I agree that individuals on the spectrum can’t be “cured” in the traditional sense. I think “managed” is closer to it. What caused the problem still exists, they have learned how to deal with it.

Don’t forget that autism is diagnosed behaviorally, not medically. Some are regressive, some not. Because of that, we are probably looking alot of different causes. I have heard from parents who believe their childs’ autism was caused, by allergies, vaccines, food preservatives, environmental insult, trauma during birth and genetics. We may find out that they are all right. Could be that we will see a refining of diagnosis and many kids rediagnosed with something else. Until it was added to the DSM, it was considered psychological and often diagnosed as childhood schizophrenia

Not sure I understand what you are asking about teachers treating kids on the spectrum “differently”. They have to just to be sensitive each child’s needs and learning styles. If you mean in a negative sense- yes, some do. Those who have not bothered to educate themselves.

Mom of 2 on the spectrum from birth.

I do believe some kids do have it appear after shots but they maybe had it all along just not as severe, the shots may trigger it perhaps. I don’t think you can lose it, jenny’s son still technically has it, they have just found a way to help lessen the severity of it. If they went off the diet restrictions I think he would revert back to the way he was. I don’t know about teachers teaching different, at my kids school there is a little boy in my daughters class, he may have autism or something very close anyways he get’s treated the same but has his own helper with him since he is prone to misbehaving and getting of track which was disrupting the whole class so he generally get’s treated as much the same as the others and the other kids don’t act any different towards him either which I think is great.

As an professional in the autism field and mother of an autistic son, I too have opinions on Ms.McCarthy.

I think the smartest thing she has been saying is this: the CDC needs to look over the immunization schedule. It should not be a “one size fits all”. Some children’s immunity is lower than others to begin with. Perhaps they could space the shots out…Do I think the vaccinations are causing autism? No, not by themselves. Do I think they may contribute? Absolutely.

The April 2007 issue of Discovery magazine headlines “Autism: The answer may lie in the gut not the head”. There are several gastronomical abnormalitoies as well..hence the GF/CF diets that help SOME.

There is no such thing as a “genetic epidemic” but quite obviously, there is a “enviromental epidemic” and we are in it.

I have a child that was diagnosed with Autism before the MMR shot (shot Jenny refers to). He has had the shot since and it did not make him any worse, it did not make the characteristics of his autism any worse. I also have 2 older sons who have had the vaccine and do not have autism or any other type of disability. What about all the other childern out there that have had the shot but don’t have autism? The risks are much greater to not receive the shot than to receive it. Even though there is many theories to what causes autism, the one thing that is clear is that they are either born with it or born with the potential to develope it.

I agree, you cannot lose autism. Lets look at this from a different point of view. A person has diabetes but does not know it, they have a seizure, find out they are diabetic, take the insulin and change their diet because of blood sugar levels so it doesn’t happen again, but just because they may never have a seizure again doesn’t mean the diabetes is now gone. Same applies to autism, the only difference is what you try with one child may not work with another child because as we know 2 kids with the same characteristics can act completely different, a diet/treatment/therapy that works with one child may not work with another child. You can do treatments/ therapies, you can implement a gfcf diet and yes some of the charateristics may not be there or as apparent as they once were, but that does not mean the autism is now gone because that characteristic is gone. Autism is a life long disability no matter what charteristic(s) improve or disappear. Unless you can pinpoint the cause(s) of autism how can you have a cure for it.

What’s really sad is parents with childern who have autism or not rather listen to a Playboy model than someone with a medical degree in the field of autism. Yeah just who I want to look-up/listen to and get advice from..yuck.

I will not comment on Ms. Mccarthy…I said plenty last week.

I have a son with autism. While he was not diagnosed formally until 23 months of age, it was very clear to us from an early age that there was something “off” about him. Lack of eye contact, a refusal to be held or comforted, nearly no indication or reaction to pain all predated his vaccinations.

I question the idea of the vaccinations being the culprit. The biggest school of thought is that the mercury in the shots is the cause. However, mercury levels in vaccinations have steadily decreased in the past several years, while the number of children diagnosed with autism is on the increase. Add in that more and more parents are refusing to vaccinate and the data does not seem to support the theory. Add in the fact that autism is statistcally associated with males ( a ratio of three to one) and genetics would definitely seem to play a roll in it.

My personal thoughts are that children are born with autism…however, the symptomology is triggered (and usually this happens between 18-24 months) by a chemical catalyst. I tend to support the idea of the catalyst being an enzyme that is produced excessively or not at all at a point during development when it is required. That outside factors could effect it as well is not impossible to consider.

However, I firmly believe that forgoing vaccination in a child that has shown not symptomology or in a spectrum child that has had no clear reaction to the vaccinations is taking a huge risk. Autism is life changing but not life threatening. We have seen what happens when we make the mistake of thinking a disease we have vaccinations for is eradicated (polio, smallpox)…vaccinations drop and the disease resurfaces These diseases are life threatening…not only to the child who may be exsposed, but to the others the child may in turn exspose.

