Vaccinations, Celebrities and The Cure… I Say “What Now”

I am positive that vaccinations did not cause my son, Taylor, to have autism. He showed signs of developmental and other delays within the first 4 months of his life – before his course of vaccinations were started and completed. Though I don’t doubt that vaccinations may indeed trigger autism, I do not believe vaccinations in and of themselves cause autism. But what do I know – or does anybody for that matter?

What I do believe is that Taylor and others have a pre-disposition – viral and/or genetic – which environmental toxins and pollutants “trigger.” For me, and hundreds of other women I’ve spoken to over the years, the environmental toxin I can point to is Pitosin. How’s that for left field? Nobody talks about Pitosin, but in my case I am convinced this was Taylor’s trigger. There are many women who agree and can easily point to this particular toxin as well. Do you have a similar story?

Pitosin was given to me in great quantities to induce labor over the course of six (yes, count ‘em) six long days at Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. During that period, Taylor went into fetal distress twice, and yet they did not take him by c-section until the 6th day, continuing instead to administer the Pitosin drip throughout my stay. This was circa 1988 and little was known about autism, let alone the fact it was exponentially on the rise. Taylor was born a mere 8 days prior to the release of the movie Rainman, which was all we really knew about autism in the public sector at the time. I call that period the dark ages of autism.

Now, after 19+ years of watching autism grow, I believe it is environmental hazards and toxins in general that trigger autism, and not specifically vaccinations – though I would certainly include them as a possible trigger, I would not say they are the cause of autism. One cannot discount a child that begins to cry for days, weeks or months directly after the shots are given, or that he loses language – we see this happening everyday. But hey people, what about the fact that we stand in front of microwaves, use cell phones, pump gas, and eat foods wrapped in plastic on top of plastic and then put in a plastic bag. Ironically, environmental toxins in the past 20 years have increased right along side of autism, and its not just the vaccinations. For me Pitosin – if you looked around, what might it be for you?

What I do know is this – I agree with Amada Peet’s argument a couple months back regarding so-called “herd” vaccinations being imperative so we do not have break-outs of other, perhaps more severe universally destructive disease and disability such as polio or small pox. I personally came up against the question of vaccinations when my younger son Jace was born 6 years after Taylor. Do I vaccinate – do I not? After a lot of reading and research, I came to see – as Peet has found – that herd vaccinations protect against far greater dangers in our society than the possibility of contracting autism. Fortunately Jace does not have autism, a great cause for concern during my pregnancy with him and the ensuing vaccinations. I’m not saying you need to agree with me at all – so I hope you don’t get that impression. But as Peet said, we shouldn’t just listen to celebrities either just because they are in the lime light. We need to do our own due diligence; speak with as many professionals as we can to decide for ourselves with informed determination.

In the end, we all wonder what causes autism. Well, since scientists can’t say, I certainly cannot. Neither can Autism Speaks, Autism Society of America, or other celebrities who take vitriolic stands against vaccinations, or are hyper-focused on the cure, or even a shock jock such like Michael Savage, whose recent comments made it clear he is clearly ignorant about autism. I agree we need to keep research going, keep looking at triggers, causes, and cures for autism. For heavens sake, why would we not do so as a concerned society? But with all the will and passion in my advocate-encrusted life, I say

MY CHILD HAS AUTISM, WHAT THE HECK DO I DO NOW????

But we don’t see this in headline news so much as we do news about the “cure” or the “cause” rather than looking at funding interventions at a more responsible national level NOW.

Let’s face it, there are too many children living with autism each day that need support and interventions, but the money and legislation to guide us in our practices just aren’t there to take care of and provide education, intensive therapies, and interventions. As an advocate, educator, and mother, it is my opinion that if we spent as much money on “what now,” meaning early interventions, best practices, and education as we do in search of a cure or cause that perhaps will not come in our children’s lifetime, we will raise the bar and options for hundreds of thousands of children living with autism everyday.

Instead, when Jenny McCarthy comes out and calls the director of the Center’s for Disease Control a monster, as she did on Chelsea Lately a number of months back, we set ourselves back and continue to divide an already fractured global autism community. And the truth is, I like McCarthy a lot! I see value in celebrities raising awareness – good for them. But we need be careful how these opinions affect a multitude of parents who are new to the world of autism. When McCarthy says her child is in “recovery”, without a definition of recovery, we need to have a discussion on just what “recovery” is. Parents need to be careful not to put all their eggs into one hopeful basket and exclude other important therapies and interventions (like social and life skills), or forget about the nuances of autism that require a multi-disciplinary approach to improved possibilities.

At the end of the day, I believe we all go through the death of a dream when we are faced with autism. In looking for a way out, or simply a way to live with autism, we should not forget that ASD is baffling and is a life-long disability at this point. Let’s not loose our objectives in “what now.”

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