This problem is bigger than anyone could ever imagine. We are a military family who moved around a lot. My son attended schools in NC, NH, and CA. He could not read more than a paragraph, add, subtract, multiply, divide, or comprehend simple word problems. I had him evaluated 5x for Special Ed Services - only to be told that his test scores were "normal". Normal?? What is truly scary is that they were comparing his scores to others his age at a national level. My son is 14!!! So, yes, it is truly scary when you think of what is going to happen to our next generation. Who will be doctors? Lawyers? Who will be our future President? I shudder just thinking about it.

Re: tics and/or Tourette's and/or OCD that suddenly appear out of nowhere, definitely research PANDAS. Just Google "PANDAS Sue Swedo autism" and you'll find lots of info. We've been battling PANDAS on-and-off since '03. It has at times caused severe tics (vocal, gestural, sometimes full-body) and severe OCD in my son. We treated w/IVIG (insurance covered it) w/excellent results. Problem is that sometimes when he gets exposed to strep, it comes back.

I am the mother of a 13 year old daughter who has attention and auditory processing issues and is also musically gifted. She has three older siblings who were born before the vaccine schedule that included HepB at birth and they have no learning issues. There are no adults in the extended family with learning disabilites, however she has a 13 year old male cousin who is non-verbal autism, an 11 year old male cousin Asperger's and an 8 year old male cousin "on the spectrum". At the IEP meeting for my daughter, her support teacher told me that 1 in 4 of the children in her grade are in learning support. She also has a friend in her homeroom with Tourette's.

I saw a NOVA special about epigenetic damage. Future generations of all these vaccinated kids(injured and not apparently injured) are in serious trouble.

What really keeps me up at night is what will our children's CHILDREN be like? By then it WILL be a genetic epidemic. Will there be anyone 'normal'? Will there be any financial means to acommodate a society where 'special needs' will be the majority?

"I have to wonder: Are you capable of looking at ANY imperfect child -- as all children are imperfect, as all people are imperfect -- and not seeing "damage"?

It happens all too often that people accept today's reality as the reality that has always been. Kids just did not have these problem in years past.

Hate to say it, but this there is a difference between perfectionism and basic observation. Tourette's is a clinical problem. It's not like one has to be overcritical to notice something is wrong. Inability to concentrate is another clear problem. Reduced scores on standardized tests is another one, even though schools have managed to mask dropping SAT scores by making the test easier or just making it not comparable to older tests (written test). All it takes is careful comparison to historical data and it becomes obvious that kids these days have some real issues. But at least they don't have polio or the measles, right.

Yes, yes, YES! There are a slew of kids diagnosed in Kindegarten and up with the a's...my son was FINE until his kindegarten round of shots. Just a little better with eye-contact and socialization, he may not have been diagnosed with an ASD and ADHD - he would have just been labeled ADHD. The face of vaccine-induced neurological damage sustained at 5 may look a little different than damage sustained at 18 months - but that they are related is clear to anyone paying attention. Thank you for this post...I keep thinking of all the people whose kids have been diagnosed 'off' the spectrum who could benefit from biomedical treatments - but are instead put on Ritalin.

Yup, yup, yup, yup, yup, yup and yup in response to Dan's article and all the comments.

Both my sons' classes? 80% has got 'something' going on.

My neighborhood? At least half the kids, almost all the boys have 'something' going on.

The 'cousins' in the family? One 'diagnosed' (in addition to my Salamander), two other ones 'blatantly spectrum' (Aspie or HFA or SPD; parents in DENIAL). At least three other ones have 'something' going on. The adults? Thyroid, cancer, fibromyalgia, CFS, gastro issues, mood disorders, etc. etc. etc..

Of course -I- am the 'crazy one'.. if only I were to stop 'obsessing' over my boys, they'd be perfectly 'fine'. Yeah, just as 'fine' as the other kids and adults in the family?? Thanks, but no thanks. I'll keep 'obsessing'...

I don't know anymore WHAT it is going to take for people to 'wake up'..

