Anyone Experience Regression After Vaccinating Older Child?

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Hello everyone,

First off I am not trying to start any vaccination debates, etc. I am just looking for some real-life experiences.

Before I ask my question I think a quick background summary may be helpful. My son was diagnosed with autism at about 2.5 years of age. We didn't do and still haven't done any vaccinations. He spoke way too early then lost it, we had most of the typical issues, speech, eye contact, parroting, etc., etc. A couple days after the diagnosis we started a gluten, dairy, soy, and dye-free diet and within 48 hours we could start to see changes (pointed a fountain out to me and said water, started making eye contact, etc.!). I believe he had a stomach issue causing allowing partially-broken down opioids to be absorbed because he can now have dairy (3 years after starting the diet) with no ill effects (it used to cause bad speech and behavior problems) and his other stomach issues have gone away. We still stay away from gluten though (I can't have it either).

Fast forward 3.5 years and we are doing awesome! We are lucky to be in a good school district that allows us to do part homeschool and part public school and we are in the first year of kindergarten. He loves school and has asked us to go full time next year. He is testing a few grades ahead in most of his subjects and is very social.

Now for the vaccination question. Has anyone experienced any regressions after vaccinating their child? Particularly with a child around the age of 6 with similar symptoms. Has anyone in a similar situation vaccinate with no ill effects? We have had to work very hard to get to where we are and it would be devastating to have any regressions.

Thanks

You need to vaccinate your children. Failing to do so is incredibly irresponsible and endangers not only their lives but the lives of the entire community. Not sure why you're asking for firsthand accounts when it's been irrefutably proven there's no link. Even if there were, not sure why you would think it's smarter to risk them dying from a preventable disease than risk them having trouble with eye contact/language. You said you've had to work very hard to get where you are and you're worried about a regression but you don't mention being worried that your kids will catch a disease and die from it. But as I said, there is no risk that vaccines would cause a regression and even entertaining that idea is very dangerous in a world where people are spreading preventable diseases like wildfire.

There's no debate to be had regarding this. Its like debating if the earth is flat or round.

^^^^This.

If you didn't vaccinate him and he has autism, then he obviously didn't get autism from vaccines, right? Or am I misunderstanding? If you never vaccinated him and he regressed, then what would make you think vaccines would make him regress?

One of my kids has regressive autism, and he has lost skills since his initial regression, but it's not correlated with vaccines IMO. He got 4 vaccines last year (as per the vaccination schedule) and he didn't regress then. I suggest vaccinating.

I think the problem is that while there is no correlation between vaccines and autism (regression timing that seems related appears to be a combination of coincidence and other conditions misread as autism), some kids are sensitive to every little thing, which means that every little thing can create stress, and stress can theoretically trigger regression.

Have you checked that there are no other reasons to fear a negative or allergic reaction to the shots? Mitochondrial conditions, allergies to ingredients, etc.?

I am very pro-vaccination, but after seeing an allergic reaction to a vaccine in one of our cats, I realized just how scary that is. The cat was fine after a day, but it still isn't something I would want to see in a child that can theoretically regress at a drop of a hat. So rule out allergies and other known reasons for negative reactions.

Once you've done that, prepare your child well for the experience so nothing takes him by surprise. I agree that you should definitely vaccinate, as these recent outbreaks are deadly, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't cross your t's and dot your i's.

I delayed and selectively vaxed my son because I was taken in by the antivax lobby at a fragile time in my life. My son had very autistic traits early on, way before any vaccination. I am autistic, and was autistic before any boosters. Autism is genetic. My son has been fully vaccinated now, but gosh the stress and upset that I caused myself for believing in the antivax lobby. Every single time my son got sick with something I was catastrophically sure that he would die from some preventable disease.

Please vaccinate your children, and if you choose to not vaccinate your children, please don't say it's because you don't want your children to be like us. Please.

Most certainly not

I know it is genetic, I have/had a lot of the same issues as my son and both my wife and I have autism in our families. I'm nervous about this for a lot of reasons, possibly being more susceptible to adverse effects being the main one. I know thimerosal has been taken out of most vaccinations but I certainly question a source that says its safe to inject 0.05mg/mL Hg (flu shot) for a child 3+ when the drinking water standard is 0.002 mg/L. I have also met two people who each believe their child (not same families) were affected by the MMR. I know the timing thing makes sense but I have a hard time believing this is the case 100%.

