Permission.

love ya ali and you are on my mind.

Hi Ali! Thank you for addressing this on your blog! This is the kind of stuff everyone needs to know. I think even if you didn't have a child with autism this would affect you - because you would at least know, or be related to someone, who has it. Hugs to you and Simon!
Patricia

I don't have kids yet, but was interested in the research you brought up. For those of us did not know, thanks for giving us something to think about for the future re: vaccines.

I applaud you for being proactive and writing emails to senators, et al. Just wanted to also encourage you to mail actual letters too. I remember hearing somewhere that most times emails are just dismissed, while letters are actually read. I'd hate for one of your emails to not be read.

Ali - I think it's so fabulous that you have shared this on your blog! As I said in my other comment I knew nothing of this and blindly had my boys completely immunized.
Now I am AWARE.
Now I know to ASK.
Now I feel EMPOWERED.
I thank YOU for that. For helping me and so many others in your quest to help your son.
And I thank YOU for the permission to do something about this.
My thoughts are with you and your family as you search for more answers to this injustice.

oh, ali! thank you for posting about this. we were hesitant with anna's vaccinations, but were told not to worry because she's a girl. now that noah's due for his mmr this has been on my mind. at his year appointment i told them i would wait, and that i would look into getting them done separately rather than the 3 combined. i, too, will be researching. thanks for pointing me in a direction to start.

Ali, we do have a close family friend that this happened to. Child number 4 was born perfect and healthy. After her 1 year old vaccinations she began to deteriorate mentally, and now at 14 she is nearly unhandlable. My heart always goes out to this family. Before we got pregnant we read up on this, and many other health topics. We felt that since we were considering having a child that we needed to educate ourselves about children. We felt that having a child was worth whatever might happen. As I am sure you both felt.
Ali My heart goes out to you. How you must feel, all the emotions, anger fear guilt saddness grief love.
Our friends do nothing about their daughter's condition. They accept it as an unchangeable fact. How sad.
I COMMEND you for FIGHTING for your child.
How AWESOME you both are to not accept this condition as fact.
Be PROUD that so many people respect and admire you, you used your VOICE you have EDUCATED.
You are this little boys mother, I too have a little boy whom I love fiercely, I know that if I were in your shoes I would suceed, as will you. not arrogance but determination and love for baby boys everywhere.

this is so scary. i am proud of you for learning, and not hiding from it like i always have. i dont think this is what caused mckenna's issues-she was different from day one-but i have heard so much about so many that seemed so linked.
keep up the good work. and the pic of you in the dr's office? just so rad.

My nephew was diagnosed with High Functioning Autism in 2002 when he 2 was 2 1/2 years old due to delayed speach. I believe approximately 6 months later I received a call from my brother who had been watching senate hearings on the topic of autism, its cause and the relationship to thimersol. The hearings were sponsored by a senator who had a grandson with autism (I believe the senator was from Wisconsin). Anyway, I viewed portions of the senate hearings (I think they were broadcast on C-Span). At the time I was very concerned because I had a daughter (born in Jan. 2002) and it was time for more vaccinations, so I began doing some investigation. At the time I was also working as a litigation paralegal for a products liability attorney and asked if he had heard anything about thimerisol. At this time we were representing some big pharmatceutical companies (phen-phen was being litigated. This particular attorney is very highly regarded and he routinely reads industry watch periodicals to keep abreast of the latest issues. This attorney also had a infant son and older daughter so he was very concerned as well. He forwarded many articles published by both sides of the scientific community and industry. After reading many articles, I came to the conclusion that it was difficult to know who to believe because of who funded the study and how was the study performed. I'm not trying to trivilize this issue by any means (I currently have a 7 months old son). A couple of issues that came to light that helped to ease what I was giving to my children was that thimerisol has been in vaccines since the 1930s. So why wasn't there an epidemic long before the 1990s?
There was also indepth article published in Newsweek in about 2003 and this article stated that the rates of autism diagnoses had not decreased since thimerisol was taken off of the market. (It is still used in most flu vaccines) (Incidently a clinician can be asked to look at the preservatives used in any vaccines given to children). This particular article raised such questions as for the rates of disagnoses was how it was being diagnosed had changed as well as some other possibilities for increased exposure to mercury through our environment and diet.
I recently read something (an now I don't recall where), but it said that some genetic research suggested that autism was caused by 2 recessive genes. (I'll rack my brain to identify the source.)
I saw the outrage and anger that my brother and his wife have been through because they believed everything they heard about thimerisol being the cause of their son's autism and I truly think that they have suffered because of this. I think it is natural to want to find out why. While I'm not in their shoes or yours, my brother and his wife would not consider any other information that did not blame thimerisol for causing austism.
After working in the products liability field for 5 years, and working with lawyers for over 15 years, I've seen how information and arugments are spun, whether it be for profit, liability, grants or political reasons. Its hard to know who to believe (and yes better to error on the side of caution) but I hate to see negative energy put into additional suffering. My heart goes out to you, Chris and Simon and to all families who are dealing with this issue. I hope this helps in some way.

