THINKING PERSON'S GUIDE TO AUTISM
Autism news and resources: from autistic people, professionals, and parents
“I have no doubt that the individual researchers I have encountered are well-meaning and sincere in their desire to positively impact the world. However, there appears to be a total lack of awareness of current reproductive medicine practices’ bias against neurodivergent people, never mind the implications.”
Lynn Hudoba www.autismarmymom.com We are grateful to Lynn for publishing this essay — hers is a difficult position, and she is brave to share her experiences so that others can learn from them. A reminder: while The Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism commenting policy encourages civil disagreement, personal attacks will be deleted. -Editors If you’ve ever considered pursuing biomedical interventions or “biomed” for your child with autism, you are probably aware that these approaches — which include special diets, dietary supplements, off-label prescription drugs, and heavy metals detoxification — are controversial. Biomed proponents believe their approach can “recover” children with autism, and reduce or eliminate autism symptoms. The mainstream medical community considers many biomed interventions unproven and untested, and some, such as heavy metals chelation, potentially harmful. It is not surprising that attitudes towards biomed approaches get polarized. Still, every family I know has consensus about biomedical approaches. Not mine.…
Emily Willingham and Kim Wombles Emily’s family has kept their biomed treatment — or any treatment excepting occupational and behavioral therapies — to a minimum, primarily because of some inherent skepticism. Their current biomedical interventions are limited to fish oil, probiotics, and some vitamins. The Wombles brood has generally taken a similar approach, although they spent four years gluten and dairy free (with Kim worried she was getting ALS every time she ate her own GFCF baking! Cough cough — dry stuff) before admitting that it made no difference for them whatsoever, except that there were five much happier people once they went off the diet. Many autism parents investigate biomedical or “biomed” approaches as a way to ameliorate negative manifestations of their child’s autism. These parents can also find themselves overwhelmed by biomedical protocol possibilities. Sorting through these protocols can be a daunting task, which is, of course, one…