Jenny MacArthy's child &quot;recovered&quot; from autism??

javasun · October 2008

https://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/health/2008/10/01/intv.mccarthy.cnn

This is interesting. I didn't know they can recover through vitamins and detox of toxins.

jaymewilson12 · October 2008

They can't. Which makes me think he never really had autism to begin with it was just another shotty Dr who was quick to put a label on a kid.

When I worked with autistic kids for 5 years you would not have believed the amount of kids that had that label because they were a little slow to learn or they had ADD or something like that. Some parents just wanted that label on their kids to get special treatment. So sad.

daveshell1 · October 2008

I agree with pp. I don't think these disorders are any more abundant now than when we were growing up, these dr's are just so quick to diagnose kids with all these things.

mzad · October 2008

Ditto PP.

I won't dispute that a change in diet can make a difference. But I doubt you can be "cured" from autism. Does it help to eat better? Probably, but until many more studies are done, I don't think there is a cure.

jaymewilson12 · October 2008

Definitely a better diet can *help* autism. In that if a child has a lot of sugary foods, they are more apt to act out. But that could also be said with all children right?

I worked with alot of different kids. One of which had a horrible diet and was horribly overweight and he was by far my hardest to deal with.

Calips · October 2008

I watched this video earlier today and got pretty heated watching it. What wa sthe statement that she "watched him die for 2 minutes???"

She is so sure of her statements about a subject where there are a lot of unanswered questions. To me, it is dangerous and irresposible for a celebrity who is known for potty jokes and hosting MTV shows to act like they understand medicine and pediatrics.

I do, however, need to do more research in order to have a proper argument. I usaully go with my trust of the AAP. I do believe big businesses like Pharmaceuticals are often looking for $$. However, it is difficult for me to believe the entire pediatrics community and Drs across the nation would be "in on it."

Like Jayme, I think diagnoses are more rampant today not necessarily that autism is more rampant. When I was a kid there were just some "weird kids." Sorry if that isnt PC but -- there is some truth and something to be learned by our more lax past. And I don't think all of the kids who were a bit off were autistic. Hell, I know some weird adults who are a bit off now. We just call them different names now.

Anyway -- I need to educate myself more and I suggest we all do the same and NOT take an "actress who cured autism's" word for it.

jaymewilson12 · October 2008

I couldn't agree with you more! I don't think by any means that she is an expert, nor have I ever really thought she truly knew what she was talking about. I couldn't watch the video so I don't know exactly what was said, but I really really hate when celebrities use their fame to try to convince people that they know what they are talking about. Or that they are experts on anything.

KaliChick · October 2008

I agree with everything all of you have said. Doctors are quick to diagnose as "autism" when a child is a little slow. It was interesting, my best friend's little boy turns 2 this week and he's essentially not talking. He understands everything and shows no other developmental delays beyond speech (her daughter who turns 4 this week has been in speech therapy for about 9 months now so obviously her children have speech issues). She had the Regional Center come out and assess her son for early intervention on speech. The evaluator that came out observed him and gave him commands, etc. Then also asked my friend questions. Then they had to go to the speech therapist office in Tustin and the same thing all over again. My friend walked away saying that she felt as if they were definitely trying to rule out autism (which they did).

Here she is with a 2 year old and everyone is jumping saying they think it's autism instead of evaluating him simply for speech and in doing so determine the rest. She said their line of questioning was definitely leading her down the autism path. I found it interesting ... not necessarily a bad thing just interesting. So I definitely agree with the theory of autism isn't more rampant today then when we were growing up but more diagnosed (Calips ... I agree 100% .. those kids we saw as "weird" would today be put on the autism spectrum).

I have also seen and heard about diet doing wonders for children/people with all sorts of disabilities. It can be VERY beneficial to an ADD/ADHD person. However it can also be said the same for the general population. We have a little boy who was seriously acting like a crazy kid yesterday (blurting things out, moving all over the place, rolling around, etc ... our best explanation was you would have thought he had ADD and didn't get his meds that day) ... we talked to the parents since it was out of character for him and found out he had a bunch of sugar the night before which totally set him off. Not an ADD kid or an autistic kid, just one who has severe reactions to sugar.

The scariest part of this whole thing to me is that it's a celebrity that's coming out and saying there's a cure. She is not a medical doctor. There are a lot of naive people out there that will listen to what she says and take it as gold. That is scary to me.

I think there's a lot of research out there and I am by no means educated on it ... but I wouldn't ever jump and say there's a cure. Treatments that HELP, sure, but not cure.

itsspykitty · October 2008

I think her career in hollywood has dried up and she is trying to stay in the media at the expense of her son.

I think the "Autism" diagnosis is used too loosley.

