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When asked by people whether I am having my younger, neurotypical child vaccinated or if I had my son (diagnosed PDD-NOS) vaccinated, I always reply,

"Yes, if I had not had him vaccinated, I would an autistic child with the measles."

Ominous - reading your posts. I read your link. I don't understand what you are saying here or what someone else is not seeing (I am not being argumentative, I want to see what you are saying).

I agree that adults all over the world, including the US get whooping cough all the time and are more likely to spread it than unvaccinated children. I have no clue if I have ever had the pertussis vaccine, definately not in the past 20 years, so I assume I am basically 'unvaccinated'. In my area, there are tons of commercials about pertussis and how most babies get pertussis from adults in their household to encourage new mothers to get the vaccine, not just their children. Most children are vaccinated for pertussis, most adults are not. Adults are the ones that spread it to unvaccinated children.

The one quote on the site I thought you might be referring to is:

"Young kids who have not received all five doses of the vaccine may require a booster dose if exposed to an infected family member."

Are you referring at all to this sentence? I am not sure how to interpret this statement. Does it mean that if a child does not have all five doses they are suseptible (not immune)? If so, that means that most children under the age of six are suseptible and not fully protected.

bjtao, I am refuting the statement that a community was infected by children whose parents refused to vaccinate them, then took them overseas (to one of those awful, dirty foreign countries that isn't the USA, I'm guessing ), where they contracted the evil Pertussis and brought it back irresponsibly to infect a community of lovely American children. I found that commentary ridiculous and I am certain that was the news story at the time in DW's community. While it is plausible some children who had not been vaccinated contracted Pertussis overseas and then infected other children with it, the reality is that Pertussis (like Tetanus) is everywhere. Blaming parents who choose not to vaccinate is media-driven hype and I find it offensive and uneducated.

You are correct that most kids are unprotected against Pertussis, most especially infants. All of us are susceptible to contracting and spreading the disease and many of us do not even know we have it when we do. How many times has any adult had a Pertussis test when they've gone to the doctor for a bad case of bronchitis? None of us, unless that adult happens to get so ill they need to be hospitalised. We usually get sent home with a course of antibiotics for respiratory infection and back to work or school we go, coughing all the way.

Our doctor was wanting us to try inositol, I have yet to try it on the DS, in what ways does it help?

My son has very high anxiety and fear, to the point where many things make him jump out of his own skin. For a while he could not do anything without being in the same room with me. I gave the inositol a go for about three weeks and noticed marked difference in his level of obsessing about his fears. He started doing things he hadn't done in a long time, like go outside and sit on his swing or go into his bedroom. (It really was that bad.) I didn't make the connection and thought that he was managing better because of the work we had been doing together. I drop off using the inositol, not consciously mind you, and within a week all the anxiety and hypervigilance was back with a vengeance. He still has some fairly profound terrors in his life, but I find it makes enough of a difference that we will keep using it.

I've started using it as well. Apparently inositol deficiency is also indicated by very dry skin and scalp, eczema and also fatty liver. I have all three of those and my son has the same (outside of the fatty liver just yet). As an adult I haven't found it does much for my anxiety, but I haven't had a stress eczema episode since taking it.

I got my version of events directly from the local health department, when my daughter was sick with what might have been pertussis (it wasn't). I'm not an expert, I only know the source that THIS ONE OUTBREAK has been traced to. Kids who carry diseases spread them faster than adults do. They don't wash as often, and spend a lot more time in closer contact with other children than adults do.

I don't consider everything outside of the US to be "dirty," but there are risky places to travel, and less risky places, when it comes to bringing back disease. The family I mentioned, as I've understood it, traveled to a known risky place, and it was their child who came back infected, went to school, and spread the disease (before being aware of having it). I realize that I'm arguing "what I understand to be correct" instead of what is verifiable fact, and the reason is simple: I'm not the one making a decision at the moment. I post to alert readers to a discussion point, but NOT to make the decision for them. If they want to make a decision using what I am saying, they'll do the research that I don't have the current imperative to. I don't have the patience for locating links, particularly when they aren't easy to find. A known fault of mine, I'll own it. But it doesn't make the information I hold useless. Before I reach a conclusion, I do a lot of research. Once I've made the conclusion, I forget the research. Just because I don't have a brain that holds all the facts and figures post conclusion, does not mean my conclusions are invalid. Just, well ... not satisfactory for the way most of our members evaluate information, and that burden is mine when I post here. I understand that wall exists on this forum, but my way has worked pretty well in real life, and when people have gone back to verify my foundations, at least 90% of the time I had it exactly right. If I'm not at least 90% sure, I say so.

How my understanding of how THIS outbreak started fits in with your research ... interesting question. You have me thinking about it, and I'm interested. Not sure I have time to research the links since it's not my issue at the moment, but I do see the point.

