it any more.
I'm not looking for a diagnosis on this forum, it's much too early for that and I would certainly seek professional advice later on, if I still felt it was needed. What I am asking other parents is if these might be early signs and if anyone has any advice about how best to support my child, as he might need different types of games and different ways of interacting to get the best out of him and make him feel most secure.