Hello Joy,
Thanks for the pointer. I was already familiar with ANDi, but others might find it interesting.
I am not at all convinced that vaccines have contributed to my son's autism, and I have tried not to have Lois or Clark takes sides in the story itself. Having said that, I decided to include the bit about the vaccine in the story since the vaccine controversy is huge within the autism community, and since I have spoken with numerous parents whose kids followed Todd's path: Their children got a very high fever within hours after receiving a vaccine and immediately showed huge signs of regression and started to exhibit symptoms of autism which they had not previously shown. (I spoke to one mother for whom that had actually happened with two of her sons.)
I hasten to add that I am absolutely NOT anti-vaccination. However, if I were in a position to counsel a parent, I would *strongly* advise them to research both the benefits and the risks of vaccines so that they could make an educated decision, and if they should choose to have their child vaccinated, to seriously consider spreading the vaccines out rather than having multiple vaccines in a single visit. I would also encourage them to get mercury-free vaccines whenever possible.
I also recognize that when it comes to both the etiology of autism and the efficacy of individual therapies, there is plenty of room for honest disagreement, even among informed individuals.
Joy,
Lynn
p.s., I know I mentioned Andy's improvement after starting his GFCF (gluten-free, casein-free) diet. What I hadn't mentioned was that several months after he started the diet, he stole another child's (gluten containing) cracker and put it in his mouth. He didn't even chew or swallow it; he just sucked it for a second before an adult took it out of his mouth. He suffered a serious regression for the next week and a half. He lost all the progress he had gained with eye contact, with vocalizations, and with interacting with his environment; he basically returned to zombie-hood. The difference was major enough to be noticed and commented on by his therapists, among other people. (I had not mentioned the cracker incident to the therapists, so we had at least a single blind confirmation of the behavioral changes.) That was his most dramatic regression, but he has had others, as well, whenever he has had a dietary lapse. I realize that none of this proves the connection between diet and behavior (I am as familiar as the next guy is with the "post hoc ergo propter hoc" fallacy), that it is all just anecdotal. Still it's the best I can do, since I can't afford to wait until scientists manage to come up with and run double-blind studies or otherwise have more scientific proof.
