When it comes to autism, those who chafe at vaccine conspiracy theories and “trapped in their own world” stereotypes and the endless biomed cures du jour may have science (not to mention sanity) on their side.
But step aside, people: Jenny McCarthy is armed with Google, and she’s not afraid to use it.
The model and self-styled actress was on Oprah today to talk about her autistic son, and if you’ve caught wind of her thoughts on autism already (or seen how pretty much anything about autism is treated on the Oprah show), you just knew this could not be good.
No joke: McCarthy was cheered lustily by the studio audience for announcing that, after her son was diagnosed, she typed the word “autism” into the Google search engine, launching a courageous and audacious search for the truth. And what came up? Why, story after story about remedies and recoveries and other amazing stuff your pediatrician is paid handsomely by the CDC not to tell you about.
Luckily, Google employs an army of people whose only job is to make sure everything that pops up on the site is totally legit, although I probably should Google that sometime just to make sure it’s true.
McCarthy spoke particularly of clicking on a link “up in the corner” (I believe those are what are known as “advertisements”) and learning about the wonders of biomed.
In the video clips Oprah showed, McCarthy’s son looked healthy and happy (although there wasn’t really much pre-biomed footage to compare with). And i applaud her for being an apparently caring and involved mom — she’s a convenient target for satire, and maybe she deserves the benefit of the doubt. (Although there was something chilling about the way she described getting an employee of a play gym fired for suggesting her son might have a “brain problem.”)
But here’s a TV show with an audience that’s humungous by any standard — many times larger than all the autism blogs put together. And here’s a celebrity announcing that her “real” son had become “trapped inside” this autistic shell, and that she was hell-bent to “get him out.” (More big cheers.)
And here’s Oprah opening the show by quoting McCarthy’s book (yep, she writes, too!) on the different reactions encountered when people learn a child has been diagnosed with cancer vs. diagnosed with autism. Surprising those reactions are so divergent, because as we’ve been conditioned to learn by Autism Speaks and others, autism is at least as terrifying as pending death.
Oprah also cooed approvingly when McCarthy defended biomed by saying, “Well, chemotherapy doesn’t work for everybody either.”
At least McCarthy didn’t talk about train wrecks. Instead, she talked about bus crashes.
Seriously. She offered an analogy about autism that went like this: “If you get hit by a bus, you’re going to recover. But you’re going to have a little booboo.” (She definitely used the word “booboo.” Coming soon to the DSM-V.)
And naturally, vaccines had to come up. McCarthy said she had invoked what she calls her “mommy instinct” to finger the MMR in the case of her son.
Then Oprah read a response she had received from the CDC (at least she took a stab at social responsibility by contacting the agency) that talked about the lack of scientific support for the idea that thimerosal triggers autism.
McCarthy scoffed and said, speaking of her son: “He is my science.”
Well guess what, Prof. McCarthy? MMR doesn’t contain thimerosal. Never has.
She apparently didn’t know that. Oprah also either didn’t know it or didn’t bother to correct it. The studio audience and the vast TV audience were left with yet more misinformation and hysteria and hand-wringing about the horrors of autism, in a forum where so many people could have instead been enlightened about notions like autistic kids who aren’t “broken” and therapies that offer help without taking families for a ride. (A bus ride, if you like. Only one that REALLY crashes.)
Speaking of which: I would have liked to describe the whole show. But about halfway through, I realized my stop had arrived.
Left Brain Right Brain 
Thank you. I didn’t watch it but I’ve seen the bio-med mama’s gloating on the web over how everyone now will see how it was the vaccines,… you know the MMR with the thimerosal in it and everything.
Maybe Oprah can interview the parents of babies that may die because of being terrorized away from vaccinating because a vaccine ate Jenny McC’s baby’s brain… yet she was so brave and rexued him and everything. I’d like to hear what the boy’s father has to say about how he was cured… first with the angel therapy and the “crystal” necklace therapy to develop his true crystal child nature and all.
Why are people still taking Oprah seriously, after she has shown sympathy to the cause of terror?
E.g. http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=7&x_issue=2&x_article=1026
We need to talk more about celebritization of “expertise.” Not only are they the new gods, but they are seen by so many people as infallible. I would respect celebs so much more if they stood alongside autistic people (in this case and as in how Sigourney Weaver did so with GRASP and oh so carefully — she does not speak for autistic people). I don’t think celebs should go on tv and pontificate about rememdies that are not proven and can be dangerous.
