We’ve been really lucky with Tristan and really haven’t experienced tantrums like this before. If he did tantrum it was only because we where leaving a fun place to come home and even then he was easily redirected and the tantrum was short lived. Not now. Now we have full out kicking, screaming, rolling on the floor, nuclear meltdowns. Its usually over sharing trains with Maya, occasionally during therapy and sometimes we just can’t figure out what has set him off. After all the progress Tristan has made it has been really difficult to see this. I feel like he’s either having some sort of regression or his awareness is increasing and he’s acting more like a typical three year old. Like I said from one extreme to the other.

Added to this Odum has been working seven days a week writing his thesis. He has to be done ASAP so he can find a job since we have to move out of the graduate student housing we live in, in April. So because he’s been working seven days a week I don’t get much of a break. We don’t have any family close by to help out and I feel very isolated most of the time. Both of us are so burnt out. It goes without saying its also really stressful not to know where we’re going to be living next month.

We also got a hard dose of reality when we recently watched Autism:The Musical. This is an amazing documentary that really gives you an insight into the issues families with autism have to confront. Most of the kids in the movie where older, around ten and older, and it gave us a bit of insight into what Tristan’s future may be like and issues we may have to deal with. At one point in the movie one of the mothers made a great point about our kids’ futures. She said not only is it about getting our kids the therapy, but its also about how they will be valued by society. Even after years of therapy many children and adults with autism have differences that may not be accepted, nurtured or celebrated. This woman’s daughter had autism and was being taught life skills like how to wash dishes. The mother questioned what kind of future that is for her daughter to being relegated to washing dishes and sweeping floors. Was that really the only thing she could contribute to society? She even went so far as to say she wished her daughter would die before her because her daughter will most likely never be independent. That’s the kind of fear and desperation parents have. Our hope is for Tristan to be independent, to find a passion and do what he loves, to have meaningful relationships and be a valued member of society. We haven’t allowed ourselves to think about any other possible future for him, and the thought that we may have to led me to have a mini emotional breakdown.

Right now our focus has been getting Tristan the treatment he needs while he’s young and not so much on his future. And so here we have another issue we’ve been debating the past few weeks: Tristan’s therapy. I came across a really great discussion on a therapy called Relationship Development Intervention (RDI) and we’ve been thinking a lot about it and IBI. There are a few things about IBI that I’m not completely happy about that were brought up in this discussion and ways in which RDI is helpful. I still have lots of reading to do but from what I gather RDI focuses on building a reciprocal relationship with your child, which is a challenge for some kids on the spectrum. It focuses more on the development of a relationship, which eventually allows the child to improve their communication and social skills and uses the reciprocity of the relationship as the reinforcer. IBI focuses on drilling to teach skills and uses tangible positive reinforcement for successes. Don’t get me wrong Tristan’s progress while in IBI has been nothing short of remarkable, but at times it feels to me like its similar to how you may train an animal. I think the hard thing is to know what to do. No one can give you a definitive or even close to definitive answer on exactly what to do for autism and if it will help. Which leaves you as the parent second guessing yourself and looking for answers anywhere and everywhere.

This post is all over the place. Just like a rollercoaster I guess. I know there’s a light at the end of the tunnel for us. Its just a pinprick but Odum is so close to being done this master’s and I know he’ll find a job. With all his experience and education he better! And Tristan has made leaps and bounds of progress and we have no reason to think that will stop. Just lots of things for us to think about. Its important to take things just one day to the next but its also important to take a step back and look at the big picture. As you can see we are going through a lot right now, there are a lot of changes in store for us and many important decisions to be made. What we have decided for sure is to continue to work at healing Tristan’s physical problems with our naturopath. And most importantly to endeavor to enjoy each moment with both kids and let them be kids.

