Switched

Peter said "...number of vaccines that are being given to infants since the late 1980s early 1990s. Many of these including the now infamous MMR containing Thermosil (mercury)as a preservative."

Peter, you just made yourself look like a total idiot. There is not now, nor has there ever been Thimerosal in the MMR vaccine.
Infamous? That's pretty funny.

Vaccines do not cause autism. Period. If vaccines were the cause, and the ONLY cause, as many parents incorrectly believe, then there would be no autistic children who are unvaccinated. There are thousands of autistic children who have not been vaccinated.

The mercury militia is on its way out. This urban legend of "vaccines cause autism" will soon go the way of "Death by PopRocks mixed with Coca Cola."

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As the mother of an autistic child I can assure you that the only line in this article that's accurate is the last one "The only fact we know is that the exact cause of autism is still unknown." What I can tell you is this - patience and perserverance will be your only friends during the process. No one would give me an answer, I only knew that "something" wasn't right...it was never something was wrong, just something wasn't right. I drove myself nuts looking for answers online, found every possible "motive" for why my child was doing odd things and had odd behaviors. Everyone has a theory...nobody has an answer. It's ok to question your doctor...they don't have any more information than you do. I'm grateful that I have a high functioning child. Bottom line: there are a million "causes" and 0 answers. Follow your gut, get a second opinion and never take no for an answer. You are your child's only advocate and best friend. And at this point, that's the only "cure" for autism.

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I do not even want to credit the "drug use" comment with recognition, I have a 12 year old Autistic son, and the lack of compassion and understanding he is shown is unimaginable. If he had a physical disability people would show sympathy and understanding, our children have a disease that affects them and everyone around them, but as an added handicap, they are viewed as misbehaving or the parents are blamed for not raising them properly. Our children deserve the love and compassion afforded to all those with a disability or chronic disease, god bless all that have faced the day to day challanges of raising a child with Autism and to your children, may they find the happiness in life they so greatly deserve. As an added note this year I have been told my child has to have a bundled D-Tap shot, these shots are now available "THIMERISOL FREE", which is the binding agent formed from "MERCURY"---just FYI,
From a father raising his Autistic son alone >

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Kindly leave LEE alone, he only said what he thinks. Even neurologist are guessing!

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Autism appears to be on the rise because it is hyped in the media. Doctors hear about it recently and begin to overdiagnose any childhood behavior problem as autism. This happens any time a disorder gets hyped. I wonder what the incidence of Restless Leg Syndrome is now that it is no longer a media fad. Disorders like autism also get popular because we have a medical drug system that feeds off new illnesses. In a year or so, the diagnosis rate of autism will go down and the drug industry will hype that as a result of drug treatments the children received. Any effectiveness of drugs on autism is just placebo effect. Finally, we also have a disability system that gives money and services to parents with children who have an illness with a disability. This is a widespread problem with learning disability and it will soon happen with all these children who get an incorrect diagnosis of autism. The real tragedy is that the children get harmed by taking medication they don't need rather than getting the psychological services that will help them. Most of these children are boys who are being medicated for normal male child behavior that has now been pathologized. How many little boys are taking Ritalin who don't need it?

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ok...first we had ADD....then we had ADHD....now we have autism. why does it seem like every few years we get a new "disease" or "disorder" that EVERY OTHER child gets "diagnosed" with?!?!? it seems to me that we are just look for reasons (excuses?) for why our children are out of control. perhaps we need to stop needlessly medicating our children and start doing some actual parenting!!!

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I agree with Cheryl in full. I have a brother who has autism and my parents did not do drugs in any way shape or form.

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Try going gluten-free. It is really amazing what that ingredient can do to your system. That's what messes up the mind.

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It can be caused by many things
THE one thing that is unversal in it all
is Diet, with the rise of cases in the last few years, look at the amount of unnatural foods being consumed out there, look at the amount of stuff ( added) to any commerical foods today.
When we did not have the variety of foods in teh 50,60 and even the 70's there was less of this hitting children, Look at little girls of 9 in Full size Bras, how is this happening today? Growth harmonies put into milk? Look at the kids of today the weight of them on average? All the stuff they add to foods that are processed. We as a nation need to wake up, start
telling congress to stop the money flow to Commercial Farmers who just take the foods , but stuff into it to mass produce it marketing wise and get back to buying local and fresh, you will see a huge change in obesity , health , and I do think less of children being chemically altered by the very foods their families are buying from the Corporate Welfare taking corporations that are harming our kids.
It was proven that the Tobacco company was adding stuff to make it hard to quit. Well wake up the processed food companies are adding stuff to make people fat, dumb and sick .

