Found an interesting article today on CNN about a woman who has set up a school in China after her son was diagnosed there 18 years ago. It looks like the claim that there were no children with autism in China until 1999 holds no water. It appears more likely that the Chinese government simply did not acknowledge these children until recently.

After reading this I feel really lucky that I am living in North America and that there a places that we can go to find information. Even with an autistic son I can't begin to imagine how hard it has ben for her.

You can read it here...

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/03/31/china.autism/index.html

In recent months there has been a lot of information about autism being delivered to us at an astounding rate. Oprah has dedicated shows to it, CNN has done a series of specials on it, and even Jenny McCarthy has written a book. These are all people looking for answers, much like the rest of us, but time and time again the same accusations and finger pointing arise. The answer in every case is that these children have been given autism through the proccess of vaccinations.

I should first explain that I am not against the idea that vaccines may play a role in the development of autism. The theory (and as of the writing of this blog it is still a theory) has been taken into consideration by many of the top researchers in this field. It does seem to make sense from the parent's perspective. My son was progressing at a strong rate in his daycare, ahead of many in his class with repect to problem solving, motor skills and creative development. Then sometime in his twos he began to distance himself developmentaly from the rest of his peers. This is roughly the same story we all have and the only thing that makes sense is that right around that time he had his MMR shot. Seems to make sense.

But what if that's not the answer? Perhaps we just want it to be the answer and maybe we are trying so desparately to find someone to blame that we are missing out on other possibilities. There are plenty of reasons why lawyers are very interested in class action lawsuits regarding autism. And every one of those reasons revolve around money. If we could somehow convince enough people that vaccines are the cause then we would have one of the biggest bank accounts in the world to draw from. We could all win a sum of money from the declaration that this was the problem all along and then we'd have closure. But the only problem is, we really wouldn't.  read more »