My little 18-month-old friend Brandon got his MMR a couple of weeks ago. I must confess, I was pretty concerned about it. For one thing, his father had died in Brandon’s first year of life from cancer. If genetic mutations have anything to do with susceptibility, this seemed like a possible problem to me. And his father had the fair-haired, blue-eyed Northern European profile that seems to go with trouble; he even had persistent skin problems that suggested autoimmune difficulties.
For another thing, Brandon had a bad reaction to an earlier vaccination, the DPT-and-whatever-else-was-on-tap-that-day series. He went home, fell asleep, and woke up screaming for three hours nonstop. This gentle, amiable, happy-to-go-to-bed-with-a-bottle-baby could not be consoled.
“Don’t worry,” the doctor said, “it’s just screaming baby syndrome.”
SCREAMING BABY SYNDROME? Now you tell me that enough babies scream inconsolably after vaccination that there is a recognized syndrome so common that it is met with a shrug by pediatricians, even though they never manage to mention anything that vivid and troubling in the office visit or on the consent form?
My little 18-month-old friend Brandon got his MMR a couple of weeks ago. I must confess, I was pretty concerned about it. For one thing, his father had died in Brandon’s first year of life from cancer. If genetic mutations have anything to do with susceptibility, this seemed like a possible problem to me. And his father had the fair-haired, blue-eyed Northern European profile that seems to go with trouble; he even had persistent skin problems that suggested autoimmune difficulties.
For another thing, Brandon had a bad reaction to an earlier vaccination, the DPT-and-whatever-else-was-on-tap-that-day series. He went home, fell asleep, and woke up screaming for three hours nonstop. This gentle, amiable, happy-to-go-to-bed-with-a-bottle-baby could not be consoled.
“Don’t worry,” the doctor said, “it’s just screaming baby syndrome.”
SCREAMING BABY SYNDROME? Now you tell me that enough babies scream inconsolably after vaccination that there is a recognized syndrome so common that it is met with a shrug by pediatricians, even though they never manage to mention anything that vivid and troubling in the office visit or on the consent form?
Continue reading "Olmsted On Autism: Oh, Just Another MMR Seizure" »