Thanks for visiting! I was diagnosed with autism when I was 14, but autism is usually diagnosed in the first 6 years of life. Check out my autism awareness website, which includes some facts about autism. I'm planning to put some stories from my childhood and middle and high school years on my site. I have the beginning of my story with baby pictures at
this link. You may join my mailing list below to be notified of updates. Also join the mailing list Schafer Autism Report on the left to receive the latest news. I will not share, sell, or rent your e-mail address to anyone.
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Children and adults with autism have trouble communicating or interacting with people or making friends. I can communicate in an e-mail typing better then in person or over the phone. Hopefully I'll be able to overcome that when I get a job. People with autism have it for life. Autism can range from a severe to mild disorder, everybody with autism is different. I have mild autism or I think I have classic autism which is present at birth even through I was diagnosed years later. Most of the time autism is present after 15 months or 2 years after the child received their vaccinations. Click here for more about that. If you have a child that changed after receiving vaccines, sign my guestbook, and let me know. I'll be willing to start putting stories about vaccines turning into autism or ADHD or any disorder on my site, e-mail me at ericalsome@hotmail.com for information.
Some people with autism may be very good at math or music or drawing. The movie Rain Man is about an autistic man who did big number calculations in his head in a few seconds, like what is 147,476 * 579,936 = and that I don't know, for me I'll need a calculator to do that. Also he counted a spilled box of toothpicks (spilled on the floor) in just a few seconds. Most parents don't see their autistic child as like him. I listen to music on the radio or CD, but don't perform music, and I'm not a good drawer. Have you ever thought of autistic people (same as autism) of like Artistics? (Autistic isn't the same as Artistics.)
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Dr. Leo Kanner was the first doctor to identify autism in 1943 when he described 11 self-absorbed children who had "autistic disturbances of affect contact." Autism is known as a Syndrome disorder, and can be called the autism syndrome, autistic, autism spectrum, autism, autistic disorder, or Kanner Syndrome, but most people don't call it that anymore. Another similar and related disorder called Asperger or Asperger's Syndrome was first identified by an Austrian doctor named Hans Asperger in 1944. The only difference between Asperger and autism is kids with asperger's start talking at a normal age and is usually diagnosed later. I didn't start taking in at least 2-3 word sentences until I was 5 years old. I didn't say that much when I was 4. People with autism may never talk. They can be reaching their teens or in their teens or my age (23) and still haven't said a word all their life. My autism is probably one of the mildest then others. My first words were from the hit song "I wanna know what Love is" from the early 80's. When that song was playing, after they sung "I wanna know what Love is," I said "Show me" and I sung along with the song. It's kind of odd a 5 year old would want to know what love is or would relate to a love song.
In the mid 1940's autism was only diagnosed in children who's parents had professional jobs and were rich and wealthy. For that reason, doctors thought autism was caused by bad parenting and they thought the parents worked a lot and didn't give their child the love and affection he/she needed, which caused him/her to shut off to the world. In those years, childhood vaccinations weren't given to all children and they weren't free. Poor families weren't likely to get their children vaccinated. The rich and wealthy families were likely to get their children vaccinated. In the 1960's, doctors saw that autism being caused by bad parenting wasn't the case.
Vaccinations can have side affects (just like any medication) which most of the time the doctors don't tell you. Vaccinations were made with Thimerosal. Thimerosal contains about 50% mercury. Mercury is very toxin and is a known cause for neurological problems and birth defects. Aluminum is the second toxin ingredient in vaccines. I believe the government made a mistake and is continuing making mistakes letting mercury and aluminum and other toxic metals in vaccines.
You may of heard the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) finally requested the drug companies to phase out the use of Thimerosal in children's vaccines in the summer of 1999, but it wasn't till the summer of 2001, the IOM planned to make children's vaccines Thimerosal free and it wasn't till October, 2001 when IOM requested all vaccines for children with Thimerosal that are still left on the selves be destroyed or removed and not used. But did the drug companies compile, I'm not sure they did.
The flu shot that the
CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) may start recommending for kids contains Thimerosal and I read there's still a lot of other vaccines that contain Thimerosal. The bill and petition above will make ALL vaccines Thimerosal-mercury free.
The flu vaccine may not even be effective. Click here to see articles from Dr. Mercola's website on that issue and other issues. My Causes Page has more information and a link to a Mineral Check to check the hair for 9 toxic elements including mercury and 11 minerals and also a links page.
All what the drug companies care about is money and profits. That's probably why we have so many vaccines for our children. They even have a Chicken Pox vaccine. I read 99% of children that get Chicken Pox are OK.
What they should of done is demanded those Thimerosal contained vaccines be removed in 1999 or even earlier. I don't know why the government thinks it's OK to inject a toxic chemical in babies. After vaccines were added in 1988 and 1992 to the recommended childhood immunization schedule, infants were exposed to 60-125 more times mercury for adults then the
EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) daily maximum safe guidelines from the recommended childhood vaccines. In the early 1990's autism diagnosis started to increase. Thousands of United States and United Kingdom families can show with videotapes and photos that their children were normal prior to being vaccinated, had reacted badly to the vaccines, and become autistic shortly thereafter. Vaccines are also known at causing a lot of other disorders and conditions. Check out this page for more.
