natasha778

Auriel, your first post did leave me with the impression that you were a crue and hartless individual, which I now see was probably not the case. I'm sorry about the harsh response. Natasa

Lucas, I cannot believe the amount of malice in your post. My son has been helped a lot by biomedical treatments. He is a much, much healthier and HAPPIER child than before the biomedics. And yes, less 'autistic'. However hard it may be FOR YOU TO SWALLOW, I now have my living, breathing 'proof' to my 'assumptions': my lively, bubly, pointing, waving, sociable, aware, responsive, playful, cuddly, testimony that biomedics work, right in front of my eyes twentyfourseven. To say that what my son and my family see and live and breathe every day 'circular logic'? Insulting. To deny my son, and others that come after him, that opportunity to flourish and become his true self, is selfish, to say the least. But to urge others to do the same (not to vote) is horrific. Sincerely, Natasa

Baddad, in your signature you quote Dr Bernard Rimland, who is the founder/father of Defeat Autism Now movement. (DAN! by Autism Research Institute http://www.autismwebsite.com/ari/index.htm) Isn't that ironic. Natasa

When I posted the original link I had no intention of starting or participating in a debate. There is the petition. You read it. You agree with it, you sign it. You don?t agree with it, you don?t sign. Dead simple. But I now find some of the above posts so perplexing that I have to comment. Baddad, I find your position the strangest of all. You say your son is on gfcf diet, and it works for him. You also say it works for some other ASD individuals. What about other dietary interventions? What about SCD, or sugar free/candida free, or oxelate free, or phenol free diets? If gfcf works for some, why wouldn?t these other diets work for some other individuals? Or why wouldn?t some of the diets work even better in combination? Wouldn?t you want to find out? Wouldn?t you want to know the mechanism of why the gfcf works on your child? Or would that be too politically incorect? The less we know the better? I see from your other posts that your son is taking fish oils. So obviously you agree the fish oils do have some function on workings of the brain, directly or indirectly. Don?t you want to know the mechanism, the reasons these work? And possibly, along the process, stumble across some other things that might work even better? If you agree that fish oils influence the workings of the brain, why would you disagree that other things e.g. high doses of vitamins b12 or vitamin C might have a similar, or even more powerful function, directly or indirectly? Where do you draw the line? WHY do you draw the line? It seems to me that yes, you do want your child to function better, but you are afraid that doing so might offend someone. Weird! If I had to chose between making my son higher functioning and stepping on someone?s toes? A no-brainer, really. Or is it maybe that going deeper in the biomedical (and yes, the diets and fish oils do count as biomedical treatmens, in case anyone is wondering) direction is too outside your comfort zone? The risk of failure or ridicule is just too big there? Were you always taught to listen to authority, the establishment? If your GP told you that yes, there are now more dietary and other interventions our there that might help with some symptoms, and some of them might help some of the individuals lose their dx completely, would you believe him/her? Or do you wish getting the truth out never happens just in case it might offend someone? Weird. Littlenemo, You say �?there is too much evidence of genetic and brain structure?�. ??? Where is that evidence??? Can you name the papers, the researchers? I am really, really interested in this one, please forward the information. I have been researching, sourcing, and reading scientific and academic papers on autism for months and months and have not come across one such paper. You say �?while treating autism 'biomedically' may alleviate some of the comorbid problems in some autistics..� Where do you draw the line? What are the SOME treatments that work on SOME autistics? Don?t you want to find out what those SOME are exactly? And WHY they work, when they do? Or would finding that one out be too politically incorect, are we again afraid of stepping on someone?s shoes. Weird. Auriel, Yes, very funny. Very funny indeed. I haven?t stopped laughing since I realised my son was autistic. I?m still bursting with laughter. In your face. LOL. Natasa

Hi all, please take a minute of your time to read and sign this petition if you agree with it. http://new.PetitionOnline.com/FundUs/petition.html p.s. it doesn't like AOL - cut and paste the URL into Internet Explorer if you have probs

Interesting that you point to flouride, I just had another look at the thread, where someone is describing its effects on thyroid/autism. I haven't had time to read the (long) post yet, but here is the link to the whole thread: http://www.autismweb.com/forum/viewtopic.p...420d7e0f9680de9

http://www.avn.org.au/Children's%20Gallery/angie.htm

Was just reminding my hb (nt) the other day, after reading the article, how I always used to tell him he was not very good at reading people's feelings and moods - he often misses subtle signs expressed through tone of voice, facial expressions etc. He has also always been 'funny' when travelling, just switches off completely and gets very uncommunicative, as if he needs to focus on something out there.... So yes, I very much agree with that article.

