Home for the Holidays, and a Few Things to Say About Autism

So, you’re reaching for the eggnog or another piece of gingerbread and Great Uncle W says to you, “Now what is all this I hear about autism and vaccines?”

Or, some friendly step-relatives happens to end up next to you while the Christmas carol sheets are being handed out and, just as you’re trying to sneak out of the chair to sit by your child who already has his hands over your ears while your musician second cousin starts playing something from Jersey Boys on the piano to expressions of delight, said step-relative says, with a concerned smile, “Does he have this thing called sensitive-processor disorder too? A friend says her nephew has it.”

Now don’t get me wrong. After the initial incredulity that Charlie “had” something, my extended (and not small) family has made it a point to reach out and include Charlie. Considering that a frequent family activity is “getting together in someone’s house or an economically priced restaurant in Oakland Chinatown,” and a certain amount of conversation is about the food we ate last time we met, the food we’re eating, and the food we’re going to eat (say, when we get together for dinner……..that night), Charlie is quite in his element and certainly knows how to work the lazy Susan.

Lest eating numerous Chinese meals (ok, sometimes we “go American” and eat sandwiches) in various settings with various combinations of relatives seems boring and repetitive to you, I can see how, if we lived in California, this would provide Charlie with constant opportunities for interactions with the same (more or less) people. I was a picky eater as a child, so I suspect my family watches Charlie’s hearty eating with some equally hearty approval (and I think he’s started on another growth spurt—-he spent most of a snow day last Friday and the weekend sleeping, and I just realized the sleeves of his coat ride up when he raises his arms). It’s true, Charlie doesn’t run off to hang with my cousins’ kids, but he does like to be in the same room or nearby them, with Jim or me or my parents around.

Mostly my relatives like to hear what’s going for Charlie at school and someone inevitably says that “X who they know has a child with autism,” and various therapies get listed. One side of my family being quite up-to-date regarding technology and TV, should anyone mention that December 11th The Doctors episode on which DAN! doctor Jay Gordon I am grateful to have checked in with Orac at Respectful Insolence’s thorough working over of supernova stupidity:

What’s really annoying about this episode is that, mixed in with some accurate information is a bunch of infuriating false “balance” and Dr. Gordon’s antivaccine stylings. The parents (Dan and Lori) featured in the segment have seven children, with another one on the way, and four of their children are autistic. I don’t know about you, but to me that fact alone would strongly suggest a genetic component, but naturally these parents blame vaccines for their children’s autism.

As Orac concludes, “the one thing that The Doctors demonstrates beyond a shadow of a doubt is that having physicians involved in the making of a show about medicine and medical controversies is no guarantee that the resulting show will be science-based”—-indeed, the resulting show will be TV medicine or science, Hollywood style, and, as noted when the comedic legal drama Eli Stone aired back in January of this year, the whole “child becomes autistic after receiving a vaccine and some professional [legal in Eli Stone; medical in The Doctors] proves there’s gotta be a link” gambit can fit very well in the allotted hour, with some commercial breaks allowed for. The idea that vaccines can be linked to autism is readily explained as a simple matter of cause and effect, plus you can insert, to good effect, a few shots of those needles and those mysterious vials that have had who knows what injected into them by some unknowing pharm tech.

So yes, I am feeling prepared to address any “but what about those vaccine” questions—-and the sensory stuff—-and, if no one’s rushing off to take a turn at Guitar Hero, am glad to speak to genetics and the fact that autism really is a family thing.