About Stuart Duncan

My name is Stuart Duncan, creator of http://www.stuartduncan.name. My oldest son (Cameron) has Autism while my younger son (Tyler) does not. I am a work from home web developer with a background in radio. I do my very best to stay educated and do what ever is necessary to ensure my children have the tools they need to thrive. I share my stories and experiences in an effort to further grow and strengthen the online Autism community and to promote Autism Understanding and Acceptance.
Author Archive | Stuart Duncan

Is There A Link Between Vaccines and Autism?

By on June 16, 2010 in Autism vs Vaccines

I get asked this a lot and I do stand on one side of the fence more than the other but I don’t usually like to get involved because I think all parents need to stick together regardless of what they believe. If you agree with that and do not wish to read further on, then I humbly recommend you stop reading and move on to another of my posts.

Now then, there’s far to much to cover in so many areas, I just don’t know where to start, however, I think most everyone that wants to know my own personal opinion is hoping that it’s not the last to be mentioned in some long winded summary… so here it is:

I personally believe that vaccines and Autism are not linked, that not only do vaccines not cause Autism, but they don’t even trigger it. Now, don’t close your browser if you disagree, and don’t just dismiss everything I say, I’m hoping to argue both sides of this and inject with my personal understandings and explain how I came to this conclusion.

Where to start? How about 1998!

In 1998, the Lancet reported that a new study had linked the MMR vaccination with Autism in children, sparking a worldwide panic and causing a lot of people to keep their children away from vaccinations. Since then however, the Lancet had retracted that report… most of us know why, if you do, skip the next 2 paragraphs, if not, here’s why:

Dr Wakefield, the doctor that conducted the study had only done the study on 12 children, and not just random children but children from a birthday party which he “rewarded” the parents for. Not only was this “control group” not really a control group at all but he conducted some experiments on them which were considered unethical. 10 of the 13 doctors that worked with Dr. Wakefield took back their findings.

It was also later revealed that he was paid 150 pounds per hour by a lawyer who was in the midst of suing vaccine companies to do the study, which is a rather large breach of interest. Due to all these things, his medical license was revoked and he has been barred from practising medicine in the UK ever again. Since then it’s also been revealed that Dr. Wakefield in fact had his own patent on his own vaccine which he was hoping would take the place of the MMR vaccine, making him a lot of money. Not to mention the book, the book which has gone on to make him a lot of money regardless of any of these controversies.

Now, don’t get me wrong… the arguments for the countless studies that deny the link are also rife with controversy, the latest study finding a link between genes and Autism apparently had some financial backing from large pharmaceutical companies.

I don’t want to make this part of it all one sided, there’s a TON that could make you question the studies finding there is no link, my opinion on this is DO NOT QUESTION ONE SIDE AND NOT THE OTHER!

It’s like this, I can’t take Dr. Wakefield’s findings or his book as the gospel and “the truth” despite there being a LOT of obvious controversy around it and then deny everything and anything on the other side of the argument. If all studies are funded by shadows on one side or the other, how can, as a side line viewer, possibly know which is true and which isn’t? I REFUSE TO BELIEVE THOSE THAT TELL ME WHAT I WANT TO HEAR BASED ON FAITH.

Again, not to seem to side with one side more than the other, I found this sattirical comic semi amusing and also well written as an attempt to simplify it: http://darryl-cunningham.blogspot.com/2010/05/facts-in-case-of-dr-andrew-wakefield.html

Fast Forward to Mercury (Thiomersal or Thimerosal)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiomersal#Autism

This was the big push, that there was mercury in the vaccine which is highly toxic and will mess up the brain and cause Autism. First of all, Thiomersal was removed in 1999 and the number of diagnoses continue to increase. Secondly, the ‘mercury’ that was found in it is not the same metallic stuff you used to find in a thermometer. That’s what we all picture, I even saw a youtube video of mercury being poured onto steel and compared it to what is in our heads. That simply is not the case.

However, I am no scientist and even the true scientists can not convince people of that so I’ll leave that alone for now and ask you this, how do those unvaccinated children become Autistic? What about the children in parts of the world where there are no vaccines at all? How do some children exhibit Autistic signs/symptoms before they ever get their MMR shot?

