Post a Comment On: Adventures in Autism

So, so sick of these people and the GARBAGE that they put out.  Lost my temper a bit today.

Seth Mnookin is a guy that pretends to be a journalist, and writes hit pieces that encourage people to neglect the medical needs of children with autism.  He is now attacking Autism One, about which he knows neither Jack nor Squat.  My comment on his blog:
Autism One is amazing.
Seriously... it is like coming home.  Being in a place where there is so much information and encouragement and people (both professionals and parents) with a driving passion to find things that will make your child's life better is like coming into the sunlight after having the crap beat out of you in a tornado.
You sit next to a mom, start chatting, figure out your child has a problem that hers used to have... "Does he also have X symptom?  Have you had him tested for Y?  Because Dr. M is speaking on that in two hours.  Here is my phone number and email... if you think this might be what is happening with him, call me and I will get you a copy of Research Paper W, and you should call Professor T at University P.  If he does have it, call me, I host a weekly conference call of parents dealing with it and they can offer tips on what worked when they did intervention Q, and what side effect L looked like in their child so you know what to be careful of."
And then you do it and he has it and you treat it and when he wakes up at 2 am with strange behavior K, and you can't your pediatrician on the phone, and Seth Mnookin is comfey in his bed and of no help... but that mom who was a stranger to you when you sat down is happy to take your call and let you know that, "Yes... 2 am Behavior K is something that we see often... it only lasts about three nights, no worries, call the doc in the morning."  or "No... I have not heard that from anyone, might wanna stay up and keep an eye on it," or "Beth's son did that, and thirty minutes later he had a massive seizure.  You might want to get to the ER." 
Or should I call you at 2am to get your advice Seth?  What with you being so invested in my child's health and functioning. 

Hey... while I have you... Chandler as of late has been giggling in class a lot more, and it started at the same time that he got a mild rash on his back.  Any thoughts on what that might be?  Because my pediatrician never has answers to questions like this.  Or should I just accept it because looking for a solution is anti-science and means I hate my child and don't accept him for who he is?  Could you tutor him on the stuff he is missing in Social Studies because he can't stop thinking about how hilarious Phineas and Ferb are?
Oh... wait... I am going to Autism One in three days.  There will be about 3,000 people there who will have ideas on what might be going on with him, have medical, dietary, and educational ideas on how to help him, and will be happy to call me for the next month to see how he is progressing.

