Biomedical Treatment for Autism?

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Just wondering if anyone has tried Biomedical Treatment? Or if anyone had any thoughts on it? Does it work?!

I see a lot of views and no replies...

When my DS (now age 12) was first DXd (classic autism, moderate; intellectual delay), and we were terrified for his future and denying our own pretty obvious Aspie-ish-ness, my husband and I actually took DS to a DAN doctor. Would you believe this doctor was recommended by our SDC class teacher? I didn't ask, she brought it up and was even doing some sort of paper on the subject.

The office was filthy. It smelled like dogs. The floor was sticky. The DAN doctor suggested GF/CF. (Duh, because we hadn't already read that curebie parent battle cry nine thousand times on the internet? Actually, today DS is GF and it helps his sensitivities tremendously...but it certainly doesn't alter the fact that he's autistic or anything, LOL. Didn't expect it to, though...we did it b/c of reactions he seems to have when he eats wheat.)

Then this doctor took a snippet of DS's hair to check for Weird Poisoning Du Jour (what was it at the time that was so big, mercury maybe?) - and to check for other "deficiencies" or poisonings that might be "causing" our son's autism.

He also asked us a lot of "aha!" questions, such as: had DS had tooth fillings? No. DAN doctor taken aback for a split second before trying to aha me, "But have YOU had silver fillings?" Yes. "They most likely leeched into your son's brain during your pregnancy via the placenta" or some-such. He seemed to have a follow-up "aha" for everything...I'm not trying to be cynical...we WANTED to like this guy, we went there with the best of intentions. Anyway...

So this doctor called with the results of the hair sample some time later and said DS was deficient in silver and tried to sell us a huge jug of colloidal silver plus one of those magnesium calming drinks. I don't know what happened but something just clicked...I thought: Here we are being sent to witch doctors because "Big Pharma was just after our money!! !" - and being charged by the non-Big Pharma doctor out the wazoo, something like $350 out of pocket just for that one visit and "hair analysis" and then the silver was $35 or something and the "calming drink" was $30 for a two-week supply, we were supposed to keep coming back regularly for more sticky bottles with dirt on them from their dirty closet in their dirty office. Good thing those curebie docs aren't money-hungry like Big Pharma...

That was pretty much it. Our foray into curebie-land, quick and suffered a quick and well-deserved death. (DS began speaking on his own shortly afterward, BTW. At that time he was going on four.) Today DS takes fish oil (both my little ones do...I do too, when I remember to; I just think it's good for us, we don't eat much fish) and a "regular kid" multivite, and he takes a B complex prescribed by his neurologist for migraines.

I'm so glad that chelation or something wasn't suggested for DS. Even at that time we had read that might be a possibility and we were horrified that we might even consider it for two seconds, isn't that something a hospital should do? Looking back, I don't even know what we were thinking - I just know we were both terrified for DS and sort of being pushed by this teacher, and we were new to the whole thing and frightened. We still often are, when we think about what will happen to DS when we die - where will he go...who will care for him...But we're working on figuring out a plan for him so that he'll be safe. He'll definitely never live on his own.

At the time that we saw the DAN doctor...it was more like we were so focused on him talking...like that was going to be the magic key to him becoming possibly more independent one day so he can't wind up abused in some home once we're gone. But it wasn't that sort of magic key for him. Beyond wishing he would talk, I don't think we ever really had thoughts that biomed would "cure his autism" or anything, we knew then and we know now that it's literally part of who he is. So, no illusions there.

Now, as for me...likely HFA according to two of my son's docs (neurologist and psychiatrist)...I haven't tried any curebie stuff, but then again, I don't know what I'd be trying it for. To become less in my world and more social, I guess? I don't know...I just haven't considered it...I don't think autism can be "cured"...just my view.

I am so sorry to answer in a negative way if biomed is something you're considering. Can you describe a little bit what you'd like to accomplish by trying it and what you were thinking of trying, specifically? If you do, maybe people can help you a bit better.

Define Biomedical Treatment.

Either it's a very vague term that could describe any number of treatments, or it's a specific treatment I'm not familiar with.. and the context of your post suggests the latter.

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No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.

As NowhereWoman stated, I too was sucked into that for just a bit, not long. I have to say that my son's pediatrician, a new one that I had found, was great and told us about all kinds of diets, etc. She however did NOT push the craziness as others do. She only had us remove some foods to see if there were changes in him, if not, we gave him the foods again.
At least for my son, yes the milk issue resolved some of his issues, no doubt. Then again, my son had previously had tests for allergies, as I saw he spit up milk since he was a baby. He was indeed allergic to that. The gluten I think might have helped some, but then again, I am not sure as at the same time these things were suggested, I stopped working so many hours and focusing more on him and his overall diet. Yes, I'll be the first to admit that possibly it wasn't the gluten but the fact I was working so many hours instead of spending more time with him, although that is NOT the cause of his autism.

When we moved, we went to a DAN doctor...spent over 5K in almost a month with all kinds of suggestions. We only did a few of them, but never gave him anything too crazy. That was honestly a waste of money looking back.