Bev, so sorry to hear that, the only consolation I can offer is: you are not the only one, I suppose we all have to deal with that type of problem. My side of the family is not too bad (at least so far, it is still early days), my father-in-law is pretty reasonable, but my mother-in-law is a real master of denial. The A word is a strict taboo, no matter how we try to explain she just says we are imagining things and that he will grow out of it soon, once he starts playing with other kids more - and of course she thinks it is my fault, as I don't take him to playgroups often enough. Her best ever was (re: my son not talking yet): "it is because you don't talk to him enough. If you just sit down next to him and say a word really sloooowly, and then repeat it a few times, I'm sure he'll start talking". I guess if I look on the bright side she does live a two hour flight away. huh. There was a great article in yesterday's Guardian, about a boy whose face got burn in house fire when he was a baby, and how the family are dealing with his facial disfigurement, ie with stares and bullying and misunderstanding. Before the boy started school the mother went to see the headmaster and explained the situation, and then wrote to all the parents in his class... http://www.guardian.co.uk/family/story/0,,1645665,00.html Maybe in some situations handing a book on autism or something like that would be of help... don't know, just hope there is something out there that would make some people think/listen.. .

Liz, that is exactly the point I was trying to make, thanks. Ops!

ops! sorry, still learning how to use this...

WOOOW, Sue, I think I got that, in which case I almost totally agree. Lucas, I do believe you when you say you want to help our children, it is just that you (from what I gather, correct me if I'm wrong) believe that the ONLY way to help is through understanding and acceptance. Which is fab, love and understanding and all, but I'm tired of hearing opinions that go along the lines of dismissing every (biomedical or behavioural) approach or theory as flawed, hurtful, unscientific or morally wrong, every doctor as quack, every parent as selfish, every treatment as 'snake-oil'. I'll risk sounding utopian and naive but will bring up the following question: is it possible that we (i.e. both sides in this argument) could one day meet somewhere in the middle and try and find a way from there? I just think that new approach (and agreement) is needed in order to maximise benefits (iiieee, so corporate-speak ) for both our children, parents and adult autistics. Agree?

Malika, (meant to include this in previous post, ops) are you familiar of research work by Dr Aristo Vodjani .... I better quote on his this: "Dr. Vojdani obtained his Ph.D. in the field of microbiology and clinical immunology with postdoctoral studies in tumor immunology. He is Director of Immunosciences Lab., Inc. in Beverly Hills, CA; Assistant Research Professor of Neurobiology, in the Department of Neurobiology at David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA; member of editorial board of three scientific journals; and published more than 90 articles in scientific journals. His research interest currently is focused on neuroimmunology of autism and multiple sclerosis".... Lucas, I might be wrong on this one but I think both Temple Grandin and Theresa Binstock (both in Dr Rimland's 'camp', incidentally) are Autistics.

Malika, you might find the following of some interest: http://www.scdiet.org/6research/lupus.html

Hi, my advice would be to first get some tests done, like blood, urine... Comprehensive Stool Analysis is a very useful one (not sure whether it would be available through NHS though - if not they might have something similar). Anyway, this is to establish what exactly goes on, what nutrients he is lacking etc, as you might end up giving him something that his body does not need (probably would not do any harm, but you would be waisting your time and effort, as good quality supplements are not cheap), or you might give him something that does need but in different dosages etc. There are labs in this country that would do blood tests that establish level of fatty acids in blood (not sure what the tests are called exactly), ie whether he lacks omega-3 and how badly. Secondly, and this is actually CRUCIAL, is to find out what h digestion/absorbtion is like. Most autistic kids have some sort of damage to their intestines and there is malabsortion (for various reasons, usually bacterial dysbiosis, presence of fungus that damages intestinal wall etc) of nutrients. So even though he gets proper nutriets, supplements etc in his food, what he puts in his body does not get digested/absorbed and gets waisted - literally 'goes down the drain'. If there is malabsorbtion and other gastrointestinal issues the best way to try and address them is through Specific Carbohydrate Diet (see my postings on the subject for more information), combination of enzymes, colostrum etc. If you do go ahead with Omega-3, apparently the most effective are the ones where the ratio of EPA to DHA is about 80/20, so if you have say 400 EPA then you don't want more than about 80-100 DHA in them. You also want pharmaceutical grade Omega-3, with no oxigen (nitrogen is better). Optimum dosage is said to be 1gr (of EPA, as DHA is apparently not as important) dialy. Unfortunaly high quality supplements are guite pricey, another reason to establish whether whether he would be absorbing them at all. Good luck!