MMR and Linked conditions

[venusflytrap]

Could anyone possibly tell me when Autism is supposed to start showing after an mmr. Also how it begins to be apparent. i realise many people don't believe the two are related anymore, but if they were.

im not an expert but autism is supposed to become aparetn around 18 months and because the mmr is the last jab given, it is the most questionable. i dont know the signs(thankfully)but i would think there would be dedicated sites, or other mums may have more knowledge? it's awful having to decide to have single or three in one jabs isnt it?its like playing god cos these 'experts' cant make up they're bloody minds!

The children who have regressed following MMR generally have a VERY strong reaction to MMR. The children I know have reacted with bad diarrhoea (which then stays for years) and waking in the night screaming and screaming. This has happened within days of the MMR. If you look up Paul Shattock on the internet there is something somewhere where he talks about the reaction- I think IIRC these strong reactions start within a matter of weeks of the MMR. At the saame time the children regress and lose skills.

Autism become more recognisable at around 18 moinths BUT BUT BUT the majority of parents would be able to look back and see whether early signs were there or not. For example I know that my son had some sensory issues with lights from early on. However his development was normal until he had a viral infeciton (nasty one- had a load of treatments) at 11 months. He was actually always a little ahead on social development. After that he stopped gaze monitering etc and began to lose skills (the most obvious being that he stopped speaking). By 17 months I would say he was well and truly autistic. The professionals continued ot tell me that "he definitely isn't autistic" until he was over 3. Now we argue about how severe he is

The number of children affected by MMR are probably in the region of 7% of autism cases- a very small number. HOwever they do show differences to other autistic children- and a urine test at Sunderland University (Autism Research Unit) can show that (my son was negative for the MMR marker- which wasn't surprising as he hadn't had it!)

Thankyou for posting, if an mmr was postponed until 3 and a half, then after 10 days the childs personality changed, to screaming, lying on the floor publically, waking up in the night, biting, hitting, blowing raspberries at people, staring into space, wetting the bed, could that be linked. Really well behaved child ten days ago, who has changed rapidly. It just doesn't seem like the same person.

i would go to gp and have achat about symtoms before thinking the worst, it could be a naughty stage (that we all know too well) or because feeling under weather from jab, just playing up?
would get it checked out asap even just to put your mind at rest. take care

Erm, signs of autism show at around 18mos in REGRESSIVE autism, not "progressive" (i.e. from birth) autism. As Jimjams says, parents of children with "progressive" autism, although they may not have seen clear signs until 18 mos or so could look back and see signs they didn't recognise before. Sorry, irrelevant to your question but autism CAN be spotted long before 18 mos depending on the type and severitiy.

Yes sorry Davros has made that clearer. My case confuses it a bit as ds1 had regressive autism - or at least has regressed to be as severe as he is. I don't think the early signs of sensory issues with lights were enough- but who knows? He definitely had a regression at 11/12 months- especially in social areas- but not sure he was regressing from totally NT. Also worth looking at family histories as sometimes autism itself seems to run in families, and in other cases autoimmune conditions (MS, tye 1 diabetes etc). The autoimmune cases appear (in my completely limited experience and very unscientific survey) seem to be more likely to be seen in regressive cases.

As for the case you mentioned- its difficult to say as none of those things are diagnostic of autism. Certainly reports suggest that children have regressed and become autistic following MMR preschool boosters- BUT those numbers are even smaller than the younger children.

I don't think a GP is much use in diagnosing autism- most know next to nothing about it. If you remain concerned though then you would need a referral to a developmental paed. Not worth talking to the medical professionals about MMR though as you won;t be listened to. However if yo u want advice from somewhere then you could email or ring the autism research unit in Sunderland here