A typical day for my kids is like this:
Breakfast:
French Toast – I just dip my homemade bread into egg mixed with almond milk, vanilla and cinnamon and fry it
Banana
Snack:
Rice crackers or rice cakes or cheerios (we use Nature’s Path Whole O’s organic and gluten free)
Lunch:
Scrambled eggs with pureed sweet potato with Salsa for dipping
Steamed mixed veggies
Homemade Gluten Free Bread
Apple
Snack:
Homemade Flax cookies or carrots or grapes
Supper
Baked Chicken or Meatballs
Steamed Veggies
Pasta (Tinkyada has great gluten free pasta)
Fruit

As you can see its really not that different from what other kids eat, there’s just no dairy and wheat products are replaced with gluten free. It just takes a bit more effort at first.

To help you out here are a few of our favorite recipes:

Since Tristan has been on the anti-yeast protocol I’ve been making yeast free bread and both kids love it!

Gluten Free/Casein Free/Yeast Free Bread

Mix together dry ingredients:
1 1/4 cups rice flour
1 1/4 cups cornmeal
Pinch of salt
1/4 cup ground flax seed
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Mix together wet ingredients:
1 or 2 grated carrots
1/2 a grated zucchini
1 grated apple
2 eggs
2 tbsp canola oil
3/4 cup almond milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 to 1/2 cup pureed or mashed sweet potato

Mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients just until moistened. Grease a 5×9 loaf pan and pour in batter. Bake at 375 for 60 minutes.

Flax Seed Cookies

Mix together dry ingredients:
1 1/4 cups rice flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup ground flax seeds, you can use less if you like

Cream together:
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
2/3 cup brown sugar
Add:
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 egg

Add dry ingredients to wet. Form into a ball once mixed and refrigerate for at least an hour. Once the doughs firm form it into small balls and bake at 300 for 20ish minutes. I always keep an eye on these so I’m not certain of how long I bake them for. Now Odum says that my picture of the cookies makes them look like turds, LOL, the funny thing is he eats them by the handful!

Super Sneaky Maple Meatballs
Mix together:
1lb ground beef, chicken or turkey
1/2 cup pureed or mashed sweet potato or butternut squash
1 egg
1/4 cup maple syrup
finely diced onion – use however much you like, I don’t like too much so I probably use an eighth of an onion
finely diced mushrooms – I use 4 or 5
1/2 to 3/4 cup breadcrumbs – I usually just make my own by throwing bread crusts into my magic bullet
1/2 to 3/4 cup pureed or mashed veggies – if I have some steamed leftover veggies, or veggies that are just about to go bad I puree them up, spinach is a great addition!
1-2 tbsp Italian seasoning – however much you like
pinch of salt
pinch of garlic powder

I’m pretty approximate with this recipe. If it seems pretty wet because you’ve used lots of veggies add more breadcrumbs. Form into meatballs or loaf and bake at 350 for an hourish.

I tweak my recipes a lot, and all of these recipes where not gluten or casein free to begin with. So add in spices you like or veggies you like, have fun with it! And please add your faves too!

Here are my tips and tricks for the gluten free/casein free diet. My next post will include some recipes, too much to put everything in one post!

Two things to keep in mind:
1. It usually takes 3 weeks for casein to be completely out of your system and up to 3 months to get rid of gluten.
2. Check the labels on creams, lotions, supplements, soaps etc to make sure they are also gluten and casein free.

Also I’m not a doctor, dietitian or nutritionist, so please don’t take my word as gospel!

Casein
Casein is the predominant protein found in dairy products. It’s even in some soy products. I looked for soy cheese and yogurt and all of the brands our store carries has casein in it. When you’re reading labels look out for the words: casein, sodium caseinate, calcium caseinate or milk protein. Calcium carbonate is ok. There’s a really great cookbook, the Uncheese Cookbook that I took a few recipes out of that weren’t too bad. They use a lot of nutritional yeast, tahini and miso to mimic the cheese flavor.

In terms of milk for the kids we use almond milk, it even comes in chocolate. Rice milk and soy milk did not agree with the kids tummies so we don’t use those. And I’ve heard a lot of great things about hemp milk, although I haven’t seen it in our grocery store.

Gluten
Gluten is the predominant protein in wheat and is found in anything made with wheat and that’s a ton of products. Eliminating gluten was definitely the trickiest part, but we had the most success once we did. You really have to be a label reader with gluten as it shows up in the most random places, like soy sauce. This is a link to a the Canadian Celiac Association that gives you a list of safe, unsafe and questionable gluten products. I’ve found that since we started the diet with Tristan almost a year ago grocery stores have really widened the variety of gluten free products they carry. Cheerios, pretzels, cookies, pastas you name our store usually carries it.

