S/o vegan guests thread. vaccines and autism- a thought

amother

Thu, Apr 18 2019, 5:39 pm

I just read on that thread how the mother of the 3yo thought that his autism was called by vaccines and that's why she wasn't vaccinating.

So firstly my background. I have autism, as does my kid. I don't believe that vaccines cause it.

But maybe people who have autistic kids are more likely to have autistic traits themselves. And maybe there or something about having autistic traits but not recognizing it that makes you more likely to blame diseases on something CONCRETE like vaccines?

Hey I'm very tired like everyone else. But it's an interesting thought.

amother

Jade

Thu, Apr 18 2019, 5:58 pm

Interesting thought. I work with children with a variety of diagnoses, as a related service provider. I do find that it's not unusual for a parent with similar symptoms to the child to lack recognition/ acceptance of the relevant symptoms of any given diagnosis. Sometimes there's an expected element of denial. And sometimes I believe the parent has become so accustomed to living with certain symptoms herself that they are somewhat normalized to her, and she doesn't always realize the difficulties those same symptoms are causing in her child's life.

nchr

Thu, Apr 18 2019, 6:00 pm

I personally believe that people generally have a desire to feel like they are in control of what happens next. If they do this and this as parents, then their children will grow up happy, healthy and frum. If they do this and this as food choices, then they will be healthy themselves. We live in a time when we know so much about so many things, that an unknown is often very foreign, which can be frightening (on different levels depending on the individual). Accordingly, it is hard to accept that while we are scientifically and medically so advanced, we still do not know what causes autism, ways to cure or prevent it, or really even ways to accurately and efficiently diagnosis. We are getting smarter, but parents, not wanting to accept "we don't know" try to identify something concrete that will "prevent" their child from developing a condition like autism or a disease like diabetes. However, we do know that vaccines do not cause autism and some of the best, most extensive studies have proven this.

In addition, vaccines are related to a science. Many individuals do not have the necessary academic background to fully understand how vaccines work, except for on a relatively primitive level. Accordingly, there is a lot of intellectual unknowns which can make people confused. If someone sees a rash after a vaccine, she may think it is an allergy or the virus vaccinated against; however, the number one cause of hives, contrary to popular opinion, is not an allergic reaction, but viral causes. The rash some children get after an MMR vaccine is not the measles or rubella, but just a sign their immune system is working, developing immunity, and therefore exhibiting a rash. Conversely, a lot of anti vaccine information is very "basic" and mentions things that are easy to relate to; however, if you really understand factual, scientific information and look at it with logic you will see there is a logical explanation/fact to refute almost every anti vaccine comment.

However, it is easy for well meaning, concerned parents to feel in control by thinking "vaccines are evil and not using them will keep our children safe." In reality, this is simply not true because vaccines are, for more than 99% of people, very safe and it is illogical to assume your child will be in the less than 1% of people that have an adverse reaction such as a severe allergic or blood disorder, etc. I believe as frum Jews we need to step back and acknowledge there is a little bit of unknown in the world, but believe in Hashem running the universe and His ultimate good plan for the Jewish people and our children. We need to do our hishtadlus, which also involves davening and research where applicable, but not let a fear get the best of us. We also need to take it easy and not name call, on both spectrums because doing so is very ineffective.