I am sorry that you and I appear to be butting heads. Perhaps my desire to discuss things on a more technical level is hindered by my current work deadline; I am posting as a social relief from mind-boggling numbers and tax issues, and not to find new tangles. We'll probably get along much better when I'm in the mindset to experience scientific tangles. But I'm just ... not. Probably wasn't the best of mindsets to delve into a technical thread with, eh? So, my apologies for that.

All of the informations, arguments, points, links, questions - technical or not - are great for getting us all to think and do more research, and lead to more questions.

Fair enough DW. I am quite distrustful of standard media and have experience enough with it to know that there is usually an agenda. The reality is pertussis can't be traced to one family. The media making those statements sure does put the onus on parents to vaccinate their children, though. I'm not quite a conspiracy theorist, but wouldn't trust that information for a second knowing what I do about pertussis. I will stop butting your head now, I need to keep my horns intact and shiny.

I am the same way, not a conspiracy theorist, but I don't trust the news to give a straight story or facts (just compare 2 news papers and you can see how facts get twisted) and I believe in the phrase "follow the money".

I'd sometimes prefer not to question as much as I do, to be honest! When I was pregnant with my son, I picked up a book about vaccination in Australia from the birth centre library. I wanted to learn what the schedule was like here as I am originally from the USA. One of the midwives asked me to "also read" some literature on the dangers of vaccinations. I spent the next close to three years struggling back and forth with a variety of information, having to decide for myself how to vaccinate which I'd never planned to have to do. As sad as it may sound, it was a lot easier to "just do it because that's what you do no questions asked" than to have to take responsibility for those decisions myself.

I don't trust the pro-vax movement and I don't trust the anti-vax movement. They both have agendas and having to sort through those agendas and think for yourself for your own family and child is one of the most stressful things I've ever done in my life.

I scoffed in outrage when I heard of people saying vaccines 'cause' autism. I thought these people were insane. This was after I gave birth to my younger child (1.5 yrs old now). I got him vaccinated, didn't question it. Then I watched "The Doctors", a medical talk show. They had representatives from both sides. I can't remember what organization the rep from the pro-vaccine side was, but it was a major organization like the the American Peds or CDC or something. They had nothing to day. They admited there have been NO studies done to disprove the theory that something in vaccines causes autism. Other than that, they didn't have much to say at all. I found that very interesting and started to question it at that point.

Once I question something, I annoy myself. I research for hours and hours and hours (hundreds). I never come to a firm conclusion either way because there is just not enough information available, so I lean one way or the other. And I wonder often, why I give a sh** since no one else does, I don't even have anyone that cares about the information I find...lol.

I hear that! My people call it perseveration. LOL

I still have not had my son completely vaccinated. He's almost eight and "due" for his 4-year-old boosters. I have spoken with a child health nurse who specialises in vaccination, who is open to delayed and selective vaccinating. That's been incredibly helpful. The bottom line for us is he is not 100% protected against a few things to date, but the ones that I feel are the greatest risk to his own life (based on his lifestyle) he is covered for. He will be fully "selectively" vaccinated prior to us traveling anywhere overseas, more for my own peace of mind than my belief that he could contract measles in Europe, etc.

You are totally right that there are agendas - and big money - on both sides. I've gotten really frustrated with the "big pharma" arguments that act as if there isn't a significant financial force on the other side. Of course there is. Researching everything on our own in an age of information overload isn't really practical, but a healthy dose of skepticism is highly warranted. I really appreciate how so many families here have found what are well reasoned "middle" roads.

As for media ... my experience from the times I know the original information with 100% accuracy, is that you should expect the media to get it 80% right. An honest reporter will do their best, but summarizing new information is always going to leave a gap of some sort, and rushing for deadlines also leads to mistakes. A friend of mine who has been interviewed and quoted often estimates they get it 80% right, and that is referring to news outlets that give it an honest effort. As long as the 20% errors fall into the less important points, she is thrilled. To use that 80% assumption, however, you do have to be dealing with organizations that do actually want to get it right. Some of the stuff I've encountered on the internet has clearly made no effort to get it right, so we'll be lucky if they got it half right. Sometimes I forget to put my, "this is likely to have 20% errors" hat, however. Thanks for reminding me

Well, this is quite ironic....

My 1.5 yr old has had 3 doses of DTap. Guess what? He has pertussis (whooping cough)...I caught it early, so he will be OK. It is kind of scary though - he woke up having trouble breathing and suddenly had the stereotypical whooping cough. Runny nose one day, whooping cough the next day.

That is scary. I hope it doesn't cause him too much discomfort (or you!). My oldest had it as a young infant prior to being fully vaccinated (she had traditional vaccine schedule) and it was terrifying. It sure leaves you feeling helpless. I hope your tiny person is over it soon!!

It is very scary! The cough is very scary sounding!! !!