Wheat products are probably the hardest thing to replace in terms of taste and texture. Glutino and Namaste have great tasting products. Tinkyada has great pastas, I almost wouldn’t know the difference. For bread always go for brown rice bread not white rice, the white rice bread tends to be super crumbly. For flour you can buy gluten free flour mixes but I’ve never really liked them. There’s one type of flour I don’t know which kind but it is just disgusting and its always in the mixes. So I go for the brown rice flour and it works great, I’ve never had any problems with baking.

For most of our favorite recipes I’ve been able to tweak them. I use almond milk instead of cows milk, rice flour instead of white flour and so far I’ve had a ton of success. Tristan is also an extremely picky eater, he never eats veggies, so I puree or mash lots of veggies and hide them in meatballs, pancakes, breads, muffins anything! A great site for gluten free and usually casein free recipes is the Gluten Free Goddess, she makes gluten free look gourmet!

The gluten free/casein free diet can seem really overwhelming to begin with. So if you’re feeling overloaded just take it slow and try removing one thing at a time, first dairy then gluten. And if you make a slip don’t beat yourself up. Tristan accidentally got into some homemade (with flour) playdough at a playgroup and had a huge regression. It was heartbreaking for me to see, but I realized just what a big problem gluten was for him.

Any more tips for going gluten and casein free?

The therapy part of the equation is out of our hands a bit, we waited nine months for speech therapy and over a year for occupational therapy. Here in Ontario Tristan is entitled to half an hour each week of both. This is not nearly enough in my opinion. That’s why IBI is so important, Tristan recieves almost 10 hours of IBI a week. As I’ve said before the wait list here for IBI is three years! Since Odum is a student we can’t afford private IBI on our own but we where lucky enough to receive President’s Choice Children’s Charity grant to pay for it. It is incredible, but that’s a whole other post.

The treatment of Tristan’s physical issues is entirely up to us. Most pediatricians and family docs don’t endorse or aid in the biomedical approach to the treatment of autism. So pursuing this route is entirely up to the parents. Tristan had always had loose stools and I thought this was normalish. Our naturopath told us it is not and the cycling between diarrhea and constipation is a good indication that there is problems in the gut.

Many children with ASD have gut problems and Tristan is no exception. Many kids have what’s called a leaky gut. Basically leaky gut is a condition where the junctions in the intestinal wall are super loose and let through huge particles and toxins that normally wouldn’t be let through. Think of it like going through customs. If you have tight security the guy with the gun is not getting into the country to wrek havoc. Lose a few guards though and the bad guys get into the country.

This leakiness sets up a host of problems: yeast overgrowth, allergies, impaired immune function the list goes on. This is a reason why many children with autism have a gluten and casein allergies; these big proteins get through and not only start an immune reaction resulting in inflammation but they also act as opiates in the brain. As soon as we took Tristan off gluten and casein he was much more aware and didn’t stare off into space. And it seems counter intuitive but most people with this syndrome also have deficiencies in many vitamins, minerals and other important nutrients. We had an organic acids test done to see where Tristan had deficiencies and found he had yeast overgrowth, which caused him to have other deficiencies as well, like Vitamin B deficiencies. To begin to heal the gut this is what we are doing with Tristan, this is his supplement list:

Morning Juice:
1 tbsp children’s cod liver oil – for the omegas and vitamin A, it helps heal the intestinal walls
1 capsule of digestive enzyme to digest any leftover gluten or casein
1 capsule Vitamin B complex – since Tristan is deficient

Evening Juice:
1 capsule digestive enzyme
1 tsp probiotic – these are the good bacteria that you need in your stomach

Tristan is also on a Gluten Free/Casein Free diet

We also give Tristan an injection of vitamin B12 every three days. Read my Methyl B12 post for more info.

To counteract the yeast Tristan is currently on an anti-yeast protocol which involves a black walnut capsule in his juice twice a day, and bentonite and flax to help the dead yeast cells and their toxins out of his system.

