Save your money and skip the speech therapist. Your pediatrician is an idiot. He's overreacting- and so are you. I've dealt with children - hundreds of them in my practice, and I can assure you ALL of them learned to talk by the time they got to school. Let me share with you a true story:
I was called in to help a mother who's 3-1/2 year old still hadn't spoken a word [it was her first child]. She'd tried everything and was terrified her little angel- we' call her Karen- wouldn't ever speak. I suggested mom ignore everything Karen did- all the signs toddlers make, all the grunts, all the tugs on her leg...everything, until she said a recogizeable word.
A couple days later I got a call from the mother. They'd had the in-law over for dinner, and everyone'd been firmly instructed to ignore little Karen unless she asked for something out loud. Karen tried to get their attention every way imaginable- except verbally. Then came dinner. Karen was getting more and more frustrated as things were being passed, and nobody was giving her what she wanted. All of a sudden Karen blurted out in perfectly clear English "GIVE ME THE DAMNED MAYNONAISE!"
They all praised her for her use of spoken words -ignoring the cuss word and mispronounciation, and the problem was solved.
If you simply calm down, stop making such a fuss and let things take their own way, your child will speak when they're ready - or when you make it impossible for them to get what they want any other way.
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As for the mother who wrote her child 'regressed after being vaccinated', and that 'vaccines cause brain damage', she is a few slices short of a full loaf. Vaccines DO NOT cause brain damage. Nor do they cause regression. However, there may have been another type of trauma that co-incided with the doctor's visit- the child may have been sexually or physically abused though you aren't aware of it. THAT type of change in a child definitely needs investigating!
As for not vaccinating a child, wait until you have your child come down with measles, mumps, whooping cough or worst of all, POLIO: these diseases are on the rise again after almost being eradicated, and we are seeing outbreaks growing in number each year. We've had epidemics the like not seen in 60 years because of parents who've been using Internet scare sites to guide these critical decisions instead of sound medicine, and listening to crackpots who get off on conspiracy theories & spout fake data on harm caused by vaccines - NONE of which is true.
Some parents are still afraid of mercury [Thiorosal] in vaccines: guess what- they took that component out of almost all vaccines over a decade ago! By not vaccinating your child you are not only putting them & other children at risk, but the elderly (including Nana and Gramps) at risk as well. I cannot begin to tell you the suffering some of these older adults have to go thru - some for the rest of their lives- after being exposed to chicken pox & developing shingles. Oh, and don't forget that chicken pox can cause severe scarring of the face and is unbearably itchy. The vaccine may not prevent chicken pox 100% but it can make the course of it lighter and shorter.
I suggest you check out the horrible consequences of contracting polio: many of those poor kids ended up on ventilators for the rest of their short lives(the old fashioned 'iron lungs') because of paralysis. Others were paraplegics or quadriplegics for life. Remember, there is NO cure for polio once contracted. 2007 & 2008 were the highest incidences of polio since 1977. You cannot tell if someone is a carrier by looking, and we have many, many immigrants and visitors from other lands - though- in all honest, since there are a rising number of US parents ignoring doctors' recommendations and thinking they know better than the CDC.
Or maybe Measles- how about deafness? One of the effects of Measles is sensori-neural hearing loss, caused as the disease attacks the sensory cells of the inner ear. Once hearing is damaged in this way, you DON'T get it back. The only treatment is - sometimes- hearing aids. Measles is a very nasty disease and has myriad effects on children, of which the permanent hearing loss is probably the least.
1:1000 children who contract Measles develop encephalitis - an inflammation of the brain. We have to put them into isolation in PICU, and give them high doses of Vit A, fluids, antivirals and prayer. THERE IS NO SPECIFIC TREATMENT FOR MEASLES ONCE CONTRACTED.
, blindness/bilateral cataracts, or learning disabilities that are almost impossible to treat?
You want to talk brain damage? Try mumps with it's sky-high fevers that don't come down with antipyretics such as Tylenol or Motrin - wait until your child as a 108 degree fever for three days - then see their learning abilities fail.
This is the reason children who aren't vaccinated are banned from schools- they are walking time bombs who endanger all the rest of the kids. I don't know which is worse: them living with the after effects of contracting these diseases, or dying young because of them.,
I hope you find out what really happened to your little one. But, regardless, it is unforgivable not to get your child vaccinated. I will pray your child -in your ignorance - does not suffer any fatal or lifelong harm, nor does anyone with whom they come into contact.