I was watching Michael J. Fox yesterday on Actor’s Studio. He calls himself “ill” but what got to me was the fact that he called Parkinson’s “a gift.” He said through Parkinson’s he became alive. It taught him how to appreciate life and live it to the fullest.
In Lucky Man (his book) he compares how when we all toss our “problems” into the ring and we have the option of choosing others’ problems, we end up taking our own problems back, because it’s what we know and what we’re used to. We realize the good lives we lead, no matter what the challenge, and we don’t want to trade it in. I think that is a wise way to think. It certainly is true around our household.
We don’t want to take away the reality of struggles other’s face and not acknowledge that they may be on a different point of the acceptance curve (acceptance begins with anger and fighting — it takes a while to learn to accept one’s illness or disability), but we definitely do want to talk about the wisdom of what we learn by being human. And part of being human is with disability and yes, illness.
So, I would respect celebs more if they put more thought into what they say and how they say it before they say it at all as in absolutes. Being a modern ‘god’ comes with it, an obligation and responsibility (but let’s face it — not all these glitterati are really all that intelligent). While we all may not agree with opinion (and everyone will have one), I think celebs have to begin listening to the complex discussion of disability, autism, the problems with “recoveries and cures.” If they are going to talk about autism, the most important thing they must do is to defer and acknowledge the discourse out there among autistic individuals right now.
Why one earth would the CDC respond to a question about MMR with a statement about Thimerosal?
Speaking as a parent (not of an Autistic child mind you) I also applaud her willingness to investigate on her own, and I will attest to the extreme difficulty in sorting through the volumes of crap on the internet existing on all sides of the debate. Just trying to figure out an objective risk analysis of any vaccine (recommended or not) is pretty much impossible, and if you ask any questions, you get flamed straight to hell by accusations of being a conspiracy theorist, or worse, of peddling junk science.
It is here that the medical and scientific communities do themselves a disservice, because in certain instances, they are as guilty as the pseudoscientists of publishing biased, incorrect, arrogant, and misleading information which just undercuts credibility and fuels conspiracy theories.
To make matters worse, very few people or science reporters read the actual studies, and the general public isn’t even given access to studies, so we are restricted to hearing biased press releases by people who wouldn’t know how to critically review a highschool science project let alone complex statistical analysis.
I suppose we deserve what we are getting in this mess.
You know…if there were even very well-botched scientific evidence that any of these miracle cures for autism were more than placebos or active placebos, why wouldn’t mainstream medicine want to capitalize on it?
Tsk, tsk. How DARE, Jenny McCarthy express her opinions and how DARE Oprah allow her a platform on which to do so! The AUDACITY of a parent who doesn’t recite the ND Manual expressing their opinons about their child’s autism condition. Tsk, tsk.
McCarthy spoke particularly of clicking on a link “up in the corner†(I believe those are what are known as “advertisementsâ€) and learning about the wonders of biomed.
That’s hilarious. I wonder if that by any chance was the one that reads as follows:
Autism Recovery is Real
———————–
Learn from other parents.
Vaccinate safely.
http://www.generationrescue.org
Once again, the battle lines are drawn on causation while the bigger picture is missed. I don’t think her message was anti-vaccine. I think her message was one of hope.
She thinks diet has played a big role in her son’s improvement. This is a story that is repeatedly told by many, many parents. Is it a placebo effect? Who knows, but I doubt that a GFCF diet is going to harm your child. It sounds to me that some people would be completely devastated if any bio-med approach worked.
I think also she showed that ASD kids can improve and mitigate (or even eliminate) their deficits. I think she shows that love and acceptance are important to the child’s development, too. I don’t see this as an anti-ND message. Her boyfriend seems to be fairly neurodiverse himself.
It’s sad to see this twisted into something negative.
She thinks diet has played a big role in her son’s improvement.
Many parents think that Secretin, homeopathy, foot detox, neuro accupuncture, holding therapy, swiming with dolphins, removal of TV, Arizona horse shit, and so on and so forth, have played a big role in their children’s improvement. Your point is?