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I TOO WAS SHOCKED BY THIS ARTICLE. I DID NOT OWN A CELL PHONE OR ANY OTHER FANCY DEVICE WHEN I WAS PREGNANT WITH MY 11 YEAR OLD SON. I HAVE NEVER SMOKED, DRANK, OR DONE ANY TYPE OF DRUG. I WAS 25 WHEN I GAVE BIRTH. MY SON NOT ONLY HAS AUTISM, BUT HE HAS DOWN SYNDROME AS WELL, WHICH IS SUPPOSED TO BE RELATED TO BIRTH AGE OF THE MOTHER. I REMEMBER AFTER HE RECEIVED ONE OF HIS VACCINATIONS, HE GOT A VERY HARD KNOT AND SWOLLEN LYMPH NODE IN THE LEG WHERE HE GOT THE SHOT. HE WAS ABOUT 18 MONTHS OLD. IT WASN'T LONG AFTER THAT HE STARTED CHANGING. HE WAS ALREADY DELAYED SOME BECAUSE OF THE DOWN SYNDROME, BUT HE COMPLETELY STOPPED TALKING, ECT. WAS THAT THE REASON? I DON'T KNOW. BUT I KEEP HOLDING OUT HOPE THAT SOME DAY THE TRUE CAUSE OF AUTISM WILL BE FOUND.

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I do not know when the world will wake up vaccines are one of the major causes of autism maybe not all but I would say a good 95 Percent.The problem is they can never admit to this because it would bankrupt the system.So parents be smart make sure if your child reacts at all to any shots do not give them anymore.

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Why does the media have to make everyone panic about everything these days? Instead of all of the speculation and assumption, why don't scientists actually study their theories some more before releasing stories like this,making everyone worry about everyting in the world today

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if you used drugs while pregnant, the baby is born drug-addicted, not autistic.

I wonder what was said when TV first came out, or rock music- they attributed behavior change to that as well back then.

autism runs a little deeper than the use of computers or drug use and the causes for each child can also differ from one to another

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Hey Kim & Hmmmmm

Have either of you ever heard of the DSMIV? I didn't thin so

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I believe that the instant of conception is a roll of the dice ......you may get a genius or you may get a throwback to some outlaw that was a serial killer. Maybe it's the frame of mind,or how many marguaritas you've had,or maybe you just wanna give her a grudge baby.........who knows

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Has anyone ever thought about bad hospital equipment??

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In the years after WWII, the market was glutted with "chemical compositions" that we know of as plastics, as well as many other synthetics.

We began eating with plastic, eating off of plastic, drinking from plastic, wearing clothing incorporated with plastic, sleeping in beds made with synthetics and on and on...

We began working in high-rises that contained stationery windows and recycled air. Furniture made with "synthetics" includes the desk you sit at, the carpets etc. Many of these products contain formaldehyde.

We began living in a chemical world 60-65 yrs ago. Without a doubt, the constant inhaling and exhaling of these products created some permanent changes to our cells. We know this as "sick building syndrome". These mutations could be causing an overwhelming number of "new" diseases as well as increasing the incidence of the older, known diseases.

Of the three causal possibilities, (environment, genetics and a combination of environment and genetics), that would cause autism, it appears logical that autism is the result of our environment "changing" our genes and those genes being passed on to our offspring.

As far as drugs are concerned, too many parents and grandparents, of autistic children are NOT and have never been drug users.

The causes of developmental problems is most likely a by-product of something that we have ALL been exposed to; but some more than others.

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How strange is it that the increase in Autism is seen only in industrialized nations ? As a health care professional , I question the use of mercury and other foreign things in vaccines . We will see a sharp increase in brain tumors because of cell phone use in the future .

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I am a 26 year old EDU major, I have worked with autistic children in different field experience classes. God bless all the hero parents who have autistic children, what you do and what your children accomplish, and the beauty inside of both parents and children are amazing!

I believe that this wifi theory, does have a place, along with the teflon theories (really scary), vaccine, and all of the enviromental and allergy theories. I think all of these theories may be valid. I truly hope we can find a cure!

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Lee should be in politics

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