Looking for a Few Improved Autistic Kids
October 8, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
That’s the request that showed up Tuesday night in my email inbox from Stan Kurtz, president of Generation Rescue. Photos of “kids who have improved from biomedical interventions (they do not have to be recovered, just improved)” are sought—–so “recovery” is not the thing, but rather “improvement”?
If that’s the case, then it shouldn’t be too hard to find “a child that would look good on the cover of Jenny McCarthy’s to-appear-in-April-aka-Autism-Awareness-Month autism book.” It’s been awhile, but in the days when we did a lot of biomedical treatments—supplements, anti-fungal therapy (with nystatin), complete gluten-free casein-free diet, more supplements, I was looking very hard for results and improvements. And I saw them—but I suspect I may have been making some correlations and presuming them to be causes. And how to know if the improvements occurred, too, because of the schooling and other educational therapies Charlie was receiving; because he was just developing? How to know this for any child?
“kids who have improved”
Something that should be countered with “Beautiful Now” photos.
Yeah, “before” and “after” — NOT!
Tom is now in a special school, an entirely therapeutic setting, although my preference would have been for integration with a 1:1.
THere are too many problems in the school district at the moment so that was not an option. He is already showing improvement, but he has been on meds since April–which also showed an improvement although to the level that I would call “neurotypical” All the doctors, all the therapists, everyone has told me there is no magic bullet. But there’s some part of me that wants to believe there is . . . and obviously some folks who want/need to believe it more than I do!
As we teach our children to cope in a world that is not really set up for them, they all tend to “improve.”
I’d say if anybody wants a “before” and “after” picture they can photograph me. Cause I’m much better “after” having my son.
This is so ridiculous it’s funny! And I’m being honest. We do the CF/GF diet. We also took our son to see a pediatric gastroenterologist for his gastrointestinal issues. Taking the gluten out, the milk because he is lactose intolerant, and the use of probiotics greatly improved these issues. But the again, we did this not expecting for our son to be ‘cured’ of autism. We just wanted his GI issues taken care of. Who wants to see their child in pain? So after testing, turns out that he has a gluten intolerance, which was inherited, for what we’ve came to discover, from my mother’s side of the family. So of course, as soon as we took out the offending ingredients, he is a different child. That doesn’t mean the ‘diet’ is for every child with autism. It’s not magic. But that said, my son is very cute, and photographs very well, ‘before’ and ‘after’ the diet intervention.
Ivy, what you say about your son parallels a lot of my son’s experience—-we put him on it when he was 2; another relative of my husband’s has celiac disease and dairy products did not “agree” with Charlie. Over time–as Charlie’s gotten older and has become so much more aware of what everyone else is eating—he’s not really on the diet anymore. But he does eat a lot of gluten-free casein-free foods still (like sushi), but because he likes them!
And always a good-looker here my boy, “before” and “afte,” imho.
Well my son’s before and after would look the same. We all improve everyday right? Even on “bad” days we learn something (if not multiple things) by the end of the day. The Elder is sharp and he picks up things quickly (if not in the middle of a meltdown or engrossed in a preferred activity, that is.lol) and remembers them in detail for future use whether he knows he will need that script/information/image or not. I call that “populating his database.” What better way to “improve” autism? Education…hmmm….interesting…
Oh my. What to say about that? It is very hard to measure when you look at a child through such a “filter” of illness.
Ivy – I’m glad it helped your child. I really like your perspective on the whole thing. I’m sure there are kids with autism who also happen to have Gluten or Casein allergies, but correlation does not imply causation, as my husband likes to say. I’m glad the diet helps your child.
As for kids improving, my 5 year old went from primarily echolalic at 3 to speaking in clear, complete, concise sentences by 5. We’ve never done a GFCF diet with her as we didn’t see any symptoms of Gluten or Casein sensitivity to warrant it. No biomed either. Just Early Intervention therapies and a lot of in your face love. The psychologist who diagnosed her had the opportunity to work with her again recently for a study we’re participating in and he was amazed at where she’s come in 2 years. She’s just our Megagirl (her name’s Meghan).
So where can I put her picture up so she can be the flip side to the biomedical coin? I want her to be recognized for all she’s accomplished in her 5 years because of the wonderful, unique individual she is.
Kristina, I hope you feel better soon. We’re fighting the colds in our house too. Hang in there and have some chicken soup!
I have seen my son through head banging, hand flapping, humming, complete losses of math skills, diminished spelling skills, losses in gross and fine motor skills and on and on. He is now in college and studying engineering. He drives. He can write and he can attend.
Improved? I’d say so.
my daughter was diagnosed in arpril with autism
but she has epilipsy since she was 3mts old but it is controlled. i started her on the gluten free, casein free diet in oct and she is extremely calm,
she has been to america to a dan doctor and started osr a week ago. so far so good she is very happy and has inproved slightly. she has developement delays since 6 mts old so she has been accessed at the age of 1 to 1 and a half years and she is 4yrs old, hopefully we can get some answers but will will try anything to save our daughter from autism wouldn`t you do the same. i will continue to fight for her as we lost our 5 yr old in a traffic accident in dec 2006 and she was so beautiful and perfect so i wont loose
this one to autism. one broken heart is enough.
anyone out there have anything good to say about the osr drug and have their child as severe as mine. she is non verbal. please let us know, thanks.