A professor of mine described a disorder that she thinks may explain why some children appear to develop autism after getting vaccinated. I think her argument is very interesting.
Generally speaking, children who develop "autism" after vaccination were developmentally normal prior to that point. When the child shows regression of cognitive and social skills, parents think back to all the things that could have happened to their child and attribute this regression to the vaccine.
My professor thinks these children don't even have autism. In autism, the sympoms are relatively obvious or at least present from birth. Autism doesn't suddenly appear at the age of 3, although that is the age when parents usually bring their child's symptoms to the attention of a doctor.
Another disorder may account for some of these children who appear to get sick after vaccination. It is called Child Disintegrative Disorder. Children who have this disorder develop normally until about the age of 2 or 3. At that point, there is a noticeable loss of social skills, bodily functions, delay of language, and other cognitive abilities. Sound familiar? This is also around the time many children receive the vaccinations that some believe causes autism.
I have never heard of this disorder until last night, much less in the debate about vaccinations and autism. I find it compelling although I'm sure it doesn't explain all of these cases. Some children may actually have autism which WAS present at birth but the parents were in denial and didn't bring their child to a doctor sooner (I've seen this happen, it's very sad). But this is a fresh argument in a stale debate and thought I would share it with you.
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3 comments:
I think I'm going to have to side with Jenny McCarthy on this one. She's practically an expert...
I mean if its safer for children to go skip vaccinations and be susceptible to illnesses and risk death from preventable diseases because one celebrity goes on a crusade thinking there is a link between autism and vaccines, then the choice is obvious.
Also, health advice is best taken from former playboy playmates.
I've wondered about this lately, too -- and I've never heard of Childhood Disintegrative Disorder. It must be fairly recent... do the kids eventually turn out the same way as those with something on the autism spectrum? Or is this thing so new that people don't know yet?
About the whole "parents in denial" thing, I've seen that too. The kid -- now a teenager -- is struggling in school, but mommy & daddy don't want their kid to be "labelled" (i.e., receiving the extra help they desperately need). It's a pure vanity move by parents... for what? Your kid ends up irreparably harmed by all that time lost, and in return you... well, hell, I don't know what you'd get in return. These people should receive a slap upside their heads.
Actually this disorder was described before autism was, around the turn of the century by some person named Heller. The thing is, it's very rare and since it's so similar to autism, it's probably under diagnosed.
Generally impairment is significant but not as severe as autism. However, the child will be affected for the rest of her life and will need behavioural therapy and/or medication.
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