Jennifer was like any other baby. She developed like my two older kids, so there was no warning on that fateful day, when I took her to the doctor for a routine checkup and vaccinations. She was 13 months old, was already saying 2 words together and had started to walk over a month before. Then came the jab that changed all of our lives forever! A routine MMR (Measles, Mumps, Rebella) was given to her in the arm. She instantly began to scream! At the time, I thought it was just from the pain of the needle. After we had her home though, and 4 hours later the screaming became a continuous, very shrill high pitched screeching, and her little body became hot to the touch. I began to get very concerned. I called the doctor, who proceeded to tell me that it was just a normal reaction from the jab, and it should get better in a few hours. IT DIDN'T!!! As a matter of fact, it got worse! She became lethargic. This screeching went on for the next 4 days. After taking her to the Emergency room with a fever of 105, we were told the same thing by the young intern there, that it was a normal reaction to the vaccine and would subside in a short time, and to give her children's Tylenol every 4 hours.
When her temperature finally went down to normal again, there was something very strange that happened. My bright, beautiful little girl would not look me in the eye! Then I noticed that she would not stand up! She had reverted back to crawling again. The third thing that was alarming was that she stopped talking! She went back to babbling. It was pretty clear! That shot had hurt my baby! I took her to the pediatrician about a week later, and was told that it was "normal" for babies to regress before moving ahead. Maybe that is true, but this was very very different! It was a direct response to the MMR vaccine she had been jabbed with, and it was no minor regression. In fact, it lasted for a very long time.
By the time she decided to get up and walk again, she was 15 months old. The talking never did go back to the way it was. She started to talk again around 2 years of age, but it was not like before. It was all non-sensical verbages. She started repeating things like television commercials and entire shows, verbatim. She would not make eye contact with anyone. she would not let anyone hug or touch her, with excpetion of myself.
She was diagnosed at the age of 3 with Autism. It came about when I took her to a preschool and she refused to associate with the group of other children. Instead, she scooted on her rear end around the parameters of the room, and crawled under the tables. The teachers tried, but could do nothing to engage her attention. They suggested I take her to a pediatric neurologist. There it was confirmed! My daughter had autism. He suggested I put her on Prozac! It kind of shocked me, because that was for depression! When I asked him why, he said it would help to keep her "under better control". I flatly refused! I did NOT want to CONTROL my daughter! I wanted to CURE her! I gave up on the conventional doctors and medicine, and dove head first into anything and everything else I could get my hands on.
I quit my job as a Web Developer and my new life goal became an obsession to save my baby from the silent non-communicative world she had fallen into! I knew one thing, and that was that my baby, until the time of that MMR jab, had been developing like any other "normal" child, and I was determined to reverse the damage! I WOULD reverse the damage! There was something I could do for her out there, and I would find out what it it was! I would not give up until that time!
My days became filled with surfing the internet for any kind of information that had a glimmer of light. I was lucky because it took all of three days. I found a group of people who had autistic children who claimed to find many answers. I started going to Autism Conferences sponsored by different support groups such as CAN (Cure Autism Now), and the Judevine Center for Autism, as well as others. I read a book that really opened my eyes for the first time! It was called "Unravelling the Mysteries of Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorder" Written by Karyn Seroussi, a mother of a son who was autistic, and she methodically with the help of her husband, found multiple interventions that when used together, had remarkable results, beginning with Gluten and Casein free diet.
I slowly weaned Jennifer off of any and all dairy and wheat or gluten products. I had to do it slowly because of the danger of doing it too quickly could actually cause her to have withdrawal symptoms just like a drug addict when quitting drugs! I could see improvements almost immediately! It was nothing short of remarkable! Two days after the last time she at anything with gluten or casein in it, she looked me straight in the eye for the very first time in her 4 years of life and said "mommy I love you"! I was blown away! That was the beginning of her recovery. I used other suggested interventions as well, such as taking her to a doctor I found listed on the CAN website in my area, and he tested her for yeast intolerance and found she tested positive on 6 out of 7 yeasts! We took her off of products with yeast in it as well as processed sugars, and he put her on a pure form of Nystatin called Nilstat which is used for babies who have thrush (which is a yeast infection in the mouth). I also stopped vaccinating her for most things. I read the ingredients of everything that goes into her body, and if there is Thimerisol (this has mercury, a known poison to humans!) or any other preservative in it, I nix it!
The improvement continued. I could see things happening through the years, like her going to school, and actually sitting with the group and initiating a conversation. Most recently, my husband and I went to the Elementary School Graduation. We were both floored when Jennifer walked up to the podium, took the microphone and calmly and very clearly, made a short speech in front of about 300 people! The principal of the school openly had tears streaming down his face.
Today, Jennifer is an 11 year old 6th grader who is very bright, does well in school and has alot of friends! It is still clear after watching her for a time, that there is something slightly different about her, but it is not very noticable to her peer group and she feels accepted just like any other kid. There are still some characteristics that she has that are "autistic", such as taking things too literally, but nothing serious. Jennifer continues to recover, and will be a "Recovering Autistic" for the rest of her life.
Written by Diana smith
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
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