I am making the best, educated decisions I can for raising Natalie. If they end up wrong, then I will cross that bridge when I come to it.

As a society we are too scared of every darn thing and it's to the point where kids aren't allowed to be kids. So, what's worse "risking" what "may possibly but, don't know" cause Autism or sheltering them so much that they grow into paranoid adults that cannot take risks.

Go ahead- flame away...

jaymewilson12 · October 2008

Right Kim! And can we all please consider the source! Jenny McCarthy is a Looney Toon. Who all of a sudden in the last few years had decided to try to act like an adult. I agree she shouldn't be out saying there is a cure. That is giving ALOT of false hope to parents of kids that truly have autism.

Ugh this just makes me so irritated.

jaymewilson12 · October 2008

No flames here Spykitty.

javasun · October 2008

wow I didn't realize this is such a hot topic! I just thought it's interesting what she has to say about this.

bridetobe0jb · October 2008

sadly she is effective...I thought of her on Monday when I went ahead with the MMR in one shot (silently crossing my fingers). Our Pedi said that they can tell from as early as 6 mos that something is off and those patients they recommend waiting for vaccines.

michellemarie7 · October 2008

I wouldn't believe everything you read. This a personal experience for her with virtually no research behind it.

mrsely · October 2008

wow MM7....... i was just getting ready to type your exact words.

beachbrideinCal · October 2008

I didn't actually watch this video, but just a comment on some of the pp's. I know someone very well who had a child thoroughly evaluated for autism. Based on all the assessments, he doesn't have it (though almost outside of normal range before he could be technically diagnosed). Anyway, in order for her to get access to free programs to help children with autism, which he'd been participating in and doing well with, he diagnosed her son with autism. Technically, he doesn't have it. Definitely an interesting subject!

weebride07 · October 2008

as someone who works with children with autism, i think she does a great disservice to parents dealing with the diagnosis.

when you speak of autism it is a not a black and white diagnosis. there is a spectrum and children can be anywhere on the spectrum and can have all sorts of different "issues."

without boring you any longer... i will make my point -

a more accurate statement from her would be something like this - my son is on a specific part of the spectrum that has been helped signifigantly with the interventions we have provided for him.

there is no cure. yes, there are more children diagnosed HOWEVER it is not something new. most of these kids were just labeled "odd" before we knew a lot about autism.

brennrobert · October 2008

Having worked with 100s of kiddos with autism, with very advocative parents, with parents who have used biomedical treatments, and having worked with the family that started TACA (the group that Jenny is spokesperson for) as well as many families that are big in the TACA community, I feel I need to shed some light on the term "recovery." PP are correct that there is no "cure" for autism. However, kids can make such strides in their skills that when assessed, they no longer meet the definition of "autism" and lose the diagnosis. Many parents refer to these kids as "recovered" for lack of any other term just as if you are diagnosed with a disease and it goes away, we call that "recovered" as well. These kids are indistinguishable from their peers in blind observations. Diet and biomedical treatment can work wonders for some kids and be useless to others. I've had kids that had such behavioral responses to some foods (particularly gluten and casein) that anyone on the team could walk in, play with the child for 5 minutes and know that the child had gotten a restricted food. I recently had a kiddo who was having behavioral meltdowns that none of us, including mom, could pinpoint. After a week or two of bashing our heads into the wall trying to figure out what had changed, dad admitted that he had been forgetting to do the child's chelator (detox). We got him back on that and the meltdowns, potty accidents, etc. went away again. Autism is 100% diagnosed based on observation of specific behavior deficits and excesses as per the DSM criteria. I saw pp argue that it's just diagnosed more or there are faulty diagnoses. While there are some that get diagnosed when not meeting the full DSM criteria, most kids with the diagnosis do meet the strict guidelines. There are likely multiple causes of autism, some being more easily affected with changes to diet, chelation therapy, behavior therapy, etc. Mercury poisoning also shows the characteristics of autism. If there is no better reason for meeting the criteria, then the diagnosis of autism is made. As for pp's comment re: regional center, the evaluators are required to rule out autism. Many kiddos are initially referred for speech/language because that is what the parents notice being "wrong." Most parents don't know to look for protodeclarative pointing, joint attention, theory of mind, symbollic play skills, etc. They describe a child that indicates their needs by taking the parents hand and leading them, not realizing that the child is not making any social references to the parent through eye contact or gestures and is actually using the parent more as a tool than a social being who can assist them.

Dragonflyer · October 2008

Thanks Brennrobert, I have studied quite a bit on this subject and you have stated it well. It is so easy to fall on one side of the argument or the other. It is truly a grey area and that that certain protocol with chelation and diet has done wonders with some (not all) cases. They do stress that every child is different and we all have the right to make the decisions that we are comfortable with regarding our children's welfare.

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