A really great site to help you get started on biomedical intervention for autism is Generation Rescue, they go through step by step how you can start and why.

Once the yeast is out of Tristan’s system we’ll have to go back to the naturopath to see what our next course of action is. I would like to start zinc supplementation, I have a gut feeling this will be beneficial to Tristan. I also wonder if Tristan has any heavy metals in his system, like aluminum from vaccines or other metals from all the mouthing he does. I also wonder if Tristan has any viral problems from the MMR vaccine.

As you can see this treatment schedule is aggressive and can sometimes be overwhelming. We have therapy everyday, sometimes twice a day. And I’m always spiking his juice. But it’s worth it, when I heard mommy from him from the first time, I knew all the hard work was paying off. We still have a long way to go to heal Tristan. But he has made incredible gains and I have no doubt they will continue.

I’ve given this debate a lot of thought. When we first found out Tristan had autism I wanted to do everything in my power to ensure he would lead a “normal” life, whatever normal means. Now that I have had time to think more beyond each day with Tristan and see into his future, I see that I really don’t want to “cure” him. Make no mistake I want to give him the tools to be able to communicate effectively, form relationships, be a functional person in society and not be marginalized. But I also never want him to feel like I thought he wasn’t good enough or hasn’t recovered enough for me, I never want him to feel like we tried to change who he is fundamentally.

I believe autism is a difference, most individuals with autism see and sense the world differently from those without autism. However, I also believe in some cases autism is a disease, or better yet the autistic symptoms that are exhibited are the result of a diseased state in the body, that there is a gut-brain connection. Most kids with autism have gastrointestinal and other comorbid conditions and this can definitely have an effect on cognitive and other functions. If you don’t agree with the gut-brain connection just think back to the last time you got drunk.

I feel this whole argument of autism being a disorder or a difference really all boils down to the cause of autism. For people who believe autism is just a difference, they probably believe that autism and its traits are purely genetic or mostly genetic. And maybe in some cases it is. But for Tristan and many others this is not the case. Tristan has definite physical problems that have caused him to have autistic traits, and as we’ve changed his diet and added supplements, we’ve seen these traits lessen and disappear. Not to mention that there is no history in either Odum’s family or mine of developmental disabilities. Maybe Tristan does have some sort of genetic predisposition that caused caused him to be more vulnerable to toxins and poisons in the environment and maybe this is what led to him having autism. As a scientist one of my favorite sayings is “genetics loads the gun, its the environment that pulls the trigger”. Tristan was not born with autism.

So yes we are treating Tristan, we would be negligent as parents not to. Tristan had gastrointestinal problems, he has yeast overgrowth and vitamin deficiencies. Is it a coincidence that as we treat these problems his behavioral and developmental problems improve, I don’t think so. I think the people who tout autism as solely a difference may have only seen mild cases of autism, or not watched their child regress and become a shell of their former self. I almost wonder if these same people would call a physical disability a difference and berate parents for obtaining physical therapy for their child.

So what do you think, is autism a disability, disease or a difference?

There are two problems. First, each child has to be screened to make sure they are eligible for IBI. Essentially the psychologists are looking for a child that would do better in an IBI program than if put into a mainstream preschool but also not have challenges that would be too much to address in IBI therapy. The second problem is there is a three year wait list for treatment. In three years Tristan will be 6, this is not early intervention, and children who benefit the most from this therapy start as early as possible.

The assessment was conducted by two psychologists, one played with Tristan and the other asked me questions for an hour. The play area was set up so terribly. I would never have known these people worked with kids with autism. There where toys everywhere. It looked like a toy box had exploded! Even for neurotypical kids I’m sure this would have been overwhelming but I can’t imagine how it would be for a child who has visual sensory issues. Luckily this was right up Tristan’s alley as he loves the visual stimulation. Although with all the toys he didn’t know what to do first so he did everything. The lady playing with him was just as appalling as the room setup. Tristan is really good at pointing and labeling when we read books and play. He has also mastered joint attention with his speech as well. Unfortunately this woman talked nonstop so he couldn’t get a word in edgewise. They weren’t able to see how great he is at this. It was so frustrating.