I also go into a few of my points here:  How Old is Autism?
I talked with friends how we had less vaccines as children than children do today, but then I think back to Temple Grandin and how she’s 60 now. How many vaccines did she have? Also, my grandparents had “special needs” children in their school, special classrooms to keep them in! How many vaccines did those children have? And further back than that.. was Mozart Autistic? Van Gogh? They didn’t even have vaccines back then!

There was a recent report on CNN which I found quite interesting where basically some women strapped an air examiner to their backs with a vacuum type air way near the mouth, and it analyzed the air they breathed. The conclusion? The toxins, including mercury, in their fetus corresponded to what they found in the backpack… the air they breathed did it!

The Vaccine Wars

There was a recent video on PBS called the Vaccine Wars, you can watch it here. It was very one sided, making the moms of the anti-vaccine out to be the bad guys, or just crazy… I’m not sure I agree with how the video was made, but I do agree with the conclusion.

An argument I hear a lot is “Polio is not a problem in the US so why vaccinate against it?” well, it’s not a problem BECAUSE of the vaccines. And it remains no problem BECAUSE of the vaccines. Have you ever killed all the mosquitos in your camping tent? Did another one find it’s way in later? More? You can’t expect polio to just stay where ever it is and not find it’s way back. It’s still out there and it’s looking for a way in.

The people in the US pride themselves on being a great nation that everyone wants to visit or live in well… those people may have polio!! I think that people have just forgotten how bad some of these things can be. Polio can leave your child paralysed or even dead.

Imagine you stopped vaccinating, and then you brought a newborn baby home to see it’s grandmother who was just riding out on a bus with a foreigner who just landed the day before and is carrying polio. Well, your grandmother, who was vaccinated, won’t get it… but will carry it to your newborn because that baby won’t get vaccinated for it until it’s 1 or 2 months old.

Same goes for whooping cough, mumps, measles and more… they can and do kill.

Conclusion

My first son was diagnosed with Autism, I saw it in him before his vaccination. When my second son came along 2 years later, people were quick to ask if we’d “take that chance” again. My wife and I had never even given it a second thought. We always knew that he’d be getting vaccinated as well, and he was, and he’s fine.

I am not unsympathetic… I realize your child may have been ripped away from you shortly after getting what you thought was a harmless needle. I also think, however, that if your child started coughing up blood and choked until they died, you’d be just as strong a fighter in favour of making sure future kids get vaccinated so that never happens again.

Your passion is your strength, your passion is your motivation and it can help you topple corporations and even governments, of that I have no doubt. However, if your passion is misguided… it can lead to death as well.

Don’t believe what you need to believe, believe the truth… and from where I’m sitting, we have no truth right now. Not yet. No one, not those that represent big corporations, not those that are paid off, not those that stand to make money, not those that say what we want to hear… no one has told us the truth. And that’s what we need to fight for.

Do I believe there’s a link between vaccines and autism? No, but I also know that I can be proven wrong. But being told what I want to hear isn’t proof.

PS

I’m sorry if you feel any anger towards me, think less of me, what ever… ultimately this is why I try not to speak up on this in the first place. We need to stand up together for truth, for awareness and for prevention. We need to be a united voice, not what we have now. Right now we’re split, divided and fighting amongst ourselves and the more we fight, the more passionate we get, the more we’ll rush out to buy books from both sides and line all of their pockets even more!!

While we’re divided, nobody wins but them.

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The Universal 3 Point “Guide on How To” When Dealing with An Autistic Person

By on June 15, 2010 in Autism

I’ve seen a lot of these ‘guides’ floating around, how to be their friends, how to think of them, what they wish they could tell you, etc… some are rather enlightening, many contain pretty common sense stuff that you should apply to everyone, not just someone with Autism.

The ones I find amusing, yet scary, are the ones that try to pad them out to be a nice round number like 10 or to sound like they have a “lot” to share with you by having a high enough number. But what I find even more amusing and scary is that every single one of these people know that no two Autistic people are created equal, therefore generalizing is a tricky thing to do. Not every child will react the same in every situation and thus, guidelines are exactly that, guidelines… not rules. Learn from them, don’t take them too seriously. How you interact with an Autistic person will vary.