At one point, the medical world considered chicken pox a disease that should be lived through then you would be immune. This is not true, and it took someone saying “This isn’t right” before the medical community realized there were long-term dangers that resulted from having chicken pox in grade school, and now it is common to try to PREVENT it by offering vaccinations.

History is filled with stories of things that couldn’t be helped or couldn’t be fixed, and it took someone saying they disagreed, and deciding to look for the answer before the preventative measure or change could be discovered.

I don’t know if autism has much to do with the shots children receive early in life. If it does, as much as the people who have been unlucky in that have the right to be upset and desire a change, it must be acknowledged that a lot MORE children would be at greater risk for major health problems if they don’t get vaccinated, based on a chance they could get autism.

Regardless of how they got it, I support ANYONE who believes something can be done to help kids with autism, and who keep fighting for more to be learned about it and how to prevent or treat it.

And yes, most teachers and schools do treat kids with autism much much differently than they do other “normal” students. In my son’s school, there is a special class just for the autism kids. They are made fun of by other kids. They are separated and only around each other in every activity because of that and because they are occasionally a disruption to the rest of the classes. With mild autism, most teachers don’t even know how to work with those kids, so the child either gets in trouble a lot, does not learn a lot, is put in the other class, or just sort of slips through the cracks.

It’s great that you’ve been able to mature to an adult who apparently had a great experience with school as an autistic child, seeing as you even have to ask if they are treated regularly. Most kids do not have that luxury, and if something can be done to prevent, treat or cure autism, I’m all for anyone who is at least trying.

The fact that she used to be a Playboy model means nothing. No, I would not listen to anyone without a medical degree more than I would the doctors who have examined and treated my child, but prior to Jenny McCarthy’s attachment to the world of autism, what the general public knew about it came from Rain Man. If you would like to be told that you aren’t worth listening to because of some indescretions when you were young, by all means, be judgemental. Regardless of what she used to do, she’s a mother, and no mother deserves to be treated like her opinions about something going on with her child are not valid because she did something wrong a decade ago.

Hi ..My twin son Thomas has severe autism non verbal also i get asked this a lot because my twin daughter is fine, i for one do not blame the MMR jab i think either a child is born with it or soon after birth, Thomas was always a very quiet baby he wasn’t diagnosed until aged 3 he is nine now Im not sure teacher would be able to treat children with autism different, Thomas attends a special school, i made a slide show on you tube about him x

What are all these answers talking about???? Jenny McCarthy has done 0 research! None! when asked for ANY evidence to back up her claims she responds with “my child is my evidence!” What kind of answer is that? Coupled with her nonsensical claims that her child was an “indigo child” and assorted other nonsense she spews I wouldn’t trust her to take care of my pets! If my child yanked on the TV cord and got his skull cracked by it and I started a giant campaign to get TVs banned because I knew they were “made unsafely and caused brain damage in children!”, I better be bringing a lot more research and information to the table than just repeating the phrase “My son is my proof!”, but for some reason since she is famous and has large fake breasts, people have decided that her scientific opinion is a valid one.

i am a mom of a child on the spectrum, he was different than my other 2 kids from the beginning, i always knew he acted different but, no Dr cared. he was born 3 weeks early and was in the nicu for a while (underdeveloped lungs) he had his shots late because of health issues, he started the mmr shots at about 2 1/2 yrs, but he did not speak or play w siblings or cuddle before the shots. i enrolled him in a special center for speech problems and he received several years of speech therapy and also received mental heath services. he was tentatively diagnosed with bi polarism, depression, ocd, disruptive disorder, add and adhd throughout the years, sadly he was 11 before we were sent to a hospital that specializes in autism before they figured out that was what he has. though he is high functioning and able to communicate very well now (lucky for the speech therapy) his school was a huge issue for us. they wanted him out and into a school for behavior problem kids. his behavior was usually to shut down and refuse to speak or work. even when we gave them the diagnosis from the hospital they actually refused to accept or acknowledge it! i had to bring the drc to a meeting this year for the school to actually say the word autism. he has been on an iep since he was 2 yrs old, it has not really benefited him, he needs the help socially and behavorially not educationally. so no i don’t believe the shots had anything to do with it and YES the school has treated him differently even before we knew it was autism, because he LOOKED “normal”, but acted different.

first and foremost, jenny mccarthy is a mother.

to the people crying about jenny being a playmate, I’m sure YOUR child w/ autism is much worse that HER child w/ autism. Get a grip you self-righteous people….

She is a high profile person getting the word of Autism out there – she has just as much to deal with then any other mother w/ a kid on the spectrum.

my answer to the question:

i can’t say if kids are born w/ it or not. I look at my experience and I can point my finger at an early birth, brain hemorages, collapsed lungs, high risk for infections…but then again…most symptoms didn’t occur until she was 1.5 years of age and seems to come after a having a fever (highest 102.5F) for a few days. I know it will never go away – but she will learn thru trial and error how to deal with people. She will get her FAPE as long as I’m alive.

I have no doubt in my mind that she will live a full, happy, and productive life.