The Age of Autism: Julia

The Washington Times ^ | April 19, 2005 | Dan Olmstead

[agsloss]

Part 2 of 2. Three-year old Julia is napping when I arrive at the spare, neat, cheerful house on Musser School Road near the town of Leola in Lancaster County.

[snip]

In the last column, I wrote about trying to find autistic Amish people here in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country, and noted there should be dozens of them -- if autism occurs at the same prevalence as the rest of the United States.

So far, there is evidence of only three, all of them children, the oldest age 9 or 10. Julia is one of them. I found out about her through a pediatrician in Richmond, Va., Dr. Mary Megson. I had been asking around for quite some time about autism and the Amish, and she provided the first direct link.

[snip]

Here is what she said, verbatim:

"Unfortunately our autistic daughter -- who's doing very well, she's been diagnosed with very, very severe autism -- is adopted from China, and so she would have had all her vaccines in China before we got her, and then she had most of her vaccines given to her in the United States before we got her.

"So we're probably not the pure case you're looking for."

Maybe not, but it was stunning that Julia Inion, the first autistic Amish person I could find, turned out to be adopted -- from another country, no less. It also was surprising that Stacey-jean launched unbidden into vaccines, because the Amish have a religious exemption from vaccination and presumably would not have given it much thought.

She said a minority of Amish families do, in fact, vaccinate their children these days, partly at the urging of public health officials. {snip}

[agsloss]

This is the second part of a series questioning why autism rates are so low in the Amish community (which has a very low vaccination rate).

[LibertyThug]

read later bump

[tiamat]

My daughter Caitlin is PDD-NOS

( a nice way of saying "Mildly Autistic")

Bumping this and thanks

[Incorrigible]

Interesting angle on the link between vaccination and Autism.

I am one of the people that remains unconvinced but I agree with further study.

[keats5]

My adopted son from Kazakhstan was diagnosed with "Pervasive Development Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified," which is related to autism. He got some immunizations in Kazakhstan, and some here. We adopted him when he was about three years old, and he seemed strange in a lot of ways. He didn't feel pain, had a blank expression on his face, had no clue how to cuddle, repeatedly fell, etc.

The first year here he grew an amazing six inches! He underwent occupational therapy to counteract the effects of sensory deprivation he experienced in the orphanage, and within a year he was a pretty normal kid. He's 15 years old now, and he's just fine, except he's not much of a talker.

I think orphanage kids have a lot of autism like symptoms because they're orphanage kids. There may also be an immunization correlation, but one can't overlook the orphanage angle as well.

[Incorrigible]

Looks like there was a previous thread:

The Age of Autism: The Amish anomaly

[VOX9]

Do you have a link to part one? I searched their web site but it did not show in the results.

[tiamat]

I can't tell.

I got my daughter vaccinated with all of the stuff you are suposed to in this country..

If it IS the vaccine... and since she is highly-functioning, I guess I have to weigh which is worse... her mild autism or the diseases the vaccine are supposed to prevent.

i don't know.

[VOX9]

Thanks!! I was looking for that!

[afraidfortherepublic]

...pediatrician in Richmond, Va., Dr. Mary Megson...

My grandson wastreated by her -- was a subject in one of her studies. She put him on a gluten-free diet after the study was over, but nothing really has helped. That is, nothing until he changed schools and moved to NY. His NJ school was strict ABA and very rigid. He spent all of his time crying there.

He is now in a private placement run by Catholic nuns (with lay teachers) in NY and he is so much happier and doing so much better. Now he just loves to go to school -- wants to go every day.

My daughter definitely believes that the vaccines damaged him. Dr. Megson's theory is that the vaccines given too early (and the pediatricians all give too many, too early) damage an immature digestive system which makes it difficult for the child to process the vitamins in his food. She calls it a leaky gut syndrome.

[GovernmentShrinker]

The Amish are a very inbred group, IOW a very distinct genetic profile. I expect you could find a lot of other conditions that either less prevalent or more prevalent among them, than among the general population. There are also a huge number of environmental factors that would be different among the Amish than among the general population: what kind of chemical fertilizers, if any, do they use on their crops? what kind of cleaning substances do they use in their homes? what kind of preservatives do they consume in their foods? how much radiation do they get from TV and cell phones? How often do they take over-the-counter painkillers or antihistamines? How much gasoline or oil exhaust fumes from engines and furnaces do they inhale? How much synthetic substances do they inhale or ingest from household items like synthetic carpet, foam rubber cushions, plastic food containers, vinyl flooring and wallcovering, flame retardant-treated children's sleepwear, plastic-latex baby teething rings? How much physical activity do mothers get while pregnant? Vaccine use is just one of many, many environmental differences that this group has.

[agsloss]

Here's part 2, per your request.

[expatpat]

which is worse... her mild autism or the diseases the vaccine are supposed to prevent.

As a pre-vaccination survivor of those diseases, I'd have to say the first, without a doubt. Of course, times have changed and rubella is now harder to catch when young, but still....

[expatpat]

which is worse... her mild autism or the diseases the vaccine are supposed to prevent.

As a pre-vaccination survivor of those diseases, I'd have to say the first, without a doubt. Of course, times have changed and rubella is now harder to catch when young, but still....

[tiamat]

Well, one way or the other, I live with it.

and so does she.

[WV Mountain Mama]

We have a farm that we lease to amish and they live in the house as well. They are not allowed to have a tv, let alone a cell phone. The kids are in clothes that is hand made and doubtfully flame retardent. I know they use fertilizers, but am not sure what they use. The women get loads of exercise while pregnant in the form of manual labor, and could probably knock out most men with one punch. Most of their food is canned, including deer meat, so whatever it takes to can food, they eat it. I think a furnace is frowned upon and they use wood burning stoves as far as I have seen in the house we have. I have no idea what they use to clean, but they have wood floors and those braided rugs in our house. I can also tell you that the amish population where our farm is has a high rate of downs syndrome.

[frgoff]

Actual, controlled studies have shown no link. I often wonder why people want to find someone to blame for their child's autism.

[GovernmentShrinker]

I can also tell you that the amish population where our farm is has a high rate of downs syndrome.

Probably because they don't use contraceptives, or any other measure to try to limit late child-bearing. Nor do they use pre-natal testing to identify and abort Downs syndrome fetuses. If older women have babies (the natural way) there will be a high incidence of Downs syndrome -- same for Amish and non-Amish women.

[WV Mountain Mama]

Let's face it, there is also a certain level of inbreeding. Although, I have heard that they are trying to get some new blood by way of "swapping" with other communities across the state and Ohio. I am not sure if this is true or not though.