_”Tsk, tsk. How DARE, Jenny McCarthy express her opinions and how DARE Oprah allow her a platform on which to do so! The AUDACITY of a parent who doesn’t recite the ND Manual expressing their opinons about their child’s autism condition. Tsk, tsk.”_
Task, tsk. How DARE an autism parent express their opinions and how DARE Kevin Leitch allow them a platform on which to do so! The AUDACITY of a parent who doesn’t recite the Harold Doherty Manual about their child’s autism condition. Tsk, tsk.
See how silly you look now?
Considering how much of the general public listens to Oprah and considers her to be their primary source of information, you have to be asking yourself this: how many people watched that show yesterday and thought that autism is now cured by fad diets and not vaccinating?
One of the Google ads that I got when I searched on autism was trying to sell a hyperbaric chamber for almost $16,000. Pardon my cynicism then, when most of the Google “information” I find out there is usually accompanied by a dollar sign.
But I guess if you’re an actress, a model and a writer, you don’t have to worry about that money problem, do you?
“Her boyfriend seems to be fairly neurodiverse himself.”
LOL! Very nice.
I, too, had to stop about half-way through the interview. The story line was all too familiar, and I’m pretty sure I know where it ended up.
Here’s what made me stop watching: McCarthy said the GFCF diet cured her son, but that it was an MMR vaccine that caused the autism. I couldn’t see the connection, and in fact none was made. And then the quote concerning thimerosal (which should not have been an issue in 2004, when her son was given the MMR) and the general indignant reaction let me know what was to come.
Harold –
I’m not sure why you are commenting on this thread. After all, Ms. McCarthy’s son is not as ‘severe’ as yours, and therefore she doesn’t truly qualify as an autism parent, right?
“Why one earth would the CDC respond to a question about MMR with a statement about Thimerosal?”
Just to clarify, I believe the CDC was asked about its position on the vaccine-autism hypothesis in general, not about MMR specifically. Since in the U.S. that hypothesis centers on thimerosal (i gather it’s a somewhat different story in the U.K.), that’s what the response focused on.
666sigma,
I don’t fault McCarthy for trying the diet or other biomed remedies she feels might be helping — we went GFCF ourselves for quite a while. But it seemed clear to me her anti-science, anti-evidence stance on causation, as reflected in her comments about vaccines, extends to her stance on treatments as well.
And she’s not only putting that mindset into practice, she’s advocating it to perhaps millions of people, which helps create an environment in which it’s that much easier for snake oil to proliferate — and that much harder for parents and others to sort what actually helps from what simply sells.
The CDC comment was put onscreen in such close proximity to her MMR comment, that those who do NOT know that the MMR contains live virus, and therefore NO Thimerosal, might decide there’s a connection.
Qchan63 has addressed most of my irritation from this show. The Google ad McCarthy saw was Gen Rescue’s “autism is reversible”, which I still see regularly.
Strike 2 Oprah! Will you ever get it right?
A few months ago I read somewhere that Jenny McCarthy has an interesting theory about autism. Autistic kids are just “Crystal Children” who have telepathic abilities, which is why they have problems with language skills. She herself is an Indigo, which is one evolutionary step before the Crystal kids.
Sadly, I’m not making this crap up.
The mercury moms will cry buckets over a kid who smears feces, then they pick as their spokesmodel a woman who would do the same on camera for a buck, and who has vomited and then eaten the vomit on camera (one hopes it was some kind of faux vomit, but some people will do anything for money).
What would the typical ASD kid learn about social behavior from hanging around with Jenny McCarthy? She has nothing that is too private to discuss, apparently next to no boundaries and no dignity at all. An NT kid might pick up the rules about what it is that makes Jenny popular and know how far they can go with burping and passing gas in public and remain popular. I suspect that ASD kids wouldn’t pick up on the subtleties and end up getting beat up for talking about eating vomit or wanting to have a picture taken while sitting on a toilet with their underpants down and girning.
But I think the deal is that the mercury parents were desperate for a spokesmodel, they got dumped by David Kirby and Bobby Kennedy Jr. Lyndelle Redwood and Lisa Ackerman just doesn’t quite cut it for Oprah, so they have the dumb bunny, blonde side-show exhibition to work with. May her 15 minutes of autism fame last for 5.
Yeah you sure showed me Kev. Thanks for this latest contribution to the world discussion on autism issues.