My son has improved drastically, but he is still autistic and will always be. I know parents who are close to bankruptcy with all kind of supplements, etc. for their kids that another mother/president of a group sells to them and ALL of their kids are much more severe than all the kids I know whose parent's decided to get away from the bio-med stuff. Some have major health issues and I do believe that they are possibly related to the craziness of stuff that their parents are putting into their systems. I know one girl who takes over 30 supplements every single morning, some type of shake, is strict GFCF, etc. and from looking at videos of her when she was younger, she seems even worse today than she was when she was younger.

I also know a child with some major kidney issues today and I believe that part of it may be related to all the supplements, etc. that he has taken over the years because of the biomedical craziness pushed by the autism group where I live. I don't blame the parents necessarily, as I believe some are truly being taken advantage by those who are just trying to make a living scaring parents with these supplements, etc.

In my own life I have now seen that indeed I am allergic to many things that I was never tested for. I have almost lost my life 2 times with allergic reactions from medications. There is no doubt in my mind that I have a weaker immune system than most I know, however, that doesn't mean that all those biomedical treatments truly help. If you are curious, I would go to a REGULAR allergist and get a complete allergy test done. There are a couple of different ones which can be done, but the one with a blood test I believe is much more complete. Based on that, if you are indeed allergic to some things, then get rid of them for a while.

PS my son was highly allergic to milk...anytime he had cheese, milk, etc. he would get a runny nose and ear infection and then it turned to asthma...we removed milk completely from his diet for about 3 years, but later gave him a slice of pizza at a party, but nothing at home for the week or even a couple of weeks...and some ice cream for a special event, but nothing at home for weeks (we NEVER had any milk or derivatives at home at all). Without doubt after about 3 more years we noticed that each time he had cheese, milk, etc. his symptoms were less. Today he eats whatever he wants and never gets sick at all. No more runny noses, ear infections or even asthma. From reading about allergies, it seems that if you are allergic to something some of the therapies used are to give little tiny pieces of whatever that item is over a period of time to have your body get used to it, so I guess that's why he's ok today.

I am new and used to work as a Behavioral School Psychologist (did a lot of ABA). Now I have 2 kids on the spectrum in addition to finally being correctly diagnosed myself as having Aspergers. I told people for years that diet had nothing to do with Autism. However, I am going to go out on a limb with a little bit different perspective. When my son was 2 years old, he started having reactions to some of his vaccines, he developed hives around his mouth when he ate some eggs, he slept A LOT, had dark circles under his eyes, very fine anorexic-type hair, distended tummy, wasn't growing right, and he was a late walker that always tripped on his own two feet. But at the time we didn't see it. Our pediatrician said he was fine (but once he had the vaccine reactions and the hives I wasn't willing to accept that). Also about that time, our daughter was 4, and one night I noticed an orange oil in the toilet and all over her bottom. I took her into the doctor, and he said he didn't see anything and to let him know if it happened again. It was really strange though and had me worried, so I thought I would put her on a yeast diet for a couple days because I didn't know what else it might be....just in case she was uncomfortable since her communication skills were still quite minimal. Within 2 days of being on the yeast diet, she quit rocking!! A few days later we took her to Chickafilla and within 2.5 hours she started rocking again until she had been back on the diet 2 more days. At Chickafilla all she had was grilled nuggets and french fries with water...no ketchup. I called Chickfilla and found out that there was sugar in the nuggets and fries (sugar feeds yeast). At that point we made an appointment with an immunologist who specializes in kids with Autism. He figured out that we were having severe immune reactions (although not classic allergy) to wheat, soy, and corn. We also had problems with any animal products raised on wheat, soy, and corn. Fast forward several years, and we now suspect it might not be the foods themselves, but what they have been sprayed with. It did cost us a lot of time, money, stress, etc to figure all of that out, but my kids (and me) feel soooooooo much better that I believe it has been worth it. I am still having some inflammatory problems, but the kids were young enough when we started that they are mostly left with some mild social/learning differences. I have sense met many other families whose kids have had similar immune challenges. I think the real problem is that 1) Our understanding of the field of Immunology is still VERY limited as compared to what there is left to understand and 2) When your communication and sensory pathways aren't wired like the "average" person...I think sometimes there are underlying medical issues that can go overlooked. There are many many different things that fall under the heading of biomedical treatment. I can't say that they are all good/worthwhile, but I do personally believe that what you eat can make a big difference in how you feel....especially if you have underlying allergies, sensitivities, etc to certain foods, chemicals, etc.

Magnesium is helpful for me. It gets rid of my nerve pains. When I have too much nerve pains I often act hyper to suppress them. That interferes with sleep.

I don't have anything to say to biomed treatment. I just want to send NowhereWoman all my positive energy and say I'm cheering you on. I'm happy there are people like you in the world willing to act like a barrier for your children -- a damn stopping the world from flooding their life and drowning them. Like a traffic cop directing the flow of vehicles so no one smashes into each other.