I can’t tell you how draining this was for me. To sit there for an hour answering questions about what Tristan can’t do yet. Skills he doesn’t have, social things he doesn’t do, words he doesn’t say. It was heartbreaking to me. I stay optimistic everyday; I focus on the positive everyday. I’m always looking for the silver lining and positive side in any situation. To do otherwise would put me in a place I don’t even want to think about. I visited that place during the assessment and it was a black hole. With the help of Odum and my mom I reset my system and reminded myself how far Tristan has come in such a short period of time and how much farther he’s going to go.

This whole experience was really a double edged sword for me. If they find him eligible I feel like they didn’t get a chance to see how great Tristan is. But at the same time he would be able to get this really incredible therapy that has helped so many kids. On the other hand if he’s not eligible we won’t have access to this therapy for him through the government. But that means maybe he’s just too advanced and would do well in a preschool. At the end of the day it’s still a three year wait, which is too long for any kid to wait for vital therapy. It’s hard to know how to feel.

Luckily we got the best of both worlds. Tristan is still on the wait list but they want to reassess him in a year’s time. The reason is because he’s right on the line between mild autism and “normal”. And they figure he should continue to improve and may not need IBI and just be alright with speech and occupational therapy. Needless to say we’re overjoyed. Just to know where he is on the spectrum in relation to everyone is nice to know. And it’s also comforting to know that all our hard work with Tristan is paying off.

Here is a brief refresher on this series:

1. Vaccine Ingredients (Part I)
2. Timing of Vaccines (Part II)
3. Vaccine Safety Studies (Part III)

1. Timing of Vaccines

Here is a link to the current Ontario immunization schedule. Our kids get vaccinated at 2, 4, 6, 12, 15 and 18 months. By 18 months your baby is to get 12 shots against 11 illnesses. And let’s not forget the flu shot which can be given after an infant is 6 months old.

After reading about all the active ingredients and chemicals in these vaccines doesn’t it seem like we’re injecting a lot of toxins into our baby’s systems in a short period of time? To me it seems a bit excessive. If you add up the amount of preservatives (like aluminum and mercury) in all of those shots how much of it now remains in your child’s little body? And all over such a small period of time, especially in the first six months of their lives they’re getting 2 shots every 2 months. This is such a critical time of growth and development. Are there any studies showing what safe levels of these ingredients are in infants? If you have heard of any please let me know. I feel the shots need to be spread out over a longer period of time, in order for our kids’ bodies to recover and detoxify.

Detoxification is a huge issue for children with autism. Many studies have found that children with autism have malfunctions in their detoxification systems. This makes it difficult for them to get toxins out of their systems. So not only are kids inundated from toxic chemicals in the environment, we inject toxins into their bodies. When vaccines are injected so often into these kids things like allergies, learning disabilities and autism can result.

I feel it’s a convenience thing for doctors. You take your baby to the doctor for checkups at each of these ages so you might as well get immunized while you’re there. Its fewer appointments the doctor has to deal with right? I don’t know about you but when my kids where 2, 4 and 6 months old I wasn’t going out too much. I was just mastering the art of breastfeeding, trying to catch up on sleep and still freaked out at the thought of taking the baby out. Are our kids really going to come in contact with these diseases at two months old?

Another thing that might be interesting to note about the timing of immunizations is the timing of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. There’s no question measles is a terrible disease. However mumps is relatively benign. It rarely causes death or disability although it can cause sterility in pubertal males, so why not give the mumps vaccine later in life? The same can be said for rubella. It can cause developmental disability in infants if a pregnant woman contracts it. So again why not delay this vaccine to just before puberty?

In the last part of this look into vaccines and autism I will be discussing vaccine safety studies.