At least Kev let’s you post your comments, Harold. You don’t let any of us comment on your blog, from what I’ve seen. You’re all about censorship, censorship, censorship, oh, yeah, and self pity, and promises of how your son is going to end up in an institution.
If you held on a little longer, you would have seen a more positive side. Oprah second guest, Hollie something, talked about her experience with her autistic son, and she contended that it’s not the end of the world. She embraces the gifts of her son and said that there were many people on the spectrum who change the world.
I recommend that anyone who wants to know how Harold feels about autism to look at his site today. In his most recent post, he talks about how a friend asked “whether there was something {Harold’s son} is really good at.” Harold’s answer? “I am pleased that he has made progress with language and understanding life primarily by ABA intervention. But he does not have a special gift or talent.”
Wow. It seems that in Harold’s opinion if an autistic kid does not have a savant skill then he/she doesn’t have any special skills or talents at all.
What bothered me the most about the show (and I’ll admit that we also only watched half of it – The other half is in TiVo waiting to be watched tonight) is when Jenny spoke of her son’s stereotypic behaviors after being given his diagnosis. How she had always attributed them as cute quirks of his personality, but after receiving his diagnosis, they became the enemy, locking her real son away from her.
Basically, she gave the impression that before his diagnosis, those quirks were a lovable part of her son’s personality, and after the diagnosis, they were the very walls of his prison cell.
My overall impression: I’ve seen worse. At least she didn’t talk about how he is a “Crystal/Indigo Child” (or DID she? maybe I just haven’t watched that part yet). After seeing the interview, I have no doubt of her tremendous love for her son, but a “broken/locked-away†person is of no less worth than a “healed†person, and her interview didn’t give me the impression that she felt that way.
Jenny McCarthy is no rocket scientist. Her views on causation are meaningless. I don’t think it is a big part of her message. In fact, she says she is pro-vaccine. She makes other comments about vaccines, but I don’t think they are important.
However, her views on her son’s progress are important. She says GFCF made an immediate impact on her son. She says early intervention has helped. She talks about how Jim Carrey has lovingly embraced her son. I don’t know about you, but he strikes me as a person that knows how to reach and relate to kids.
Those are all positive meaaages. I see no reason to dwell on the part of her message that you don’t like. Like I said before, I get the feeling that some people would be devastated if GFCF or ABA worked. Heaven forbid that something might possible help a child.
Better get used to it, you will be hearing more stories like hers in the future.
No one here is arguing against helping children.
Of course, we’ll be hearing more stories like Jenny’s (what with over-diagnosing so as to avoid lawsuits and receive services). I could tell one as well if I wanted to be over-dramatic and violate my kid’s privacy.
An antidote to, “I have to rip my kid out of autism though the tiny hole of time that I have.” as the dumb bunny says.
Oh, yeah, Holly embraces her son’s autism alright.
From her appearance on a LA news show, a paraphrase of a mom’s description of Holly:
“She then went on to state how they called her son on his “autistic behaviour” whenever he was doing something they found weird…. when this happens, Holly says to her son: “How are you acting?! ? !”; and then he replies (she used a classic, “hollywood movie”, mentally retarded voice when she imitated him): “Uh, I’m acting so aww-tees-tick!” Meaning, then of course, he should cease and desist immediately … for everyone else’s (read: his mom’s) comfort level.”
Oh, yeah, Holly can speak for my kid’s experience **any time**…. (that’s sarcasm).
These people are putrid, in my opinion, but typical of the media to choose people like them to be on TV. They sure don’t want anyone on there who might act “AW-TEES-TICK .” Not unless they all needed a good laugh at our expense.
Better get used to it, you will be hearing more stories like hers in the future.
Oh, and about that, the autism community has been subjected to stories like hers since the times of Bettleheim. The only thing that has changed is the woo, and the fact that we now have the internet, more awareness and so on.
Also, unless her son lost his diagnosis, what’s remarkable about her story?
Summer… Yes, the “positive” side was there for a few minutes with HRP. But in the same breath as “respect these children” came “find that window, and get them OUT” . more or less anyway. If anyone cares what else I thought about this, see it on YouTube user= wiscsuzki
I’m sorry, I am a bit out of the loop.
Who is Jenny McCarthy? Who is Holly Peete? Why would I need to read her book or listen to either of them versus, say… my son’s neurologist (he had neo-natal seizures… which happened before he had any kind of vaccine), his speech therapists or his cardiologist?
