Not too long after praying for God to show us whether or not to immunize James with the MMR, the Lord answered in a great way. Jim is not on Facebook anymore, but during this time he came across a friend from high school named Jennifer Hall, who is now Jennifer Young. Jennifer had a YouTube of her little girl with pictures that clearly showed her regression immediately after the MMR vaccination. After he saw this, Jim started hearing more about other children who had done the same. He decided that we should not vaccinate James anymore.
Things went along well with James for the next few months, though, as I said in a previous post, as time went on we could tell his speech was not where it should be for his age. He often switched his words: I have the cutest video of him on a rocking horse saying, "haw yee, haw yee," instead of, "yee haw!" He also answered, "no," to any question we asked. He couldn't make sounds for animals, and would name the animals wrongly if at all. He would try to sing, but he couldn't get the words out. I wanted badly to mark this up to slow development, but my gut was telling me otherwise. As one of my favorite books on the subject says, "Mamas know." (Healing the New Childhood Epidemics: Autism, ADHD, Asthma, and Allergies: The Groundbreaking Program for the 4-A Disorders by Dr. Kenneth Bock)
I believe without a doubt that the answered prayer which led us to refrain from getting the MMR shot for James kept us from a totally regressed child. I am so thankful for it! I am indebted to Jennifer for her love of others to care enough to put together that YouTube. It totally changed our course, I am sure.
With regressive autism, there seems to be a particular event that is the, "straw that breaks the camel's back." I'll tell you about our straw soon.
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