Anyway, it was after reading a few of these that I summarized all of them into 3 simple points, which I tweeted in well under 140 characters and I think did a good job of summing it all up without generalizing to the point of excluding anyone… although, this will fall into the category of applying to everyone, not just Autistic people. So my apologies if you were expecting some ground breaking new way of thinking that pertained only to Autism.

Don’t Tell Me. Inform Me.

Autistic people can’t express themselves as well or at all, and they tend to take in information in a literal sense. For example, if you tell them that you feel like a pizza, they’ll picture you feeling like dough covered in cheese, sauce and pepperoni. Instead, say “I want pizza for supper.”

That being said, they’re not just robots that you can feed information into and tell them how to think. I think it’s fairly safe to say that if you’ve had any kind of extended period of time with an Autistic individual, you realize that you can’t force them to do anything or to think anything.

Give them the information they require to visualize and conceptualize for themselves and form their own opinions and decisions. My hope is that my son grows up to pick a political party on his own, based on the facts he learns and bases his vote on what he thinks is best. It’s not my place to tell him.

That brings me to…

Don’t Include Me. Involve Me.

I don’t think most people realize exactly how much of a difference there really is… I see this happen in regular programs with regular kids that try to “include” special needs children.  Most do a good job, but some feel that simply having the child there watching, or sitting close enough to the action, that they’re somehow involved.

The really great people are the ones who find a task or a way to get the special needs child involved. For example, on my videos page, there is a video of a boy who was the helper of the basketball team. He loved being involved, he loved being an important part of the team and when his time came, he laced up his shoes and became a star! It was because he was involved, not just included.

That brings me to the last one…

Don’t Judge Me. Accept Me.

I think this one pretty much speaks for itself, not just for Autistics but for all people who feel… out of the norm.

For me, when I think of this, I think as a parent would when I am out in public and my son loses his cool and throws a temper tantrum like only an Autistic person could. I see the other parents judge me and I think.. if they knew, it would be different.

Autism tends to lend itself to this very well because on the surface, most people don’t and can’t recognize there’s anything wrong beyond the person just being bad, dumb, silly… crazy even. Perhaps if a puzzle piece shaped scar appeared on children with Autism, this one wouldn’t be a big deal.

Stop looking at me, the parent… and stop whispering to the person next to you about how bad behaved my child is. Stop thinking my son is rainman, stop thinking he’s retarded….  just stop thinking about everything you’re thinking except… there’s a man with his son. Because that’s all we are.

So there you have it, all of the lists on all of the sites on all of the internet summed up into 3 little points. Autistic or not, young or old… practice these 3 things with the people you know. It’s not just a list of nice little words of wisdom, they’re the building blocks to friendship, to a community and to peace.

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How Do You Change The World For Your Autistic Child When You’re A No One?

By on June 14, 2010 in Autism

This is not a rhetorical question, I’m sorry if you are here hoping to find an answer… because I don’t have one. I’m kind of hoping that some of you will reply with some ideas because I’m fresh out. I don’t mean to sound like a downer, but let’s face it, we all want what is best for not only our own children but also for all those yet to be born, with or without Autism.

None of us are Superman, and even he can’t change the ways of man… the greed inherent in humans shows it’s ugly head to us every single day with oil spills, economic collapses built on risky wheeling and dealing at the top, pharmaceutical companies putting profits before health and so on and so forth. How does the average person like me contend with all of this?

I would like to think that if I stick with this blog, if I stick with my minuscule little presence in the ever growing online Autism community, maybe I will play some small role.. maybe my ever so tiny voice will be that last little bit needed to push the community voice from unheard to world changing… then again, I could win the lottery too.

Becoming part of the community has been great, I’ve met some wonderful people that truly are making a difference.. we all know how much awareness Jenny McCarthy and Holly Peete have raised, but they’re celebs. Some people have started up amazing organizations such as Autism Speaks but they’re philanthropists and entrepreneurs. One amazing dad is even running 60 marathons to raise awareness… but then, he’s good at that.