have you looked at www.kevinleitch.co.uk ?
He has some interesting ideas.

With our oldest high functioning on the Aspergers spectrum, and our middle quite clearly struggling with her own psychiatric issues, we were determined to do all we could to help Kieran not develop any of these issues. We didn't know what caused them, was it genetic? Environmental? Something in utero? We have no clue, but we did know that if we could control it, we were going to. So I refused vaccinations and in the doctors' eyes, I might as well have beaten her right there in front of them. They bullied me, sent me letters, treated me differently, made me feel like such an abusive parent for not wanting her to be exposed to these vaccines. After she turned 3, I relented, partly because what I'd read led me to think that maybe their systems are so immature before age 3 that they are more vulnerable, and partly because with preschool and school on the horizon, I just felt trapped. I know there's a waiver for schools - I have a friend whose children are not vaccinated, and she faces a showdown with the school, with Girl Scouts, with sports organizations, every year. It's scary how indoctrinated everyone is to this, how they don't want to see the dangers. Kieran is now caught up on vaccines - I don't know if we did the right thing, I only know that much more research needs to be done on all of this. There has *got* to be a reason for this epidemic, and we have a right to know how this happened.

Just wanted to thank you Ali for being brave enough to bring this issue to light for so many people to see. I've always been nervous to share what I've learned about vaccinations and to tell people that my husband and I chose not to vaccinate our children. This is a very sensitive issue with a lot of people and not wanting to make waves or open myself up to criticism for what I believed in, I've kept pretty quiet. You've made me feel braver, you've opened up a huge avenue for people to learn about these things/educate themselves and make important decisions re: their children's lives armed with vital knowledge.
Thanks,
Rebecca

Ali,
Thanks so much for expressing the same anger I have felt since my son was diagnosed 5 years ago. I don't know all the answers, but it there are just too many coincidences that theimerosal could be a contributing factor. Don't be surprised if we never find out if autism rates will go down as a result of the deletion of the theimerosal because the CDC would be liable for allowing it in the first place. They are reluctant to support any studies on the subject.
My son has not had his booster MMR and we will not have him get it either. We've spent too many thousands of dollars and hours of therapy to risk having him digress. For our typical 4 year old I refused to have him take the 3 in 1 MMR and had it administered separately. It was a battle finding the single dose vaccines as it was curiourly backordered by the mfg. (the only mfg. of the single dose vaccines is the same as the 3:1). They don't want to make it readily available because it then acknowedges that there is something wrong with the 3:1. It took us 3 years to get all of the single vaccines. By the way, we've never had any problem with both our boys not having the vaccines- there is a waiver we can sign claiming personal or religious reasons for not being vaccinated.
I don't know what hurts more sometimes- the diagnosis itself and the fact my son has a lifelong disability, or that it was because of wicked medical politics at the expense of innocent children.

i'm still processing all this. feeling guilty, because i'd heard the concerns and dismissed them and vaxed according the scheduled. relieved, because my boys seems to have no ill effects. outraged, for the parents who are dealing with the effects...
it's just not a fair position for us as parents to be in. i want my children vaccinated. but i don't want to have to put them at risk to do so.

