One Mother's Experience with Autism and Vaccines

By Ellen Cotton

I’m an ordinary mom of a very special kid.  Finding out that, in my ignorance, I had allowed my special child to be injured by vaccines, was a shock that I will never forget.

It took several years and a lot of independent research for me to figure out what happened to my child.  My husband and I adopted him in 1993 when he was just 4 days old.  He was very healthy and had a perfect score on the Apgar tests.  We were thrilled to have him in our lives and he exceeded all our hopes and dreams - he was beautiful, healthy, bright and cheerful.  The only problems we had were problems that were common to many parents.  Our baby was colicky and didn’t settle down until he was finally taken off milk-based formula at age 3 months.  After that he was a very happy baby.  He met all the usual milestones – sat up at 4 months, crawled at 6 months, walked at 12 months, and started saying multiple words at 9 months.  He was strong, friendly, responsive to people and things – a happy chatter box.

Because I had a full-time job, we hired a nanny from age 6 months until he was 2 and a half.  Then we put him in a wonderful daycare next door to my office.  He loved being with the other children and socialized well.  One staff person asked me if my son was able to read, because she had observed him picking up books and saying the titles without any prompting.  I had also noticed that he seemed to be able to repeat things read to him – even an entire children’s book! When he was 3, another staff person mentioned that he was having difficulty learning to ride a tricycle.  No other problems were ever reported.

But, shortly after he entered the daycare, he started having chronic ear infections.  Every two weeks he’d have another one.  The doctor gave him antibiotics and eventually they didn’t work anymore.  Fortunately, he stopped having the chronic ear infections at age 4 when we moved from Toronto, Canada to California.

After we moved, it was a difficult and confusing time for all of us.  I took my son for check-ups and he received several vaccines shortly after we arrived in California.  I put him in pre-school and there were some behavioural problems.  But I attributed them to the move and upheaval at home.  The preschool did some evaluations for kindergarten and I have a written report that shows my son having met all the milestones for school - including being able to write his name and a few other words, counting to 100, cutting, pasting, drawing…

Then, I took him for his required vaccines for entering public school.  He was almost 5 years old.  Because the vaccine schedule for Canada was slightly different than what was required for California, the doctor said he needed 7 vaccines – all of which were given to him in one session!  It was traumatic for my son and he was very sick with a high fever for several days, but the doctor said that was normal.  I didn’t think any more about it until several years later.

His kindergarten class was a bit unique.  They were implementing a special pilot programme for teaching reading and writing based on the needs of children with dyslexia.  I volunteered to help in the classroom when they were doing the programme.  After several months, it became obvious that my son could no longer write, use scissors or draw.  He was also having some difficulty with reading.  This seemed strange to me, because he could do all these things in preschool.  The teacher seemed a bit concerned about his fine motor coordination and said I should keep an eye on it.  We also noticed that he was having difficulty with gross motor skills as well.  He would no longer climb on the playground equipment and seemed afraid to try things that he used to love.  And despite my constant efforts, he still could not ride a tricycle.  There were also a lot of tantrums and upsets, but again I thought that was because of the adjustment to school.

I’ll skip all the horrors of elementary school.  To make a long story short, my son was eventually diagnosed with dyslexia and learning disabilities, then A.D.D., then finally Asperger’s Disorder along with Developmental Coordination Disorder and anxiety.   I kept doing research online and reading books about autism and learning disabilities.  Then I came across Karyn Seroussi’s book, Unraveling the Mystery of Autism and PDD.  At one point in the book she talked about her family history of reactions to vaccines.  My heart almost stopped as I suddenly recalled that my son’s birth mother had written a short note on the adoption papers that stated she had had a bad reaction to a vaccine. 

Suddenly, it all started to fit together.  I finally realized that my son’s serious problems started after that final onslaught of 7 vaccines.  He had all the symptoms of mercury poisoning – neurological damage, learning disabilities, irritability, nervousness, fits of anger, memory loss, attention problems, depression (yes, he had bouts of depression even at age 6!), low self confidence, anxiety, low self control,  foul breath, abdominal cramps, gastrointestinal problems, fine tremors, muscle weakness, fatigue, joint pain, sensory sensitivities, and coordination problems. 

When he was 10, I had my son tested for toxic metals.  His mercury levels were near the top of the “extremely elevated” range.  He also had elevated levels of lead.  We put him on supplements and the GF/CF diet, which seemed to noticeably calm him down.  Then after a few months we started a very carefully controlled series of chelation with DMSA supported with nutritional supplements and diet.  We continued this regimen for almost 3 years.   

My son is now 14 years old.  There have been significant and major improvements in his moods, attention, anxiety, self-control, gastrointestinal health, muscle strength, energy and coordination.  Some were gradual, some very quick and dramatic.  What didn’t change were his learning disabilities and some mild degree of autistic tendencies.  Had I realized the problem when he was younger, we might have seen a greater improvement in these areas.

I do believe that autism is a complex disorder and that vaccine injury alone can not be given full blame.  More likely it is certain genetic predispositions, triggered by a barrage of environmental insults – too many vaccines containing Thimerosal (all of them in my son’s case), given at too early an age, toxins in our environment, toxins in the food we eat, too many antibiotics.  They all add up and take their toll on the brains and bodies of our developing children.  But there is no doubt in my mind that vaccines were a major factor in my child’s sudden descent into neurological hell.  I am deeply grateful to all the “rescue angels” out there who helped me get my son back on the path to health.

Ellen Cotton lives in California and is a Generation Rescue "Rescue Angel" who helps other parents learn about treatments to help their children with autism heal.