Who is stupid enough to believe that the links on the right hand side of a Google page are not advertizements? I mean, it says (in gray type) “Sponsored Links” right above those links. Perhaps someone should send her a dictionary.
Though, seriously… I have no idea who Jenny McCarthy nor Holly Peete are. Actually, I’m surprised that Oprah is still on in the daytime.
By the way, a way long time ago when I first had to stay home with the baby (in between trips to the hospital, neurologists and other interesting places you get to go to when a baby has seizures as a newborn) I did watch some daytime TV. I think Geraldo Rivera had one of those shows (that baby starts community college next week!). I had to quit when I found myself be frightened by every little thing. Thank goodness daytime talk shows can be readily avoided… like the plague (at home sick days are now filled with DVDs).
So when do we see Lisa Ackerman doing a “Leave Jenny ALONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Video? I’m sure she’d be great, or maybe they should leave it to Kim Stagliano.
_”Yeah you sure showed me Kev. Thanks for this latest contribution to the world discussion on autism issues.”_
No worries HD – I could tell how unimportant you felt it was by your rush to comment on it ;o)
Jenny McCarthy has said she was an outcast, felt separate from people and still acts extremely goofy, even going so far as to call herself a goofball.
Is Jenny an Aspie?
Is Jenny an Aspie?
Please No.
Please, please, please, no.
My son has autism. Oprah’s show is not the forum for serious and effective discussion – it jumps around topics and gives incomplete information, but at least it has gotten us talking. I believe no one thing causes autism, and I don’t think Jenny believes that either. Also, no one thing “cures” it. I do believe the following things collectively weaken the immune system which plays a significant role in causing problems all along the spectrum: thimerasol in the flu shot that my wife got 2 of while pregnant, thimerasol in the rhogam shot she got, overuse of antibiotics without corresponding probiotics, including the antibiotics my wife received the day of giving birth, pitocin, the epidural, which is a serious anisthetic, a genetic predisposition for my son to autoimmune issues (uncle has diabeties, daddy has m s, mommy has hypothyroid), environmental pollutants, old mercury fillings in my wife’s teeth and a vaccine schedule that is too aggressive. (do we really need a hep b shot the very day we are born? even if we are premature or one of 3 underweight triplets??) I am not anti vaccine, but the current schedule as it is for 93 out of 94 boys isn’t a problem. but for the 94th, well that’s another issue. nobody knows their children like a mom. for my son, we believe the mmr was the straw that broke the camels back. no, there’s no thimerasol in that particular shot, but the appropriate immune response to the mmr just didn’t happen in his body. he now has a morphed version of the vaccine strain of measles in his body wreaking havoc. that’s a medical fact. he’s my science. he is one individual human being whose exact situation is unlike any other child with autism. we as parents need information so that we can make choices. educate yourself. read Steph Cave’s vaccine book. be informed. why is it so hard to find info about vaccines? as for the biomed treatments, it is true that it is a very unexact science because these kids have serious complex issues (and doctor’s “practice” medicine), but many of the biomed treatments have significant positive effects and are very common sensical. it is just the plain truth. learn about leaky gut and the gut-brain connection. learn about candida. learn about the mercury-testosterone connection vs estrogen. learn about how gluten and casein can leak into the blood and cause brain disfunction and bizarre behavior. it is all good fun to make fun of jenny and oprah, but hundreds if not thousands of parents have seen in some cases remarkable improvements in their children after going w/ biomed treatments. my wife and i have. yeah, the hyperbaric chamber is pretty far-fetched, but let’s be realistic here. EVERY parent of a young child with autism should at least TRY GFCF, which is very very hard to do, and meet with a DAN! doctor. it is your choice. my son has gotten much much better and it is because of DAN! it is a fact. god bless and good luck
oops forgot to mention he also absolutely received intense occ therapy, speech therapy, etc. and he no longer presents as having autism at 3 1/2 years old, whereas at 1 1/2 years, he was non communicative, stimmed constantly, paced constantly, played with toys inappropriately, no eye contact, horrific diarrhea, irritable, coulnd’t sleep thru the night. it has all been great fun. maybe this is “anecdotal” as people like to say, and if only small percentages of people are actually curing their children, ask any parent and they’ll want to be in that minority
Stevebot was here.