GREAT ONE DAN! I've got this kid, he was born end of 02 and I remember signing waivers with the thirmarisol word on it so he got mercury until 6 mos when I stopped vaccinating - he's plenty damaged btw. He would never have made an official dx- and thus NOT included in the admitted 1/150. We are full out biomedical and now do HBOT - hard chamber to heal his brain damage. Everything mainstream was a complete waste of time and money. My son had the immune system of an AIDS patient and his (all Peds) Ped had/has no tools to address it. Sad, sad, sad, sad world we live in. I am 8 mos pregnant with another son - only scared of one thing - the ignorant "system".

Dan - please tell your friend to have their child tested for PANDAS - onset of TICs is a symptom of this. My ds (one of the identical twins from PA) - suddenly started developing TICs. Turns out his Strep titers were way high - a long course of antibiotics got them back in line and TICs disappeared!

Diane

Dan,

I see this so much, too. I am a special ed teacher but have been teaching high school "alternative" ed..which is a nice way to say special ed but without an IEP or 504 plan.

I would say 90% of the boys have asthma, 30% have allergies-food, pollen, other..and these are kids who are in Meg's peer group..circa 1991-1994..learning disabilities (undiagnosed/never tested) about 40%, adhd/add--about 50%, and emotional disturbance--85%.

Since I am inundated with sick kids, maybe that explains my never ending interest on this topic.

While I know you're talking about the Vaccine Generation, please keep in mind that this is also the HHV-6 Generation and the HIV Fraud Generation.

Back when AIDS broke out in 1981, there were so many secondary infections to deal with in the affected patients that there was a very real fear that the wrong infection would be called the primary cause. Because of such a hypothetical mistake, the real cause might be allowed to spread in a stealth manner.

Guess what happened?

On April 23, 1984, HIV was politically declared the cause of AIDS. Even though it wasn't even found in all the original AIDS patients.

Scientists who pointed out the weaknesses in the HIV theory were marginalized and discredited. They were called denialists when they spoke truth to HIV power. No second opinion was ever allowed where AIDS causation was concerned.

The HIV establishment was so invincible that in 1986, when another more formidable virus, HHV-6, was found in AIDS patients, it was basically swept under the rug. An empire was being built around HIV.

Nobody was able to free the gay community from the HIV paradigm.

Nobody was able to free the black community from the HIV paradigm.

Through an unholy mix of greed, pride and groupthink, the insidious neuroimmunological virus, HHV-6, was allowed to go on its merry destructive way in AIDS patients.

But a price had to be paid. HHV-6 soon showed up in people with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, MS, cancer, and autism, just to name a handful of HHV-6 associated medical problems.

To borrow from Pastor Martin Niemoller, first they lied to the AIDS patients about HHV-6 and I did not speak out because I wasn't gay and didn't have AIDS. Then they lied to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome patients about HHV-6 and I didn't speak out because I didn't have CFS. Then they lied to MS patients about HHV-6 because I didn't have MS. Then they lied to people with autism and ADD about HHV-6 and I didn't speak out because nobody in my family was affected. When they come to lie to me about my HHV-6 health problems there will be no one left to speak out.

Dan,

CNN recently posted this story (which I never in my wildest dreams would have expected to see, say, six months ago) on their site:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/family/06/19/ep.vaccines/index.html

My 1.5 year old had his physical on Tuesday. We're lucky because our pediatrician is great. Caring and has a very warm presence; our son was very accepting of her when he's usually wary of most strangers. She knows where we stand on the vaccine schedule and immunization issue. It didn't come up once during the visit, though the nurse tried to make us sign another form stating we were medically neglecting our child. We refused as we had a modified form on record, with that medical neglect clause scratched out and initialed by both parties.

I was born in 1981. My brother and cousin (whose father is Egyptian/Syrian; we're Scoth/German -- talk about diverse genes!) were born in 1984. All three of us have asthma and food allergies varying on mild (my and my brother's allergies are now gone) to severe (my cousin can't eat peanuts or coconuts without experiencing allergic reactions that require ER trips). She also has severe eczema and has the worst case of asthma of the three of us.

Interestingly, we didn't have any of these issues at birth. They all came on acutely at roughly the same years of age for my brother and me. My cousin was hit the worst, at a slightly later age.

