And you’ve only done biomedical inteventions?

Secondly, families don’t have time for the pharmaceuticals to decide to fund some fancy double blind research studies on cures that will never be in their interest to validate. Yes research is validating, but when some interventions appear to be working for many families with autistic children, the word spreads and families investigate what might be suitable for them. It’s far from ideal, but it’s better than what pediatricians and the medical industry is offering. Come to think of it, I don’t believe that any double blind research validated the effectiveness of administering citrus fruits and vitamin C to scurvy sailors in bygone centuries, yet no one disputes the wisdom of those who tried that radical intervention. The idea that we should just accept the incurable fate of autism and stop our pesky and hair-brained schemes at curing our kids until some reputable and refined institutions tell us what works and what we are allowed to pursue is misguided and dangerous. In autism, it is parents and families of autistic people who are blazing through to answers and effective treatments-double blind research and peer reviewed journals be damned –that is a whole racket best left to itself.

Success stories among autism families abound with various interventions. Since autism is not caused by any one factor, neither can it be resolved in all cases by the same treatment. Hence some patients are helped by secretin, others by chelation, diet, ortho-molecular medicine, behavior therapy, etc. Some don’t hit on the right thing or combination of things to address their conditions. Others may not persevere in their intervention as some methods require great tenacity to succeed. Thank goodness families can research, communicate, and find each other online to share information so that they needn’t rely on the medical industry for answers.
The article was one sided and biased. The reporter only sought out parents who were unsatisfied or unsuccessful in their treatment attempts. What about balancing the story with any number of the success stories that abound. The aims of the story are suspect especially after the MMR scare in the public’s eye must be dealt with and diminished. The smear campaign is now rolling out on those who dare to believe in recovery and treat themselves.

Though I haven’t yet sought guidance from an alternative practitioner, I have implemented my own interventions for my kids and they are working. Recovery is almost realized and I don’t need no stinkin’ double blind placebo validation to tell me the radical difference I am witnessing in my kids is genuine! I am certain I would be in a very bad place right now if it weren’t for my belief in and dedication to recovering my kids from autism. It has been exceedingly difficult but the alternative (…to the alternative) is unthinkable. So parents of autistic children, please read as much as you can , talk to other families of autism, and keep trying things – recovery is possible but often it requires leaving no stone unturned.

I said “it is” not “is it?”

Lisa – as Margaret says, there are plenty of things you can do that will actually help a child. Using them as a guinea pig is not one of them.

A solution or a cure? Because while there is no cure, there are already plenty of educational solutions that don’t involve questionable treatments.

Lisa writes, “I think most parents would try anything at any cost to help their autistic children.”

While I am sure that such parents would be doing so out of love, trying anything at any cost seems like a reckless approach.

Help or cure? Because there is plenty that can be done to help autistic children, even if they cannot be cured.

I have found that it has been most helpful to treat my autistic children like children, and they seem to be making remarkable progress in both behavior and cognition.

Of course, I also have them enrolled in exceptional education programs because children need to go to school and they don’t fit into mainstream classrooms. But after school, they get to do the usual after school stuff—television, video games, playing outside, swimming, etc.—because that’s what all my kids do, whether they’re autistic or not.

Lisa asks, “How about following some of these children through the treatment process to see if there is any improvement.”

How would anyone know if it was the treatment process that caused any observed improvements, or if it was some other factor, such as schooling, traditional therapies, or maturation?

My father was (maybe still is) one of the folks that are a bit susceptible to charlatans claims. He was chelated for arterial blockages and still ended up on the operating room table for a multiple bypass.

I am of the opinion that even dietary or nutritional supplements and all products meant or claimed to help a person or be applied should be thoroughly evaluated before being made marketable for human use.

The idea that an allopathic physician (much less an insane or greedy quack) could treat “autism” is patently ridiculous.

Now, say you’ve got a kid with Down Syndrome or Williams Syndrome. Do you take your kid to the doctor for the physical problems that frequently accompany these disorders?

Of course!! Parents do it all the time. But where did this ridiculous notion come from that physicians are supposed to treat autism or autism plus MR?

It came from idiot quacks who pretend that they can cure autism with their pills and potions for a high price, generally. And whereas for the most part kids don’t go from being obviously mentally retarded to obviously normal-intelligence, autistic kids can go from obviously autistic to looking normal with time. Just time, plus parenting and education and acceptance and love from friends and family. So in the case of autism you have thieving MDs and others taking credit for changes that would have happened anyway without their “interventions” and left the child without the side effects of some of their dangerous or just plain stupid therapies.

(using your terminology) it is possible to be anti-vax AND NOT a CAM user