I'm not anti-vaccine but I question the number of recommended vaccinations and suggested schedule. I actually found a few of examples of what I was looking for (reports by parents w/older child w/o previous vaccinations) and it gave me some reassurance; however, one person claimed a slight regression. I also found a Japanese study that made me feel better about the situation.

We aren't aware of any conditions, allergies, etc. At this point I think we are going to take it slow and do one individual vaccination and take it from there, doing one at a time.

Ok. First, this is why I 'selectively vaccinated' and 'delayed vaccination' in my child. I wish I hadn't, in hindsight, because I was being a bit too 'concerned' about it.

Secondly, when you talk about 'regression', you know that's a bit ableist? Do you know that we autistics have periods where we seem to be functioning well (for us) and then periods where we seem to be functioning not so well (for us)? There are myriad reasons why we might 'regress' (regress indicates going backwards, which is why it is ableist) at any given point at time.

I prefer to think of myself 'struggling' or 'having a difficult time' rather than 'regressing'. If I have a difficult day and find myself rocking on the floor tearing my hair out, that could be because I'm in an abusive situation and have reached breaking point. If I had a flu vaccination the day before that 'behaviour', anybody could suggest I have 'regressed because vaccination'.

Without knowing exactly what is going on in the children's lives who are experiencing 'regression' behaviour, it's a huge leap to correlate the vaccination with any struggles these children are currently experiencing. Kids are people, too, and autistic kids are autistic people, too. We have good days and bad days, good months and bad months, sometimes periods where we can't cope well and sometimes periods where 'you'd never know there was anything "wrong" with us'.

But it's not just a bad day. I don't believe vaccines have caused it in my son, but it drives me crazy when people try to tell me it didn't happen. It happened. And no it was not a bad day. My son developed completely normally until 9 months. Then he started having seizures (which I know is not autism.. before anyone goes crazy). When he was 12 months old, he said "mama" and "dada" meaningfully. He understood short instructions, like "come here". He turned around to his name. He had GREAT eye contact. He played peek-a-boo, used the word "uh oh", he pointed, he waved, he would imitate things other people did while playing. He stopped doing all of that very suddenly and still hasn't gained back half of those things- and he is almost 13 years old now. That's one hell of a bad day.

Autistics develop 'completely normally' too, for autistics.

I'm sorry you haven't been able to find answers for what has happened to your son and, as a mother who dearly loves my own son, I can understand how upsetting and frustrating it must be. I do hope your son has opportunities to develop and hope to see him posting here one day.

Do they? I feel like there is A LOT of variation within autistic development. The "normal" I was referring (I almost put a disclaimer on it too actually) is the one that is most "typical" or [insert whatever PC word replaces normal] for the majority of the population. MOST children do certain things at a certain age range. MOST babies can stand up by 12 months old, for instance. With autism it seems to me that this is totally scattered (with social and communicative milestones). My one kid doesn't talk at all (he's 15), my other kid says some words and was "functionally verbal" at 10. I have a friend whose kid started talking at 8. Another whose kid started talking at 5. Another who said a few words starting at 3 but hasn't said much else since. I know some kids with Asperger's talked really early. Etc. There doesn't seem to be a "normal" age for autistic children to develop language. There is a normal range for [insert PC way of saying typically developing children].

I assume you will argue but that's how it seems to me.

I started talking at age 5 1/2. Here I am today!

Yes, the milestones for children are scattered, and in fact when my son was 18 months we were told he was 'behind in some areas, advanced in others' but wasn't on the spectrum. Yet he is. So the idea of our first 'specialist' was that 'all children develop differently at different stages, these are just guidelines for normalcy'.

Not arguing, trying to explain my perspective in response to your argument. I understand we are diagnosed with autism because we are perceived as statistically abnormal, but we (autistics) all share characteristics which 'normalise' us within our peer group (autistics).

I have never figured out why it is OK to push your views down someone's throat for some things and not others. I take exception at telling someone that they are "incredibly irresponsible" based on one post in an online forum. We do not know this to be true; it is a matter of personal opinion.

