For the past two weeks something’s been up with Charlie’s teeth, or so we think. He’s been chewing the string on his sweatshirt and his shirt and poking a finger into his mouth (on the upper right side, I think) and just dabbing at some parts of his teeth with his toothbrush (still brushing the fronts). This has certainly been the Year of Losing Teeth; there’ve been more than a few times when, after a fretful, unsettled day, Charlie has been found with a bloody tooth in his fingers. After a check-up in August, Charlie’s dentist noted that he was …read more

“Stem cells. Gene therapy. Immune protection.”
This is the first line of an article about…….what do you think? The latest treatments for autism?
The article’s about skin care products. Products that claim to provide “‘cellular level cleansing’” (shades of autism detox) and that have “medical-sounding” names starting with “bio-, micro- and pro-”: There’s:
“biomolecular” eye cream; “microtechnology bio active” foundation; “pro-collagen” serum; “microsmoothing” face serum; and a “bio-stimulating” night cream with “microlift.
The article appeared in the October 1st New York Times and certainly it’s nothing new that cosmetics company have used “multisyllabic pharmacological-sounding words” to describe the ingredients in their products, but “now …read more

While the evidence refuting a vaccine/mercury link to autism continues to pile up, a connection between them seems to have become lodged in the public consciousness, as the recent survey on attitudes about autism from Florida of Institute of Technology suggests. One case that has attracted a particular lot of attention was that of a girl from Georgia, Hannah Poling. Back in March, it was reported that the government had conceded that Hannah’s “pre-existing mitochondrial disorder…. was ‘aggravated’ by her shots.”
This decision was widely, widely discussed and the question repeatedly raised about how common mitochondrial disorders are in autistic children. …read more