Stevebot said: ” I am not anti vaccine, but the current schedule as it is for 93 out of 94 boys isn’t a problem. but for the 94th, well that’s another issue. nobody knows their children like a mom. for my son, we believe the mmr was the straw that broke the camels back. no, there’s no thimerasol in that particular shot, but the appropriate immune response to the mmr just didn’t happen in his body.”
Evidence please? Something that shows that the MMR which has been used in the USA since 1971 has an over 1 in 100 chance of causing problems in boys.
OOOh… all those horrible things that happened to mommy! A flu shot! A rhogam shot! Antibiotics! Pitocin! An epidural!
Have you considered what would have happened if she had not had a Rhogam shot? Do you know what happens with Rh incompatibility? Is that something you would have rather taken the risk for?
For me… I only had some pitocin.
Though I did a nice big cold, I don’t think the flu shot would have spared me that. Two weeks of being in bed not being able to take many drugs. It was very hard to sleep when my nose was stuffed up, and I was constantly coughing up phlegm. I slept in the basement… when I did sleep. Fun. Fun. Fun. NOT.
NO antibiotics. None, zip, nada.
Also no epidural! First I was not dilated enough, and then I was TOO dilated. So I pushed for 90 minutes with no help other than a small dose of stadol.
But I did have pitocin. The reason was I was at 42 weeks. One of the things that is just as much of a concern as prematurity, is being late. And the kid was very late.
So, Stevebot… you seem to be the “expert”, what caused my kid’s seizures when he was 2 days old. This was 19 years ago, so there was no vaccine (not even the HepB).
Was it the pitocin? Was it the cold I had had? Or was it because he was post-mature? Or was it because he had his over 6′ tall father’s big fat Dutch head trying to squeeze through the pelvis of a 5’2″ woman?
Why did I have a child who had seizures? Why did he not talk when he was three years old (though he did have a 70 word sign language vocabulary)? Why did he need 10 years of speech therapy? Do tell! Please, you seem to have all the (unreferenced and unverifiable) answers!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Fox_(Tekken)
That Steve Fox?
“Hundreds if not thousands of parents have seen in some cases remarkable improvements in their children after going w/ biomed treatments. my wife and i have… My son has gotten much much better and it is because of DAN! it is a fact.”
My son has also gotten much much better, it is a fact. So have Kev’s daughter, Steve D’s son and hundreds if not thousands of other children not going through DAN! and biomed. It is called development.
Steve Fox, how do you know that you son wouldn’t improve without any biomed?
You see two events in succession, you applying biomed and your son improving. You jump to conclusion about a causal relationship between these events. Sounds to me like a very common logical mistake.
Science uses double-blind, placebo-controlled trials for reason.
Tis true, hundreds of thousands of parents are trying absolutely diddly squat and no matter where their child falls in the ranges of functioning, they develop.
I have no idea who Jenny McCarthy is. Horay!
My blog entry regarding McCarthy’s, um, interesting beliefs is right here.
Steve says: I do believe the following things collectively weaken the immune system which plays a significant role in causing problems all along the spectrum: thimerasol in the flu shot that my wife got 2 of while pregnant, thimerasol in the rhogam shot she got, overuse of antibiotics without corresponding probiotics, including the antibiotics my wife received the day of giving birth, pitocin, the epidural, which is a serious anisthetic
Thanks a lot, Steve. Way to make mothers out there feel like crap for “giving” their child autism because she didn’t want to experience all that pain during delivery, didn’t want to risk losing her child because of an illness or didn’t want to get horribly sick from the flu during the pregnancy.
Remind me next time I get pregnant/give birth/get in a car accident/go to the doctors/have a major debilitating illness/whatever to ask about every single thing that I’m going to be given, so I can get online and find out what the Internet community has to say about it first.
Should be even more fun if I’m unconscious at the time.
“You’re starting to sound like JB three years ago . . .”
You know better. I have clarified my reasoning previously. The expansion of the definition has resulted in those more mildly affected being diagnosed.
Early intervention means (hopefully) better education. Take two children of equal intelligence. Send one to the best private school with the best teachers and highest standards and expectations. Send the other one to a gang-invested drug-filled inner city public school. Which one has the better long term prospects? it ain’t rocket science.