If you are a parent or going to be a parent, I suggest you ask your doctor for a list of the ingredients in all vaccines and packing slip information. Also make sure your child receives Thimerosal free vaccines. I read vaccines in the United Kingdom and other counties still contain Thimerosal. I also heard of single vaccines for the MMR (one shot for measles, one shot for mumps, and one shot for rubella) might be available upon request. It just depends on if you have a doctor who is willing to get them for you. A child can be exemptedfrom get vaccinated if their is a family history of vaccine reactions (which most of the time I read the doctors don't ask) or a child may receive a religions exemption to vaccines, which nearly all children qualify for and you don't even have to belong to a church. Click here to read this.
Also childbearing women and infants should avoid seafood with mercury, such as tuna. Childbearing women should also avoid dental fillings that contain mercury.
I think the first vaccine reaction reported was in 1985. Vaccine reactions do go unreported, because parents don't know to report them and doctors don't listen when parents complain about a reaction. They (doctors) say it's normal, it will get better, or it'll pass. Infants had also died after a shot or series of shots. They usually write the cause of death as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Click here to read this story. I guess I'm glad to be alive! The government says the number of children that die following a vaccine is small, and they don't tell the public of course about the children that died following a vaccine, because they don't want parents to stop vaccinating their children. I think the parents should decide weather to vaccinate their children or not.
I read the Government could have known mercury in vaccinations were dangerous. Click here to read this!
I think vaccinations is a joke. Do you know how many shots are given to a child in today's world? 33 shots! I had 11 and that was 20 years ago (5 DTP's, 5 polio's, and 1 MMR).
I know what your thinking, everybody gets those vaccinations and if the mercury in vaccinations does have an affect in autism, then why doesn't everybody have autism? Well, maybe everybody does! - just kidding. Everybody's immune system is different and I think not all infant's immune system can handle all those vaccines. Infants may also be sensitive to mercury or Thimerosal. I think the kids born in the 90's that don't have autism are lucky. Click here to read this!
Autism happens in the brain, which as I read has over 100 billion nerve cells and I read some of those nerve cells in people with autism are either damaged or didn't fully develop, which those missing cells causes our autism symptoms. I also read their may be up to 3 to 20 genes involved in autism. They are either missing or got damaged. Click here to read about how a baby comes into the world!(link is from outside of my site)
The obvious reason for my autism is because the umbilical cord was wrapped around my neck when I was born, which stopped or slowed down the oxygen running up to my brain and I was blue. My parents told me this and I saw pictures of when I was just a few seconds old. But I've heard a lot of kids, actually 1 out of 3 are born that way and never have any problems or get diagnosed with autism or anything. It might depend on how tight the umbilical cord is around the baby's neck and how fast it is taken away. The umbilical cord around my neck when I was born probably didn't help any as far as my autism. I probably been diagnosed with autism anyway if the cord wasn't around my neck. Who knows!
I've been on a dairy (casein) and wheat (gluten) FREE diet since the summer of 1998 not counting the times I cheated! The times I cheated after several months on that diet, I could really feel it in my brain! Dairy and wheat is not good for my brain and also other people with autism. This diet has also helped those with ADHD or ADD. Click here for a list of disorders that people can possible benefit from that diet. Yeast can also be a problem. I've read Yeast can cause hyperactive in autistic children.
Dairy caused me to be not as smart as I could of been in school. After I started the diet I passed a test that was required for me to get a regular diploma instead of a special ed diploma. So, I'm glad my father read about that diet or I wouldn't be where I'm at today. I probably would still be autistic, sometimes I think I'm not autistic anymore after I started the diet. Especially the dairy (and also wheat) made me autistic. I know that the dairy-wheat affecting my brain is hard to believe. I read I may have Leaky Gut Syndrome. How you ever heard of that? It's hard to explain so please click here (link is from outside of my website) My mom said she couldn't believe that I actually can compose things like this website that I couldn'tcompose anything or had a very hard time and my mom had to help me with my homework when I was in middle school and early years of high school before I started the diet (summer of 1998, after my 10th grade year).
www.notmilk.com has research and articles that milk has or causes Fats, Antibiotics, Viruses (not computer viruses, lol), Cancer Fuel, Cholesterol, Bacteria, Toxins, Feces, Obesity, Heart Disease, Cancer, Diabetes, Asthma, Bad Behavior, ADHD/ADD, autism, etc. Other sites to visit are www.milksucks.com - is a good site &
www.nomilk.com.
If you have troublesigning my guestbook or posting on my guest map, please e-mail me your comments at ericalsome@hotmail.com Thanks! The Guest Map is a map of the world that you can pin an icon on your state or country. If you have problems viewing the Guest Map,
please e-mail me.
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If you have a Web Site or Homepage, please add it to my FREE website links section! (Doesn't have to be autism related.) If you would like to have a website, but don't know how to make one, there are several free services. The easiest for beginners would be http://geocities.yahoo.com. They have a page builder to design the site and no experience needed. There are a lot of resources on web design,
do a search on my search page. Also the top rated user friendly website tools isbelow (which I use), Bravenet, look to see what you can get on your website! Daily Cartoons, Greeting Cards or even your own chat room and more! Also feel free to check out
Ooops... Wrong Planet Syndrome website below, yep, I feel like I'm on a different planet sometimes. Autistic Society link below is a community of parents with autistic children.
