My name is Meg and I have a 10yr old daughter with Autism...

My name is Meg and I have a 10yr old daughter with Autism spectrum disorder, her name is Madeline. My daughter has never had a vaccine, a decision I made shortly after she was born, after much research. Madeline was diagnosed at the age of 4yrs. She was developing fairly normally as a baby however, instead of getting easier, looking after Madeline became increasingly difficult from about 6-9 months. She would get very distressed going anywhere and became very fussy with her food. Although she spoke individual words at the appropriate time, her speech development seemed to stall, no matter how much I would correct her. Madeline didn't interact much with people, became obsessive about her food and lined her toys up. She has also had chronic constipation and poor digestion. I truly believe if Madeline had been vaccinated her functioning would be a lot poorer. Now, at the age of 10, she functions very well. This is after years of speech therapy, homeopathy, osteopathy and psychological therapy, not to mention a lot of patience and love. Madeline attends a mainstream school but does have the assistance of an aid in the classroom for some of the sessions. She has some social challenges which we continue working on. Recently Madeline has had some investigative testing for the first time in her life. Her results showed she was extremely low or undetectable in mercury, lead and heavy metals. I have often wondered what it is that has caused my daughter to be on the spectrum as in her case it obviously wasn't vaccination. I believe vaccination can exacerbate or trigger autism in vulnerable individuals but I don't believe it is just one thing that causes autism- its a combination of factors. I am glad to be living in a time and place where there is so much information and awareness.