The big question

Hello everyone,

Hope all is well. Things are good here. I am glad it's Friday, get to sleep in this weekend while I can. I hear that I won't be getting a lot of sleep for the next three months after peanut is here. And that's about a month away. Everyone is predicting when he's going to be here some are saying mid March others are saying a few days after the fourth. Who knows, he gets here when he gets here. Our appointments are getting closer and we have one coming up soon, as well as some more classes next week. So I am looking forward to the upcoming events.

As you may know, I work at a high school with autistic children. While working with these children, it can be both rewarding and challenging. Autism is becoming a more well known disorder, especially when the statistics show that 1 of 150 children (mostly boys) are born with autism. There have been many studies trying to link things to autism such as vaccinations, high fructose corn syrup, mercury, contamination of food, the environment, or even the water. But autism is a hard thing to diagnose. Most kids are not given the label of autism until around 5. So, could there be something that causes the disorder in the first 5 years? There is a new study showing that now genetics is playing a role in the disorder.

When it comes to vaccinations I have heard a lot of pros and cons. All I know is that they are important to get, to prevent diseases, but is there a limit? The other thing that I know is that baby's get more vaccinations now then when I was a baby and in bigger doses too. During the in-service meeting on 2/18 for BCRC the topic of what causes autism came up. This aide mentioned that their son can no longer talk after getting vaccinated.

The brain is a delicate organ and there are so many factors that affect how the brain functions. All I know is that there something going on that is causing this disorder. The more I work with these students and hear different reports, the more it makes me question things. Do I have to change the foods we eat, filter my water, move to a place that is environmentally safe, skip vaccinations? There is no possible way without living inside a bubble.