There has been a lot said recently, mainly in the medical press,( it has yet to reach mainstream news) that in fact the Dr was right about MMR and it can in fact cause autism.This fact in itself for some I am sure is a bitter sweet pill to swallow , for my self well my son was diagnosed before he had the MMR .We purposefully declined requests to have him inoculated with the MMR because of the reports at the time coming out of Japan saying that tests had shown a connection with MMR and autism.

So where does that leave me and my son. From the information, I can glean that autism is a condition in its own right, and that the MMR might exasperate it, say from high functioning to a more severe form. It is hard for me, a mere layman, to accept that autism is caused by a physical interaction within the child's stomach. But I am not in full possession of the facts, nor am I a scientist.I am sure the argument will go on for many years to come , as it is very difficult to define autism, let alone find the cause.

I am still of the opinion that our world is far to frenetic, with sights and sounds bombarding us from all angles. I would like to see an experiment were the expectant mother is kept in a calm and peaceful environment in the last months of pregnancy, without any access to television, radio, newspapers, and magazines and the order of the day and all days would be long walks enjoying the sounds of nature. Off course it is not really a scientific way to discover the cause of autism as there is no way of knowing if the child was going to be born with autism.But perhaps if all pregnancies were conducted in this way who knows the incidents of autism might start to fall.

I am under no illusion about the above,it is really just an impossible dream, but what I do know is that most of the therapy for autistic children , is designed to open them up and expand their understanding as if some where along the way they decided to close down, as a form of protection.I have witnessed my son shutting down when everything around him has become too much, as he gets older he does this less and less.But when it happens it is obvious something is happening deep within his thoughts.