Me? I… hmm… I don’t really have any skills to speak of. I am not a doctor, scientist, athlete, celebrity, no business skills, don’t have a clue about raising money much less having a charity, I don’t have shirts to sell, no radio station, I don’t have wise words of wisdom, I have no real advice to give or knowledge to be writing articles/books and the list goes on and on. I’m just your average guy that started a blog with a terrible domain name and decided to jot down some of my experiences. That’s the best I’ve got and it… gets 20 visitors a day.

I feel so very lost in a world of great people doing great things while I sit here and try to write something positive.  I’ve written some pretty negative stuff actually, but I never do hit the publish button. It’s a bit like therapy at the time, get it all out, into words and then erase it. I figure, maybe I can’t change the world but I do know that bringing other people down won’t help, plus, that’s not the purpose of me sharing with you.

In the end, I guess all I can really ever do is do my best for my children. To always be there, always support them, always encourage them and just do my best to teach them right from wrong… and from there, I hope for the best.

I can’t change the world no matter how much I really wish I could… I can’t even make anything better in my own life. But I’ll never stop trying to prepare my boys for what is out there. I’ve missed my chances, if there were any… but my boys have a long life ahead of them filled with limitless possibilities.

Maybe they will change the world. I can’t do much, but I can dream.

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Sensory Issues – How Do They Affect You or Your Child?

By on June 11, 2010 in Autism

Sensory issues are often a bi-product of having Autism, an unfortunate little tag along issue that many Autistic people get to tack onto the rather large list of issues they already endure. They come in all shapes and sizes as well, much like the rest of Autisms little gems, some people can’t handle loud noise, bright lights, strong tastes… some simply can’t handle multiple sounds, flickering lights or any taste at all.

In our case, Cameron has a problem with loud noises and food textures. If we put on a movie too loud, or turn up the music, he’s the first to speak up about it being too loud. That’s not too much of a problem, we can keep it quiet… but it does mean things can be a challenge such as taking him to see a movie at the theatre.

The big issue comes from his food texture problem… there’s literally only a handful of foods that he will eat. He’s never eaten meat, except what we can grind up and hide in his food. He’s never eaten any fast food, refuses to even try french fries and doesn’t want to eat most vegetables. The only fruit he likes is bananas and won’t eat berries or nuts either.

Luckily, my wife is very creative and is very good at finding the foods that make up for these things, such as eggs, bananas, peanut butter and beans. These foods alone make up for almost all of what he’s missing and we can find ways to make up the rest… and we pad it with mashed potatoes and rice pasta, which he really likes.

But imagine, no gluten (wheat) and no casein (milk) and then take all meats (including fish and chicken) and almost all veggies… what’s left??

Quite literally, we find ourselves deciding on which of the 4 meals he’ll have for each meal… because that’s what it boils down to. We were quite concerned at first but after visiting a child nutrition expert and having all his blood levels tested, he’s doing just fine.

Sight and touch and other things seem to be right on par, or pretty close. It’s just the pesky food texture thing that drives us wild.

I’ve talked to a lot of other parents however that have other issues, such as having children that must wear special head phones to tone down the sound levels, or some that wear tinted glasses and even some where they virtually never touch their child.

On one hand, I curse this stupid Autism for already making life hard enough and then having to tack on something so dumb as this, just to make things more inconvenient… on the other hand, I kinda think it’s like having a super power, like Wolverine (xmen comics) where he has a heightened sense of smell, taste and hearing.. like an animal. Maybe my boy will grow up to be a super hero? taste texture man??  Uhmm… anyway…

If your child has not been diagnosed with Autism but has these types of sensory overloads that seem almost painful for them, definitely get them checked. It might not even be Autism as there are simply conditions dealing with sensory processing and sensory integration disorders.

Most importantly, I implore you, if your child can’t stand the lights, the sounds, the taste, the feel of something… it may seem trivial, or even stupid and you will likely feel compelled to just have your child deal with it… but it could be something so much more than that and you could be causing them real pain/discomfort. If you pushed them through something and found out later that it was a real issue, you’d probably feel pretty bad… it’s better to listen to your children and at least check and be sure.

