When a child is first diagnosed with Autism, it comes as a huge shock to the parents. When the shock wears off, then begins the frantic search to ‘cure my child.’ The parents will typically seek out medical doctors who might have an answer, but find that the typical pediatric physician really has nothing to offer other then referring your child to another medical professional, who is usually a pediatric neurologist. The Pediatric neurologist more often then not, will suggest putting your autistic child on an anti-depressant such as Prozac, and even Ritalin.
The Prozac does not alleviate the autistic symptoms, but essentially dopes the child up enough so that a lot of the hyperactive behaviors that are typical to an autistic child will be “controlled.” By controlled, I mean it puts the child into a zombie-like state thus allowing the parent to control the child’s undesirable behaviors with the drug.
Ritalin calms the hyperactive behaviors as well, but at a huge cost! One autistic child that I know by the name of Angela, now age 10, was put on Ritalin. Some of the hyperactivity was alleviated, however within hours of the first dose of the drug, Angela began pulling the hair on her head out by the roots, leaving her with huge areas of bald spots. She stopped growing at a normal rate, as Angela, who had always been of average weight and height on the pediatric growth chart within a year was completely below normal levels on the chart in both weight and height! Additionally, she began other new behaviors such as an extreme level of intolerance to frustration, head banging, and other self injurious behaviors.
Finally after 5 years of being on Ritalin and Prozac, Angela’s parents reached the end of the line! They found another doctor, a non-conventional specialist who was known for “treating the cause” and not covering up the symptoms like a band-aid would a scrape. The physician, Dr. Amy Davis, immediately took Angela off of the Ritalin, and weaned her off the Prozac. Can you guess what happened? Thats right! The first day that Angela was not on Ritalin, she did not pull her hair out, nor did she bang her head on the wall. The next day was the same, then the next. Six months later, Angela has never had another episode- not even one- of the self-injurious behaviors. Her hair is growing nicely and a person cannot even tell that she once had a head full of large bald spots.
It is a great misnomer to think that drugs are the only thing that can be done to “help” a child that has autism, as there are plenty of alternatives beyond conventional medical intervention that have been proven over time to have an enormous record of success. Therapies that do not “band-aid” the symptoms. Therapies that have no ill side effects. Therapies that actually help the child recover from the autistic disorder, and some parents and alternative practitioners claim even cure the autism! I know! It is hard to believe, in fact at one time when I had heard of these alternative treatments and their success rates I refused to believe it myself! However, being a parent of a “recovering” autistic 12 year old child myself, and out of desperate determination, have seen my daughter become “living proof.
The school systems are another story! It is widely known that ABA (Applied Behavioral Analysis) is the most effective method of teaching an autistic child. The special education system in most states offer it for children with the disorder. Sounds great doesn’t it? It would be- if it were actually accessible to every child who needs it! Unfortunately there is only enough funding given to the public schools for about 30% of the children in need of it. The schools put the other 70% on a “waiting list” and tell you it is a matter of months. The question is, how many months? 3? 30? 300? The answer is- more months then the child is in school! My daughter is 12. When she was 4 years old, she was “put on a waiting list” that I was told was 8 months long. She is still “On the waiting list.”
ABA is a method in which a child is given a simple task using a verbal cue. The task is repeated until the child completes the task, at which the child is given a reward. Then the process starts again. ABA has been shown to be remarkably successful.
Another thing that conventional pediatricians overlook is the fact that people with autism very often have a yeast intolerance as well as a build up of yeast in their bodies, particularly in their guts. This can easily be remedied with a simple anti-fungicidal medication- the same one that is given to babies with thrush- a yeast infection in the mouth. It was given to my daughter back when she was first diagnosed for a six month course, and I can attest to the fact that she rapidly improved. First I noticed that her eye contact improved and she became a lot more calm and mentally focused. Her bowels movements which had previously been a problem for her with chronic constipation and stomach cramps disappeared. Now she takes a 2 week course of the anti-fungicidal medication only on the rare occasions that she is on antibiotics (Only twice in her life!).
The most remarkable intervention that I am aware of is elimination of foods that the child is intolerant to. The best way to find out which foods there are is an “elimination diet”. This consists of putting the child on a diet of just a very few foods that are not commonly allergenic nor that people are intolerant to such as potatoes and poultry, and then one at a time, adding different foods for several days to see if there is any sort of reaction. The most common foods that autistic kids are found to be intolerant to are any sort of casein or milk proteins and glutenous products such as wheat, barley, oats and different grain foods. Some reactions to corn, soy, tomatoes as well as other foods. (I am fortunate because the only foods that my daughter has shown an intolerance to has been gluten and casein).
Once the child is off of all the foods that they are intolerant to for a period of around six months, there often is a very noticeable difference, in that many if not all of their autistic behaviors and characteristics disappear. (With my daughter, it took all of a week being off both gluten and casein!)
There are more radical types of treatments that I have heard about from other parents and autism specialists, such as chelation therapy- which is a detoxifying process to remove the heavy metals from the child’s body. I have never had that done with my child, mainly because the combination of the GFCF Diet, the ABA therapy, the anti-fungicidal therapy have had remarkable results. However, there are cases in which chelation has been amazingly effective on children who have undergone this treatment as well.
There are other new treatments which are used successfully as well. It is a trial and error to find what works for each individual and fortunately now in the 21st century with so many alternatives being discovered every day, Autism is no longer considered to be completely hopeless and untreatable.
