HappyChucks   For Families Navigating the Autism Waters

Last week, in the first of 3 cases to go to trial, federal health officials concluded that childhood vaccines contributed to symptoms of autism in a 9-year old Georgia girl (as reported by the Atlanta Journal Constitution.)

The details from the court case are not yet completely available, but the result is. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has concluded that the family of Hannah Poling, of Athens, GA, is entitled to compensation from a federal vaccine injury fund. The amount of compensation is still being determined.

Obviously, this is going to add fuel to the vaccination debate fire. It's going to get even hotter when we look at the week's events in total. Let's take a look at how the week unfolded.

1. Senator, and Republican front-runner for the presidential nomination, John McCain was quoted as saying "there's strong evidence" that thimerosal is responsible for the increased number of diagnoses. This brings up a wave of federal spin following Senator McCain's comments.

2. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Immunization Safety Review Committee all stated that no scientific evidence points to a link between the two.

3. The associate director of the American Council on Science and Health expressed disappointment that McCain seemed to be poorly briefed on the issue. "I would hope that, as president, he would have advisers who would get it right. I attribute this to a misstep rather than policy."

4. The program director of the Arizona Partnership for Immunization says "...It doesn't surprise me that someone would not completely understand what the science is indicating." The group advises parents to discuss any vaccination concerns with their pediatricians (and we already know what the American Academy of Pediatrics says. – emphasis mine.)

5. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services concluded that a family is entitled to compensation due to a vaccine's contribution to a girl's autism diagnoses.

Hmmmm. I wonder what Senator McCain really knew...

I'll stand by my article from last month – there are more questions than answers on this topic, and anyone who accepts the vaccination schedule as 100% safe across the board, dismissing any and all correlation between vaccines and autism, is probably earning a living from an organization who espouses that view.

Every parent wonders what their children's future is going to be like. Every parent of a special-needs child wonders about it even more, and often with angst.

Well, here's a story with a good ending. (hat tip to Judith at Autismville for finding this.)

Randy Lewis, a senior executive at Walgreens, has a son with autism, and knows not only that his son is capable of more than most people give him credit for, but that he will have a very hard time finding opportunities to prove it. Randy was able to use his position to tear down barriers, and to give people a chance to do some real work.

Does the apple fall far from the tree?

I recently read an article on nytimes.com which talked about families using a child's ASD diagnosis to make sense of family traits – idiosyncrasies the parents or grandparents had or have. (read the article online or as a pdf document).

I think every family does this to some extent, even families without any diagnoses. "He's independent, like his mother," or "She's very social, just like her dad." But it's probably done in more detail with families dealing with ASD, partly because we're looking so hard for answers, and partly because we've been trained to analyze behaviors.

Personally, I didn't know anything about varying degrees of sensitivity, until Sensory Integration was part of Calvin's OT diet. Now it's easier to explain why Cheryl likes deep-pressure massages, and doesn't seem to mind if her socks are bunched up, yet I can't stand massages at all, and get annoyed when my clothes twist or bunch.

It turns out that Cheryl & I are both "normal", but she falls near the Hypo end of the spectrum and I'm closer to the Hyper end. And now that we have 2 kids, it's obvious to see that both of them border on the edge of normal – Calvin used to be Hypo-sensitive but has made great progress, and Jonas can get upset over something seemingly very small, not quite hyper-sensitive, but close.

It's interesting to think about.