I was very similar to the 13-year old boy you highlighted at the beginning of your article. I could not read more than a few words until second grade, was "excused" from music class and gym class because of the noises and chaos, and was diagnosed with severe learning problems (ADD and all that I think were just beginning to hit the zeitgeist). I had severe food and environmental allergies and was placed on a restrictive diet (no corn products--corn sweetener or syrup, which is in everything--dextrose, soybean, etc). This diet was hell for me as my mom and teachers and mothers of friends all watched me like a hawk. There was absolutely no cheating... about the only thing I wasn't allergic to in a peanut butter sandwich was the peanut butter (assuming it had no corn syrup)!

Anyway, Dan, thank you for your article and your work on bringing these issues to light. Who knows how many young parents are out there with a story similar to mine.

I posted this comment previously to an article for which it was rather out of context, and it didn't garner any response, but I would like to post it again because it is relevant to this article I am interested in any feedback.

Sometimes parents of kids with autism are not aware of biomedical treatments, or believe people who tell them not to try those treatments, but at least biomedical treatments for autism are only a Google search away. For kids who have milder issues possibly related to over-vaccination and/or mercury, nobody may even have a clue that medical treatments such as diet, supplements, and detoxification could help.

Thanks so much for this article, Dan. These issues are so important!

Here is my prior post:

I have a friend whose neurotypical son is 17 years old and so received the many thimerosal-containing vaxes given to kids born in the early 1990's, as well as of course the MMR. As a child, he suffered from very bad constipation. They saw a child psych who said that he was trying to control his world by holding in his poop, or something like that. He is now a senior in high school and although he does very well on standardized tests he in danger of flunking his classes. He doesn't know what he wants to do next year and can't bring himself to look for a job or apply for college. He has been having trouble concentrating on his work in recent years and spends his time instant messaging when he should be doing homework. He is suffering from depression.

My friend views his issues as mainly psychological in nature, but I suggested that although depression can cause physical issues, the reverse can also be true, i.e. biochemistry can cause depression. And I suggested having him evaluated by an educational specialist to see whether there are other issues interfering with his ability to focus attention and learn, besides lack of motivation. And I have been sharing information about biomedical treatments, partly because my friend has some ongoing GI issues.

Another friend of mine has a son about the same age who has asthma and is very quiet, not nearly as sociable as my friend, although he does have a few close friends.
He tends to narrowly focus on particular areas of interest.

Neither of these boys is autistic. They are perfectly capable of speaking in complete sentences and functioning on a daily basis. The first is quite social and the second does very well in school. But I often wonder how many kids of this generation -- especially boys -- have been affected by vaccines in a milder way than our kids.

In my younger daughter's 4th grade class there are several seemingly neurotypical boys who have very bad behavior problems. My older daughter's teacher in an Advanced Placement (AP) class commented on how there are fewer boys than girls in AP classes these days. I remember the Newsweek article on how many boys are having trouble in school these days. Ofcourse throughout history there have been kids with behavioral or learning problems, but I wonder whether today some of these issues are vaccine-related.

I have two neurotypical nephews with asthma (hitherto unheard of in prior generations of our family) -- one of whom is incredibly good at drawing, used to frequently line up his toys and have meltdowns over transitions, and is on a steroidal medication now because he was getting sick so often with cold viruses etc. When I tried to explain to my brother and sister-in-law why a yearly flu shot containing thimerosal may be bad for him, they said that they would ask their pediatrician about it, and when I tried to explain why they may not get the full story from their pediatrician they just gave me a blank look. Although I always circulate information about vaccines, etc., I live far away, don't see them very often, and I don't know whether they pay attention to my emails.

At least most of us reading articles on AoA have access to information about DAN! biomedical treatments, vaccine safety issues, etc. But it's really sad that parents of kids who may be more mildly affected by vaccines are generally completely oblivious to issues such as detoxification, flu shots containing thimerosal, mercury in dental amalgams, dietary intevention...

I've gotten pretty far away from the poop topic, but it just reminds me of kids I know who have milder digestive issues and milder learning, emotional, social, and/or behavioral issues. One of the unfortunate results of the resistance among gov't agencies and medical organizations and specialists to learning about vaccine safety issues and prevention and treatment of adverse reactions, and of the relation between digestion, the immune system, and the brain, is that not only are so many autistic kids not getting the biomedical treatments which could possibly benefit them, but more mildly affected kids may have completely unrecognized problems which are not being addressed.