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How Old is Autism? Is It a New Thing or Has it Been Around a Long Time?

By on June 10, 2010 in Autism

I’ve seen this question asked a lot around the internet, and have been asked by a lot of people “Why is there so many people getting Autism these days?”

Keep in mind, I’m in no way telling you that this is how it is, it’s just my take on what I know based on what I’ve read and come to my own conclusions…

A lot of people blame vaccines, if not for actually causing Autism in their child, then for at least triggering it or being the final straw that allows it to manifest and steal their child away from them. The reason I bring this up is that it, in my mind, distorts their perception of the origins of Autism. Naturally, no one knows what causes it exactly or how long it’s been around, but I’d venture a guess to say that it’s been around a lot longer than our vaccinations.

For example, just yesterday I was discussing with someone how, when we were children, we had a lot less vaccinations than kids do today. Which is true, but then I think to people like Temple Grandin who is now 60, which is near twice as old as I am and how little she must have had to endure in the way of vaccinations. Also, I know some people that are Autistic and never once been vaccinated. And Autism happens in countries where vaccination isn’t even available! So, perhaps it’s a reason for the spike in occurrences but certainly not the cause. So it’s safe to assume that Autism was around before vaccines became a big money grab for pharmaceutical companies.

My grandmother, who is 75, asked me why there seems to be so much Autism these days, to which my reply was… are you sure there’s more now? It was in that instant, as she asked me, that I started to really contemplate it. My first question back to her was “when you were in school, was there a ‘special education’ class where the ‘slower’ kids were put?” and she said yes, there in fact was. I think most of us can remember such a class or classes in our school.. some had a trailer which separated them from the building. She said that those children didn’t talk, or would scream a lot, or needed a lot of extra help in learning things. Hmm… that sounds familiar.

The whole notion of Autism wasn’t even around until 1910, and even then it was used to describe schizophrenia, until 1938 when Dr Asperger used it to describe a much more specific disorder, the one we know today. That seems far enough back but in fact, even then it was still considered just to be an anti-social thing that children had due to “refrigerator moms” not loving them enough.

In the meantime, people have said that Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Mozart, Van Gogh and more quite likely had some form of Autism… it’s impossible to be certain obviously, but if true, then Autism could date back hundreds of years.

Now, we come back to present day and ask, why is there more now? Well, I’m no scientist so I can’t tell you for sure that there is or isn’t more cases today just that, in my opinion, I think it’s mostly a matter of people becoming more aware. I know people right now who’s children are obviously Autistic, but they’ve never been diagnosed. The parents either are clueless, simply not aware of Autism at all or are in denial. I read all the time of children being diagnosed at 2, 5, 9… even 15 years of age.

Remember, the doctors give the official diagnosis that gets counted but it’s the parents that have to make the initial diagnosis. They’re the ones that have to recognize, accept and seek out the diagnosis from a specialist before their child is counted.

Going back 5, 10, 20 years ago, there were very very few doctors that could make that diagnosis, much less parents that could recognize it. I mean, it wasn’t that long ago that moms were told they were crappy parents and therefore the cause of it. Why would they go to a doctor to hear that?

Do I think that there are more cases now than 100 years ago? Sure, it sure seems like it. Do I think that there’s some force causing a huge fluctuation in the numbers? Not so much, and I’m probably mostly alone in this thinking but I think given it’s long history, given how parents are becoming more aware and seeking diagnosis more now than ever before, given that there are more doctors and facilities to make a diagnosis… the numbers will just naturally go up all on their own even if the actual number of Autistic children don’t.

The question is, if we could have every single Autistic person counted now, and count every single one 5 years from now, taking out all the variables such as parents who don’t know, the ones that have no way to get a diagnosis, the ones that are simply getting a diagnosis later in life…  would the numbers be that much different? And if so, how different?

I would love to hear what you think… did you have a special ed class where “slow” children were placed even though they were never “diagnosed” with anything? Do you believe that Autism is a new thing that’s just coming on due to vaccines or pollution in the air?

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