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COPYRIGHT 2002 Mothering Magazine
Will was the perfect baby. He ate and slept well, played, walked, and talked, alt by one year. Shortly after his first birthday, however, things changed dramatically. He developed multiple infections, including strep throat, rotavirus, and an upper respiratory infection, the latter requiring hospitalization. It was at this time that he began to regress. He lost speech, interaction, and eye contact. Although he was often in his own little world, he remained very affectionate and loving.
Will was evaluated for his unexplained regression with an MRI, sleep study EEG, ABR (brainstem evoked hearing test), and chromosome studies. He even had tympanostomy tubes inserted in his eardrums, all without any answers or improvement. When I asked one doctor what to do next, he said, "Why don't you just take your son fishing?" Well, I took his advice and went fishing--fishing to find some answers to what had happened to my perfectly normal son, what had taken him away. Until one day I felt as if I finally had a bite on the line.
I'll never forget it. I was reading my e-mail and came across a post from Families for Early Autism Treatment (FEAT), stating that the FDA had determined that "Infants who received thimerosal-containing vaccines at several visits may be exposed to more mercury than recommended by federal guidelines for total mercury exposure." It took...
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