important article | Autism PDD

Okay, I'll give my 2 cents and a warning that unfortunately, I'm not in a happy state. we've been having "technical difficulties" with the school but here's my thoughts... it's proven that not one thing works for all children, my son has benefited from st, ot and particularly ABA,  I know many children that have not benefited from it, do i now throw it to the wayside because it didn't work for someone else? i tried the gfcf diet, i didn't see anything but i know for a fact that many kids do benefit from it. I'm doing and and the process of adding more vitamin therapy, do i see a difference, absolutely. I'm willing to do these things within reason and always under a doctors care. let the facts be known that unfortunately our kids suffer from a life long disorder that as for now, there is no known cause or cure, the future of my son rests on my shoulders. the answers are out there somewhere, unfortunately we have to find them on our own.shakes, you are totally right... as a mother, tho only thing I want is an answer...  lots of answers... I believe that autism is caused by different things in different children.  Perhaps for some it's due to allergies and "leaky gut", others due to vaccines, others due to genetic problems, others -- God only knows.  I think giving the diets a try (as long as one speaks with a physician first) is never a bad idea be/c it won't hurt anything and it may help. 

That being said, I don't think diets alone will make much of a drastic change ... these kids have symptoms that need to be addressed by therapeutic intervention.  Just like different things cause autism in children, I also believe that different therapies will work with different kids.  ABA will work miracles with some and barely have an effect on others.  It really is horrible that it seems it's such a crapshoot.  Hopefully someday, with enough research, 'they' will find the cure-all for this horrible disorder. Upon reading the article, I find it curious that the doctor denounces data based on anecdotal experience, yet uses his own anecdotal experience (the experiences of his autistic children) in order to do so!  He did not offer any stringent scientific research that the alternative therapies do not help.  All he said was that they didn't seem to be causing the progress he saw in his own sons.  No one says that alternative therapies will help everyone -- just some.

I don't mean to be controversial here -- just am pointing out what I see to be a flaw in the article.  Sorry!

I know I'm new to this board but I just have to give my opinion of this and hope that noone takes offense.  I pray that parents out there that read this article think hard before just immediately taking their child/children off of any diets or vitamins they are on after reading this article.  I am not saying this because my son is on a special diet or drugs.  Because he isn't.  We do NOT have him on the GFCF diet or any other.  Nor are we giving him any special vitamins.  However I do have a close friend whose daughter is also Autistic.  She is on the GFCF diet and god forbid she eats something not on the diet.  I have personally witnessed her stomach swelling up to look like she ate a watermellon after eating something she shouldn't.  And the pain she is in when this happens is horrible to witness.  She then immediately reverts back to the screaming upset angry child she was before being put on the diet.

I am not saying all autistic children should be on this diet.  As I said, my son isn't on it.  But I do believe that some children/adults with autism do need this diet in order to function.

I hope that any parent out there that decides to take their child off the diet does so by adding one food at a time in order to see what affects if any occur.

I loved that article. I feel so much better now that I didn't do all the diets that people kept trying to get me to do and just concentrated on the ABA therapy. It is great to get some information from a Dr who has been there and who makes mistakes too, just like us. Raggie, I hope you don't mind me taking your link and posting it in another thread. I think this article is very good, and I was afraid it would get lost in the thread it was originally in, and people wouldn't read it! I have been doing casien free with my boys for almost 3 years now. I have tried a little bit of everything, except ABA, which may end up being what we end up with. Who knows at this point, because I have to get their father to agree!

Anyway, I understand why we all try all sorts of crazy stuff, and i am still all for vitamins, and sensory stuff, OT, PT, ST. My boys get all of that. But this article kind of explains what I was trying to get at a few weeks ago, except this guy is much smarter, and is a doctor! So he writes much better than I do. Anyway, here it is:

http://www.autism-watch.org/about/bio2.shtml
 
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