But Seth Mnookin says I should not go because Jenny McCarthy likes to be naked.  Gosh... tough call... find cutting edge solutions to make my beautiful baby happy, healthy, functional, social and educated from people who spend all day every day thinking about how to help kids like mine; or be in the same building with someone who is slutty.   What to do, what to do.....
The things that that community has done for my son... well I cannot put into words how grateful I am for what people have risked and sacrificed and spent on our child and those like him.  I have one doctor who spent 4 hours with me doing a detailed history, he guy is a fricking Columbo, and never charged me a dime.  To be with people who could not give a crap what the world thinks of them, that they just want to see my baby healed and happy and living his best life... It is like walking into a hotel full of love and wisdom.  And kids (and adults) can be as weird and difficult as they possibly can be, and instead of judgment and crass bitchiness like you put out... they are surrounded with understanding and affection and two dozen people with in year shot who drop what they are doing to figure out how to help (not jerks who declare them "disruptive" and have them escorted out of the building)... Seth... you are so clueless!!!
Seth... you truly have no idea how wrong, destructive and awful your writing is to children like mine.  Chandler was severe when we started, and now he is happy, verbal and mainstreamed in a 4th grade classroom with an aid.  Your opposition to biomedical treatment for children with autoimmune disorders, mito disorders, chronic viral and bacterial infections, and who have been poisoned (all of which resulted in neurological regression) is the avocation of child abuse and neglect!  It is a joke.  It is pathetic.  It is cruel.
'Stop healing children!  I declare it unscience and disallow it!  Quick... get a petition out there to say we disapprove of making children healthier!   Don't even TALK about new possibilities for children with autism!  Put them in a closet and ACCEPT that they will stay sick, unhappy, aggressive, disconnected, confused, obsessed, anxious, afraid and stressed out beyond measure!  To do otherwise is anti-science and means you hate children with autism!'
SHUT UP SETH!  SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!!
Autism One is freaking awesome.  And strange how you don't mention that professors from Harvard also come, and that the keynote address is being given by a Nobel Prize winner. 
People's children are sick and seizing and drowning and being assaulted in school, but Seth is on the story.. on the difference between "Free" and "A $25.00 processing fee?! for like two hundred hours of lectures on ALL topics autism... that is being streamed for free online?"  Someone get this man a Pulitzer.
Mr. Mnookin... Go away and leave our kids alone.  You clearly could not give a rodent's hiney, about our children, you have already declared parents like me who want to make their own vaccine decisions, "Total Assholes." We have registered your opinion.  Now just stop talking. 
Your journalistic carpet bagging is pitiful and transparent.  If you were looking for a safe career move, you should realize that you came late to the party and this is a poor long term investment.  If you had been making these claims like Orac in 2004, people might have listened, but biomed is now mainstream.  The strange little club of people who want to let children with gut issues continue to suffer in them is coming apart quickly.  Where I was mocked for taking gluten out of my son's diet eight years ago, there is now gluten free everything in every food seller in this country.  And half my neighbors are gluten free to treat their own autoimmune issues!
And you did hear your friend Kurt Anderson's interview with Walter Zahorodny where he did not get the answer to the vaccine/autism question that he was quite expecting... didn't you?  http://adventuresinautism.blogspot.com/2012/04/dr-walter-zahorodny-believes-vaccines.html
"Kurt Andersen (Seth Mnookin's friend): “I guess we know what they (the causes of autism) aren’t, for instance childhood vaccines. Right?”
Dr. Zahorodny: “Vaccines don’t play a significant role in autism increasing. Some small number of children probably do have autism because of an adverse vaccine reaction, but they don’t make for the overall rise.”"
If you have trouble discerning what he was saying... his answer to the yes or no question on whether vaccines can cause autism was YES!  If you sit quietly and listen to which way the wind is blowing... that is happening a lot these days.  But I don't know if you can hear it over the sound of you and your friends screaming "SCIENCE!!" at the top of your lungs.
The open secret it out.  Vaccines can cause autoimmune reactions that cause brain inflammation that cause brain damage that cause "autism"!  Addressing that autoimmunity and other factors allows the brain to heal. Addressing mito issues allow the brain to be powered.  Addressing blood flow issues allows the brain to be oxygenated.  Addressing GI issues allows the brain to be fed.  Put it all together and the brain gets healthier and works better.  THIS IS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE!  It can be explained to the man on the street in 15 minutes.  Everyone gets it now.
There is a reason that you are having to stomp your feet at every new media piece on vaccines, autism or biomed... because people are becoming educated, they know how much damage is being done, they know the vaccine program and the toxic assault on babies is not sustainable, that autism is a rising disaster, and that pretending that Off it is not completely absurd in his claims is not longer an option.  AND YOUR BULLYING DOES NOT WORK ANY MORE, because people care more about children than they do about being in your stupid faux science club!
Have you not noticed how your world/fans/meetings/book sales are getting smaller and smaller, as ours are getting bigger and bigger?
You have stepped into the end of a dying paradigm.  Best career move you could make now is to go write another book about baseball or move on to an in-depth exploration of the evolution of classic American Blues into Rap in the information age. 
Or go ahead and stick around until the party is completely over.  Just make sure you turn out the lights when you leave. Stop what you are doing and feast your eyes on the Magnificance of my beatiful and talkative and excited and happy and funny and engaged boy!  Remember that when we started all that "Quackery" he was only able to say "Uh Oh" and "All done" and could not even call me Mommy, look me in the eye or answer to his name.

Two weeks ago I took him to the Maine Republican Convention.

[Image] On the 30 minute wait online to get into the Augusta Civic Center, Chandler
invents a new way to hold hands with Mommy.  He calls is "Backpack Mode"
and  stays there for almost the entire wait.  Mommy is pleased.
If you read any of the coverage, you know that it was a barn burner, and that it was two ten hour days of alternating fighting and boredom.  At the end of BOTH days, I had people come up to me and say, "I just have to tell you, I have been watching your boys all day and I am really impressed with how well behaved they are."  You can imagine their surprise when I told them that one of them has "autism."  "It's true" I say... "We have found some wonderful medical interventions for him...."  And so the conversation begins again and yet another person becomes "immune" to the inane "anti-science" rants of Mnookin and co.  Because my son is awesome for ANY boy, much less a boy with "autism."

Please tell me that eight years of biomed was DANGEROUS for him and what a big mistake we made doing the same things that that stupid HO Jenny McCarthy did for her son.  Tell me how I should have left him rocking in a corner and accepted him.  Tell me there is no evidence that biomed makes children better.  Tell me I am a bad parent for the way I have raised Chandler.

Say it Seth... I fucking DARE you!

(Angry autism mom is Angry!)














And to Ed and Teri Arranga, and Bernie Rimland before them, and all who have made my son so happy... you have all of my love and gratitude.  See you all on Wednesday, at Autism One in Chicago.

Update:  Not only does the legendary cowardice of Seth Mnookin continue in full force in his failure to respond to my comments to him... HE CLOSED THE COMMENTS.   http://blogs.plos.org/thepanicvirus/2012/05/17/sun-times-endorsement-of-autism-quackfest-remains-online-even-after-editor-claims-it-was-incorrect/

Just want to point out the double irony of this, as his initial post included complaints against a publisher for not responding to his criticism.  Hypocrisy, thy name in Mnookin.

Can't handle your critics, even when they are the actual stakeholders making legitimate points about how egregious your "journalism" is?  Erroneously declare them "disruptive" and have them removed from the building.  Ignore them and shut down your comments section.

Seth you are a coward and a child and your shallow, crap "reporting" on the autism epidemic just adds to the damage that your predecessors have piled up.  Find a new hobby.