Here is a good immune system review article for those interested: http://www.jleukbio.org/cgi/reprint/80/1/1
UNC, I have about 60 or so others citations from pubmed,too long to list here. Anyone else interested can email me for them as well.

Kristina, I can send you a synopsis of the final bill that gets passed here (session ends next Friday, so it’ll be soon) if you would like. I hope by making insurance coverage for some services available, families will be able to afford more services and our kids will have the supports to reach their max potential, whatever that is.

I am sure much of it is misclassification, but it’s interesting that 2/3 of the people receiving autism services under Medicaid in FL are children under 18 (and nearly all of them are 10 or over because the waiting list is 7-10 years for help!) Only 1/3 are adults (many may be MR misclassified). Two people over the age 64 with autism services in the entire state. As more correctly classified persons with autism age, it will definitely bring a new dimension to the term “autism awareness”. Nothing gets the public and gov’t attention like billions of dollars of costs.

We can all hopefully agree that the issues we face daily in advocating for our children for their educational needs and life skills, providing for the day to day needs of our children, are uppermost on our minds. And don’t even get me started on the respite and other home services (sucks when even existent, excuse my language). The research and vaccine and DAN discussions are important, and we will have to agree to disagree on much of this, but what effects us most is the day to day education of our children.

There is awareness, so much so that I and other parents I know get complaints from NT families about why we have to keep bombarding them with “autism is 1:150″, etc. What these NT families haven’t heard, because I ask them, is what the day to day is like and that our children do learn skills, that there are sometimes big differences between our kids as it is a spectrum, and why special education is important, that these kids are growing up and there are adult autistics. I put that SPED reference in because here in Maine we have finally gotten a budget that is NOT slashing SPED and MaineCare and the adult services, like our governor was trying to do.

If we can’t stop arguing and agree to disagree on some of these issues to then hopefully provide a united front on the more important issues of education and our children’s day to day needs, then how are we going to get things done for our kids? Whatever you believe or hope for, a “cure”, “recovery”, or just basically helping your child to achieve their highest potential (my view), can we tone it down to focus on the most important issues, education and providing for the day to day needs, planning for the future and providing services for the adults who are in our society right now?

Okay, I am getting off my soapbox now, and hopefully I will hit the correct button and not erase this!

Everyone, I hope you have a great day!
Karen

Regan, I feel you. Maybe your child is older than mine. I have a five year old. He can’t talk. He is not potty trained. He is a beautiful, affectionate and happy child. I love him in a way that makes my heart feel like it will burst. I want him to have the best treatment and best chances for being happy. But I will change his diapers until I am 110 if I can.

I have worked for weeks here in Florida trying to get a bill passed to cover autism under insurance. This is because I consider ABA to be treatment, along with medical intervention. I am not generally a blogger (it’s a waste of time LOL). I spend my time reading literature and advocating. I am still of the mindset that as a medically based diseases, autism and/or it’s symptoms can be alleviated by intervention. To me, it is about treatment, hope and love. And it will be until he gets better or I am dead.

UNCDoc–I love it. You try to insult me, misquote me, go on and on about no evidence when I sent a link from the perfect source, and then call me antivaccine. And then, tell me to stop being knee-jerk and defensive? You can’t expect to be a jerk and not get a little backlash, ok? I already am aware of BDNF and the early large brain effect that levels off with age, but clearly is related to the pathology. I know about prenatal effects such as diet and flu being factors for epidemiological increases in autism. So don’t ask for cytokine papers in one breath and tell me I haven’t read enough in the next, ok? I typed more to you earlier that I lost (blogging novice) so I’m gonna keep it short this time: don’t assume you know me. I am not a “mercury mom” and I am not a vaccine litigant. I find it one of many interesting avenues of study in autism. The CDC finds it interesting that high cytokines are associated with typical events such as fever and seizures. Regardless of the underlying cause of the cytokines (could be anything, infection, genetics etc–does not have to be prior vax), this is an interesting result since ctyokines are elevated in autism. Period. I didn’t say causation of vaccines, that’s YOUR words, don’t push that on me.

My personal guess is that they are already elevated before any vaccine, not because of one. That’s opinion however. I’ll send you links to the studies, you can email me at tss8432@yahoo.com. Seriously, the immune angle is interesting, even without vaccines, and you should look more into it. I am not saying that obnoxiously, as it seems you did to me.