While Thimerosal has been used in vaccinations since the 1930 - the number of vaccinations that our children receive has increase substantially in the 1990s. From something like 5 doses before age 5 (school entry) to 22 doses. In addition, vaccinations are given to much younger children than they used to be - including to within 24 hours of birth. Since thimerosal was only fully removed from US vaccination doses in 2003 - the decrease would only just be starting to be seen now (since many children are not diagnosed until they enter preschool.) While mercury & vaccine harm may not be the only cause of autism, I do believe that it is a contributing factor. READ THE ARTICLE on Salon.com or in Rolling Stone - then comment.

Ali
Thank you for keeping us up-to-date on all this. While my husband and I don't have kids yet, we will be faced with the decisions when we do and we need to be prepared.
But as I spend 40+ hours a week with infants and toddlers, these things are in the forefront of what I do everyday. A co-worker has a 6 yr old with Aspergers and I ask her questions all the time. She has never had a metals test done on her but yesterday as we were leaving (we arrive at the same time every day too) I asked her if they had a DNA doctor. She didn't know what that was and I told her to google "defeat autism now" and see what comes up. Despite not having a metals test et al, the girl's mother is active within her local autism support group and tries her best to take care of her daughter the best way she can.
My opinions may not matter much (since I've never even experienced being a mother yet) but it seems to me like you and Chris are doing everything in your power to help Simon and yourselves as a family. That is in itself is commendable and Simon is sure lucky to have the both of you for his parents. But I agree with you, we cannot sit and wait for things to resolve themselves.
You and your family are in my thoughts and prayers always. Take care!

Parents have to do what they believe they have to do for their children. Metal tests and DNA doctors might provide an answer. And maybe these tests and these experts won't. After our daughters were identified with Asperger's Syndrome, we started to look up the family tree. My husband probably has AS as did his dad. No one was out there identifying people when my husband was a kid and it wasn't even on the radar screen when my father-in-law was a child. If mercury was the only reason for autism, why don't all children show signs of problems? Why do we have a daughter that is not effected by AS when she's received the same sort of vaccines? It's so easy to blame the conspisary theories. Bottom line, I have to help my kids sort through life and help them get the best out of life they can.

Ali,
I too have been consumed by this! It actually isn't "news" to me because I have been reading about vaccines for some time, but I hoped it wasn't true. This article was credible and I hope it will make the world wake up to what has happened. I fear it won't. I am also going to take action and write letters and do whatever I can. I am currently writing a book about autism that is due out later this year and I run a website and send out a free newsletter about autism. I wanted to let you know that I posted a link to your blog in a newsletter yesterday to my subscribers because I thought your entry was so important.
My other passion happens to be scrapbooking and I am known online as Katie the Scrapbook Lady. I have been a fan of your talents for a long time. I had no idea we shared this common bond of a child with autism.
I can't thank you enough for your post on this article and your inspiration to do something about it!
Sincerely,
Katie Nelson

Every time I see Simon, he brings tears to my eyes. (I'm the silly lady who cried in your album track in CKU-A Dallas after looking at your books with LOs of Simon and missing my baby badly) Partly because he looks so much like my son, and partly because I know that he and Julian share so much in common. Even though Julian does not have autism, I wonder if we just got lucky when he was vaccinated. I have always been afraid to have him vaccinated because I just have that gut feeling that somethng in them could harm him. But being married to someone in the medical field, it's hard to argue a "gut" feeling when my husband so adamantly trusts modern medicine. I'm now pregnant with our second child and wondering if I could somehow convince my husband to hold off on the vaccines at least until the baby was older. I will take the salon.com article to our pediatrician and discuss it with her as she is always caring and open-minded. Thank you so much for sharing. Take care. love ya, man.

Dear Ali,
Thank you for addressing thermisol, I don't feel "crazy" anymore for thinking this way. I've refused my 4 1/2 year olds needles, my husband was insainly angry, reading your blog has helped the both of us to know what's in the best interest of Jimmy.
Thanks again for this and GWG.
Shawnnita aka busyaussiemom