Last night my wife insisted we stay up and watch the repeat of yesterday morning’s Oprah program. Her guests were Jenny McCarthy and Holly Robinson Peete, both the mothers of children with autism, and most of the show was devoted to Ms. McCarthy’s experiences of having her child diagnosed with autism, seeking treatment, how it’s affected her life, and so on.
The first symptom that Ms. McCarthy’s child presented with was seizures, the first seizure being characterized as a febrile seizure in the apparent absence of a fever. This surprised me somewhat as I thought that the presence of a fever was required to diagnose a febrile seizure, particularly if an EEG or spinal tap had not been taken. Perhaps some more knowledgeable person can clear this up for me. Although I’ve read of cases of autism following febrile seizures I don’t know of any proven causality between the two. Again, perhaps some more knowledgeable person can clear this up for me.
The comorbidity of epilepsy with autism is something like 10-30%. It is not thought to be causative but may complicate treatment.
At any rate Ms. McCarthy did some Internet-based research and put her son on a wheat-free, dairy-free, additive-free diet and, apparently, had some positive results. I’ve heard of some people with epilepsy benefitting from a ketogenic diet (low carb, high fat) but I haven’t heard of any non-anecdotal studies of the effectiveness of a wheat-free, dairy-free, additive-free diet in dealing with primary autism. Yet again, perhaps some more knowledgeable person can enlighten me.
Apparently, both Jenny McCarthy and Holly Robinson Peete are wary of immunizations although they don’t seem to be completely ready to attribute autism to thimerosal used as a preservative in vaccines.
My take: I think that autism does not have any single etiology and, especially, at the present state of knowledge while there may be some kid somewhere whose autism was caused by thimerosal I see no way that the idea that thimerosal is a significant cause of autism can be reasonably maintained. A lot of that belief is post hoc, propter hoc.
Over the years I’ve known quite some number of kids with autism and their parents. I’m well aware of how devastating it is and what a strain it puts on the family in every conceivable sense. And, of course, my wife works with kids with autism every day.
Forget the label. Focus on the kid’s needs and dealing with them. Assemble a support team including professionals, family, and friends. Yes, there are caring professionals out there who know a lot about helping kids with autism and what the best practices are for doing that. They can help you avoid a lot of waste motion and additional strain. They’re a resource. You’ll need all the resources you can find.
I’m sure that Oprah’s program will do a lot to bring kids with autism into the public eye and I’m equally sure that some of the attention will be on thimerosal and on treatments that haven’t been proven. Hopefully, some of the attention will be to the good.
On one thing I’m in complete agreement with Jenny McCarthy: no one size fits all.
I totally agree-so much attention is being focussed on Thimerosal and not on the fact that some children have many degrees of sensitivities and allergies. I think some children can handle vaccinations just fine but there are those that just can’t and they should be handled differently. My veterinarian is more cautious to this with our pets then my pediatrician is with my child. I was the one that delayed a vaccination for my child because he had recently been ill- that along with a history of allergies and sensitivies to previous injections, I knew something was up and wanted to to do more research before proceeding. There needs to be more studies done and not by the rich pharmaceutica companies. Our kids are developing more allergies and sensitivies and these shots are just too much for them. Someone listen!