Article: How I Gave My Son Autism

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http://www.realfarmacy.com/how-i-gave-my-son-autism/

Wow. Do you buy any of this? Does this woman really think that ALL OF THAT resulted in the worsening of her son's autism? I thought autism is worsened by a lack of therapy and social opportunities.

This is what happens when you take every health news article too literally like my mom does...even the stuff that contradicts the other stuff.

Unfortunately society has it backwards these days. People think their opinions are facts and science is opinion.

no one here buys that

That woman is crazy.

well, as autistic advocate i am getting that kind of f@# up crap from many moms of autistic children,alot of parents are harmfull to they autistic children dou to the fact that they are thinking that they opinion is the most important and autistics like us cant decide for ourself,but the truth is that almost every autistic I KNOW is completly independed and a prominant student (well it because i in the program for gifted autistic youth ) but you getting my point

As the mum of a child with asd I meet a lot of these types and I have to say I find them quite annoying! There's little evidence for any of those things being a factor and on a personal level I know my son had many signs before his vaccinations. I also had the standard 2 ultrasounds with him whereas I had tons with his sister due to a suspected kidney defect and she doesn't have asd. She also had the mmr.
I think some people desperately need answers and clinging to the hope of a cure just gets in the way of them enjoying all the fantastic things about their kids. I wouldn't change my son for anything - he's not damaged or in need of a cure.

Most of what this woman cites occurs post-natally or too late in gestation to significantly contribute to autism. The neural tube develops about the 3rd week of pregnancy and the primary period of brain differentiation and development is during the 4th-6th weeks of gestation (the same time the face is developing, which is why folks with congenital craniofacial syndromes, such as myself, are much more likely than the general population to be on the autistic spectrum). This means that autism must be genetically rooted or result from damage to the embryo occurring very early in pregnancy (for instance, thalidomide exposure caused an increase in craniofacial deformities in association with autism during the time it was legal). Unfortunately, most women are not going to know they are pregnant by the time the damage is done when there is an environmental cause, but I believe research will come to demonstrate that genetic errors are behind most cases of autism.

That lady is an idiot. She's typical of a certain brand of non-evidence based medicine crackpots. I blame Oprah.

I always thought it was microwave ovens, but fluoride could be the culprit - not.

I feel a bit sorry for her.... she's probably looking for answers because she can't cope with her son's autism or process her emotions around how she feels about him - unfortunately she's looking in the wrong places and there are plenty of cranks ready to prey on the emotionally vulnerable. With all that Catholic guilt in the mix too she's a prime candidate. She could probably do with some support in her daily life and a chat with someone who understands what's really known about the aetiology of autism.

I think amateur psychology's turning me soft

That woman needs to get her head on straight and accept her child as she is. I apologize to everybody if my reply sounds harsh. She seems like the type who picked on her special needs peers in Grade School and she never grew up. Is she a distant relative of Jenny McCarthy by any chance? The two of them would hit it off in the Crazy House.

Just to clarify, I also feel sorry for her son if she views him as ‘damaged goods’ or if as a result of her misguided beliefs she’s practicing any sort of crank therapies on him, but she’s not actually said anything to that effect here…..in fact she’s described him as “a beautiful seven year old”, not the bane of her life. Therefore I wouldn’t like to second-guess how she treats him on a daily basis. The chances are she may just feed him organic food and use natural products around the house, neither of which would be a bad thing.

The reason that I said I feel sorry for her is that the overarching theme that shines out from this ‘article’ is her mental instability, and the way that some obsessive beliefs, no doubt promulgated by a particular group of cranks with their own agenda, have led to such a degree of guilt over her doing perfectly normal things, that she feels she deserves to be punished. She’s not claiming that her son is her punishment – she’s looking for forgiveness for the pain that she believes she has unwittingly caused to her son. The woman is mentally unwell and needs some help and support, and while people from communities such as this condemn her for this she’s being driven evermore into the welcoming arms of the crazies.

Has no one also considered that she may not be 100% NT herself? She seems to have put an inordinate amount of effort into researching and making public what could easily be construed a special interest. And I’m sure all of us here know what a ‘one track mind’ people on the autistic spectrum are prone to when we find a topic that excites us or that we feel we can relate to.

In conclusion, I still believe that with support and not condemnation from people who have a fuller understanding of autism, she might gain some insight into what’s really going on, both with her son, and with her own delusional belief system, which has no doubt been exacerbated by her catholic upbringing and the ‘support’ of the wrong kind of people. With the right kind of support to help her find a path through this web of delusion and self-hatred, I’m sure that both the lives of her and her son would be improved.

I understand that this is a thorny issue but I’m sure that most people here over the age of 40 could look back in horror at things we believed or ways that we behaved when we were younger, often under the influence of others.

I’m sorry if this pisses anyone off, but if we make no effort to even try and understand why people are the way they are, then we’re in no position to help anyone, including all those kids out there who are being treated as damaged goods by their messed up parents. It also makes us bigots.

i have a neighbor like this.