In my son's case, I do not believe vaccines had anything to do with his autism. Is it POSSIBLE the vaccines contributed to his condition in some way? Absolutely...but I have no way of knowing for sure one way or the other. I was surprised to see how many immunizations my son would get by age 2 vs when I was a kid. I've been lucky that his pediatricians understood my concerns and have worked with me to provide the injections close to the recommended time-table. I felt better knowing there were a few months in between some of the shots in the event my son's body couldn't handle it all at once. Also, if there was some adverse effect I'd have a better chance of narrowing down the cause. Since my Mom said she noticed many of the same behaviors in me as a child (though I am not autistic), I really think genetics are more the factor in our case. With so many environmental changes over the past few decades and the rising rate in autism, I think there is definitely a connection between environment and autism...somewhere.

We have had a tremendous surge in cases of whooping cough in Washtenaw County, Michigan, a highly educated district full of "naturally born" and now highly at risk kids who, because of unvaccinated kids, may get this very,very dangerous disease. My mother in law was sick for 2 years with pertussis. Please reconsider. Please do some real research. The "doctor" who "proved" the link has been stripped of his credentials, and had his funding revoked. It was a complete fraud. A sin, really...

My 3 year old son was born full term, naturally, with no complications. He has never been vaccinated, never had an ear infection and has only had baby tylenol for a fever. So, no, I do not believe that vaccines are the cause in my son's autism. Do I think they can have an effect, yes...but I believe the genetic component is more important.

Please look into the difference between correlation and causality re: autism. In Europe they cannot believe we Americans still discuss this. It's embarrassing.

"Of course these are not the only pieces of evidence, and scientists continue to test, and re-test the safety of vaccines. A recently published exhaustive review examining 12,000 research articles covering 8 different vaccines concluded there was no link between vaccines and autism. While scientists still don’t know the exact causes of autism, we are looking like mad and one thing we can be extremely confident of is that it’s not vaccines."

http://www.mamamia.com.au/news/anti-vaccination...