FWIW, it has not been irrefutably proven that there is no relationship between vaccinations and autism. There is no conclusive evidence that there is a relationship, but that is not the same as irrefutably proven that there isn't. I'm sorry to keep harping on that, but it brings out the pedant in me every time.

Anyway...

To go back to the OP's question...

My daughter had similar gut issues to your son. I actually cut her milk consumption hoping it would encourage her to eat (she was almost exclusively drinking milk and hardly eating any solid food at all...I would guess this was sometime around 20 months or so?) We were pre-formal diagnosis and I had never heard of GF/CF diets. Anyway, we started cutting her milk, and lo and behold, her headbanging decreased, she started responding to her name more, and she started following simple directions. I was also able to teach her how to point, something she had never done before. She also lost the "spaced out" look that she had. Once she was formally diagnosed and I started looking into autism, I learned of GF/CF and I completely removed casein from her diet. She started to engage even more and then started to speak. We removed gluten from her diet, but nothing much changed from that. In all, she was GF for about 9 months and CF for about 18 months. We slowly re-introduced casein into her diet and she had no ill effects. I believe her gut was immature. I should have known it. When I was nursing her, if I ate anything with casein in it, she responded negatively to it. I believe the "break" was long enough to allow her gut to mature sufficiently to handle casein. For years after she was allowed to have casein, she was on a self-selected "decreased casein" diet, though it is hard to know if this is due to her general pickiness or if it still caused her discomfort.

Anyway, I just wanted to confirm that I understand what you are talking about and believe my daughter's situation is similar. I do not believe her autism has anything to do with vaccinations, and she is fully vaxed but was on a delayed vaccination schedule as her pediatrician during infancy and toddlerhood preferred not to give more than one vaccine at a time.

She has never had any regressions, with the exception of during a severe viral infection that landed her in the hospital. But she was not typically developing before that, either, and her development went back to it's previous level as soon as she was no longer ill.

Vaccination has saved countless lives. That's not an opinion, it's a fact. It's incredibly irresponsible to refute science because we think we have a 'right' to an opinion that has been proven to damage the population. I think it is incredibly irresponsible to not vaccinate our kids, and I was a person who used to believe the hype being sold by people like you who told me I should have a 'right to an opinion' even if it was terribly wrong and could endanger my child and other people.

"People like me"? I'm going to choose to give you the benefit of a doubt and leave that alone. You actually know next to nothing about me.

The post that I was responding to did not say that vaccinations had been irrefutably proven to save lives. I have no argument with that. The post I was responding to said that the link between vaccinations and autism had been irrefutably proven not to be true. That is not true. We have no evidence of a link. Different statement entirely. I believe it may be because we lack the sophistication to find the link. I believe that at this point in time, we lack the sophistication to uncover a lot of what will eventually be considered "truths" about autism. We are in the infancy stages of our understanding. During the infancy stages of discovery, it is prudent not to summarily exclude things simply because we can't make sense of them at the time.

And I still don't think it is prudent to pass a blanket judgement on someone based on one internet post. Or maybe it is the inflammatory statement that it is "incredibly" irresponsible that I find offensive.

By the logic you are proposing, alcohol and drugs should all be outlawed. They have been irrefutably proven to damage the body, use can lead to death, and there is conclusive evidence that one person's choice to drink or use drugs may end up costing an innocent bystander his or her life. There is definitely damage to society as a whole. Yet, not only is drinking alcohol legal, recreational drug use is gaining favor in the US and is legal in other parts of the world.

Attacking a parent will rarely result in a change of opinion. Aside from that, there are often calls on this board to treat people with respect, regardless of their views and beliefs, and I for one, believe we should treat others with respect, even if we disagree with them. There is a difference between stating that you disagree with the decision not to vaccinate and telling someone that they are "incredibly irresponsible." The OP clearly stated that s/he did not wish to start a debate. I am sure s/he is well aware of the vaccination debate and has probably had to defend his/her choice on numerous occasions. S/he came here, much like you did, ominous, seeking a certain group of parents with a certain type of shared experience that might be of use to him/her. Surely you can understand that?