Update on The Guy Who Started the Whole Vaccine/Autism Thing

Just a quickie to point you to an update about the “doctor” who started all the craziness about the SUPPOSED link between the MMR vaccine and autism. (My friend Esther runs the site — a smart cookie and a doctor to boot — look around her site a little bit, too): mainstreamparenting.com Remember, there are more »

New Info on the Autism/Vaccine Issue

In an interesting development in the ongoing saga of the alleged link between vaccines and autism, the medical journal The Lancet is retracting the original study that proposed the idea that the MMR vaccine could cause the disorder. If you’ve been a BabyShrink reader for awhile, you know my stand on vaccines: They’ve saved millions more »

Is Your Young Baby Showing Signs of Autism?

Hi Dr. Heather, I came across your website when doing a search for signs of autism in infants. Our 3-month-old doesn’t look at us very much, doesn’t track objects across the midline well, and doesn’t often respond to our voice. He stares at the wall or just beyond us pretty much anytime we hold him more »

Did Swine Flu cause Autism in my son?

There’s a lot of confusion out there about illness, the flu, vaccines, medications, and autism. This poor Mom is terrified that her son may have contracted Autism from a bout of Swine Flu. Here’s her email to me: Dear Dr. Heather, Please help. I saw your article on autism, and I am very intrigued and more »

The amygdala, babies, and Autism

Following up on yesterday’s post is an interesting new finding from the University of North Carolina, where researchers are confirming more evidence for an actual structural brain difference in babies with Autism. Please excuse the “science geek” in me, but this stuff is really important for us to understand. It will help us to better more »

Possible Autism Signs in the Young Infant

I’ve written before about the confusion and difficulty around the diagnosis of Autism in young children (before the age of 3). My regular readers know that I’m a strong proponent of Early Intervention screening, and also of early intervention therapy services. This means having your local Child Development center see your child BEFORE the age more »

Is It Autism?

*Please note: This post was updated by Dr. Heather on 11/22/2010 . Autism diagnoses are skyrocketing, but is the incidence of autism really increasing? Are there really more autistic kids out there than there were before? We don’t know for sure, but one major contribution seems to be the increasing recognition of developmental problems in more »