If diet reduces sensory integration issues and results in improved focus then it only stands to reason that the child’s development will be faster.
Try to do a double blind study on food so you can prove the efficacy of GFCF. I’m cracking myself up over this one. On this one, I think you just have to trust your instincts.
You know I have to be honest, I’m getting a kick out of all this. The EoH-ers are just agog over McCarthy’s appearance on Oprah, as if she’s the solution to all that ails them.
Their scientists have been completely discredited, both inside and outside of the courtroom.
Geier has been laughed out of the courts so often, that he’s been reduced to a non-testifying consultant at a drastically reduced fee. Yet he continues to spew forth “scientific” articles at a rate so fast that it would make Stephen King envious. Coincidentally, each new article belched addresses the crticisms of the last article belched. And always with scientific certainty, he concludes thimerosal causes autism. Amazing!
Bradstreet is the quintessential quack. So clueless is this man, he makes George W. seem like Einstein. His testimony and writings were thrown out of court so fast and far, he still hasn’t found his way back (nor has he been sent directions).
The Haley, Deth, Burbacher, Holmes, yada-yada-yada, have all been dismissed by the medical/reserach establisment as well as the ALL courts. And the EoH-ers can’t decide if it’s thimerosal, mercury, aluminum, environmental toxins (generally), China, MMR, etc…
Yet, OH MY GOD!! Forget all of our pseudo-science, here comes Jenny McCarthy. People may not have believed all of our “experts” (for the past 7 years), but they’ll believe a flash in the pan actress/nudist.
Please…
Am I the only mom here who is just so tired of these long lists of things the woman probably did during pre-conception, pregnancy and birth to make her child autistic? You never hear anyone criticizing the man’s pre conception activities. Maybe the swimmers were polluted pre-ejaculation with vaccines, antibiotics, amalgam fillings, beer, cigarette smoke, car pollution, mc donalds gluten filled french fries.
If men gave birth too, there would not be one peep of criticism for epidurals. They would probably blame it on makeup, high heels and hairspray.
Well, I’m a Dad Erica but I know exactly what you mean. The leader of the org McCarthy found via Google recently wrote a ‘detoxification’ protocol for his wife for before, during and after her latest pregnancy. He apparently didn’t have to do a darn thing.
Siggy – c’mon – sense of humour feller 😉
Believe me. I’m getting a kick out of all this. The two sides are very entertaining.
On the other hand, it is really sad that the real message has been lost in all of the vax & biomed debate. Overall, I think McCarthy’s message is one that both sides can embrace.
One thing is for certain. You’ve picked some (relatively speaking) hot topics of late.
My child babbled for the first time within an hour of his 6 month shots. Surely this isn’t coincidence…
666sigma said: “Send one to the best private school with the best teachers and highest standards and expectations. Send the other one to a gang-invested drug-filled inner city public school.”
Now, I must take exception to this. In my city the private preschools do diddly-squat for disabled kids!
Through the requirements set in IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) a preschool for kids with speech and language disorders was available. There was a team consisting of a teacher, aide, speech therapists and OT/PT (occupational and physical therapists). The latter even had a special room with swings and specialized trikes.
The super-duper uber private preschools around here require an “entrance exam”. Kid does not speak at age 3… “sorry, we cannot have this child near the others!”. (which is what happened to a mom whose older son was on my kid’s soccer team, apparently she really like the private school for her older kids until they decided her speech delayed youngest was not allowed in — from then on she never said a positive thing about the private school)
When my son was in third grade (and completely mainstreamed with speech therapy and his reading/writing taking place in a small group) he got a new friend. This child was in a private school that FAILED to teach him to read. It seems they had no idea on how to deal with dyslexia, and they were unwilling to spend the money to find out or to get any more resources.
Gang infested? Where do you live? Fortunately our urban public high school is on top of such issues (I know, I spent two hours at its PTSA meeting last night, along with some time with the Special Education PTSA meeting being held upstairs at the same time). This is a school where an alumna who recently received a Nobel for medicine will be speaking, and its jazz band won last spring’s Essentially Ellington contest in New York City (look up the movie “Heart of the Game”).
And 666sigma continues “Which one has the better long term prospects? it ain’t rocket science.”
Isn’t it convenient for you that I used to be a rocket scientist (aerospace engineer) to address your gross errors in stereotyping?