I would not watch any interviews with her or read her book. Today, I gave in and watched her on The Doctors. I was surprised at what she said and how she represented herself and her child. She stressed that her child “recovered” from Autism through biomedical treatments. I am happy for them both. However, I also believe that she is one of the lucky ones. My son always showed signs of Autism. It took five years before he was officially diagnosed. As a baby, he was slow to meet developmental milestones. He babbled, but never actually formed any speech. He would learn how to do something, and then stop doing it. It was like he was picking out things that he thought was acceptable for him to do, and would throw a huge tantrum if we tried to get him to do something he didn’t want to do.
My son also had extreme sensory issues with touch and sound. Through years of therapy to address both, we have seen vast improvements in these. We have also seen improvements in socialization, eye contact, OCD, and fine motor and gross motor developmental skills. We have tried biomedical treatments, specifically diets and supplements, in the past with no results. Recently, we have gone back to trying these and have seen some improvements. I don’t think my son will ever fully “recover” but the improvements I have seen are great.
Jenny may not be a good representative of my family, but I now think that there are families that her experience and her resources may help. I would like to see her add to her roll of advocate. A person with her public image and resources could do a lot for bringing help to families like mine. A foundation that advocates for changes in the public school system would be great. Providing help for families to receive therapies that are beyond our financial means would be terrific. Grants to receive special equipment or augmentative devices would be very helpful. Providing scholarships to summer camps for children with Autism would be a welcome relief.
I am no longer against Jenny. I do think she could do more and would love to see her do so. I would also welcome the opportunity to review her book for my site. I won’t sugar coat my opinion of it, but I would be fair and open minded. If the book is good, it should be able to stand up to a review from me.
9 comments:
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Good points to ponder. Thanks for that. popping in from sits :)
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I don't have a child with autism so I am coming from a different place than you.
Here are my thoughts on Jenny McCarthy as a spokesperson...she is the only celeb that I've seen (with maybe the exception of Jim Carey) talking about autism. There might be others out there but she is getting the most mainstream coverage by far.
Having seen several interviews of her, I have learned a lot about autism, specifically the disorder and the fact that it is something that some kids can recover from. I'm guessing that she gives many parents of autistic children hope.
I think it's interesting that she continues to speak out though her son is recovered. I think some celebs might have stopped doing interviews if they were in her shoes.
Anyway...just my 2 cents.
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I'm so glad you popped in from SITS today! I'm going to go check out your felt creations! Have a great day!
Hmm. . . not sure what I think about Jenny M - Except that I have a friend who also has an autistic son and I know the struggles she has gone thru, so I think every parent in your shoes deserves a special place in everyone's hearts ~ think you all do what works for you and your family and that is what seems to be the most important thing! If there are things out there that may work for one family, who knows, it could be just the the thing another family has been looking for?? Happy MOther's Day to all.
Hi, I follow you now and wanted to say I completely understand what your saying.
I have three good friends that have kids with Autism and it is a fulltime job to care for a couple of them and the other one goes to school and what not.
My heart goes out to you.
Here is my blog
http://www.papermoonies.blogspot.com
Brittany
Found you on mothering.com (I think the UC thread.)
I really enjoyed Jenny's book. She talks frankly and with a lot of humor.
She believes strongly that vaccines caused her sons autism. She believes that vaccines have their place but to just vaccinate every child, every time, is harmful. (Can't say that I disagree.)
According to her, her son was developmentally on track until the vaccines. Almost immediately she began to see changes.
She really goes into detail about the trials she went through and how "out of touch" he was in the beginning. How unreachable.
The treatments she sought, from learning from other women, really helped. Slowly at first, and with greater and greater momentum.
I would enjoy reading your review.
Have you ever tried paperbackswap?
What bothers me the most about Jenny M and her ilk is that she represents only a fraction of what constitutes "autism"--there are many types of the disorder, and not all respond to the treatments that helped her son.
Yes, There is a form of autism that is a hyper-celiac type condition, where kids are highly allergic to gluten and casein, and putting them on the diet does wonders. But that's nowhere near the majority.
Just like ABA is highly effective for some kids, but totally wrong for others.
I think they will find that there is an environmental connection in some forms of autism (there is some interesting work about brain-stem permeability--they're thinking that some kids are more susceptible to heavy metal contamination, like from the the old binders in the old vaccines, because of a genetic condition that creates the permeability. It's not the vaccines themselves, or even anything in current vaccines--so saying that "vaccines cause autism" is such a huge disservice to parents it makes me crazy). But there are many more types that have nothing to do with heavy metals--so chelation therapy and high heat sauna treatments are a needless and expensive torture for many.
Autism is not a single condition, but an umbrella that covers many conditions. So there is no "cure" and for many, no real "recovery." What works for one child might be hell on earth for another.
All the publicity given to people who "cure" their kids puts a burden of pressure on those of us with kids for whom those aren't appropriate therapies. We all try to do what is right and best for our kids to the best of our abilities. I get worn down further by people telling me that if I would "just" put my kid on the diet, or "just" try some other therapy that would take away some of what the little pleasure she gets out of life, I would be a better parent to her.
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