He followed us for a good ten minutes just watching the wheels. The whole time the mom was trying to persuade her son to go to the park to no avail. To me it seemed like the boy may have had autism or a sensory seeking issue like Tristan. I tried to make a little conversation saying “oh he really likes wheels”. And she said “ya he loves watching wheels”, in an effort to let her know I understood I told her Tristan loved watching wheels too. I really wanted to chat and ask this mom if her little guy had autism, but I didn’t want to offend her if I was wrong, or if he hadn’t been diagnosed. But just the look in her eyes told me I wasn’t wrong, because I know I’ve had that look in my eyes too. The look that is vulnerable, that please don’t judge my child look, the defensive yes he like wheels what do have to say about it look, and the knife to the heart look when you see younger kids behaving “normal”.

A few weeks ago I had a similar experience with Tristan. We were playing in the park outside our house and a bunch of trucks had been left out. So of course Tristan made a bee line for the trucks and started to line them up. Another boy and his mom where out too and the boy tried to play with Tristan. Tristan wasn’t having any of it and I made Tristan give up at least one truck to the other boy. I learned that the boy was two and he kept asking his mom what Tristan was doing. This was a knife in the heart moment for me. This kid was a year younger than Tristan and able to communicate with his mom, and did so by asking what was up with my child. I didn’t want them to judge Tristan or make fun of him for how he was playing. And for a split second I wished that Tristan would be able to share the trucks and play with another child.

Don’t get me wrong I know Tristan will get there and if he’s lining up trucks until he’s 20 that’s fine with me, I love him unconditionally. I’m just writing to give you an insight into what us parents with kids with autism go through. So if you see a child at a park or where ever and they are doing something a little unusual, have an open mind and open heart. What they’re doing may be soothing to them if they have sensory issues, they might not have learned some social cues yet and they may still be working on some self help skills. What they’re doing isn’t bad or wrong or weird it’s just a bit different than what you’re used to. As parents we all want our children to be accepted and understood and this couldn’t be truer for parents of kids with autism. I think next time I see that mom I’ll say something so she knows that I know and that Tristan and I think watching wheels is the coolest thing in the world to do.

How Vaccines Work
There’s some complicated science that goes with immunity and vaccines which is a little beyond the scope of what I want to talk about and it would make for a monster of a post. So I’m going to use an analogy to explain how vaccines work.

Pretend you’re a boxer, say Rocky, and you’ve got the big fight against Apollo Creed. So you train. You train hard. You get a sparing partner, someone to work you’re moves on and who fights back but won’t really hurt you. They’re not as powerful as Apollo but good enough so that you’ll be prepared. On fight night you put your practice into action. Your jabs and crosses are reflexes now and you take Apollo out with a nice knockout punch.

Well vaccines are our sparing partners against illness. They are not as strong as the real illness but they prepare our immune system to know what’s coming and how to best defend. So when we’re exposed to the illness we have the tools fight back and stay healthy.

Sounds like a great system right? In theory it is but there are three main issues surrounding vaccines that give rise to debate and outcry:

1. Vaccine Ingredients (Part I)
2. Timing of Vaccines (Part II)
3. Vaccine Safety Studies (Part III)

1. Vaccine Ingredients

Vaccines contain three categories of ingredients. The first is a portion of the virus or bacteria you’re getting protection against, secondly there are chemicals that jump start your immune system to ensure it reacts to the virus (usually aluminum in some form) and finally there are preservatives that keep the vaccine sterile. Preservatives can be mercury, aluminum or formaldehyde.

What are the issues with these ingredients?
The virus or bacteria is grown in live tissue. Live tissue from anything from monkey kidneys, chick embryos and even, this is awful, aborted human fetal tissue. Some of this tissue ends up in the vaccine as well. This raises morality issues if you’re pro-choice, or an animal rights activist. If you have allergies this can also present problems, you could have an allergic reaction to the vaccine because of what it was grown in (like an egg allergy for example).

Also, the chemicals used as preservatives and stabilizers are toxins. Mercury is a neurotoxin (a toxic that acts on nerve cells), formaldehyde is a carcinogen and excessive amounts of aluminum may cause learning disabilities and dementia. Do we really want to be putting these chemicals into our kids?

The Autism Connection
As I already mentioned the chemicals in vaccines are neurotoxins and autism manifests as a neurological disease. Our kids with autism have developmental delays. Could the two be linked? Here in Canada there is no mercury (or called thimerasol in vaccines) in our vaccines, but they do contain aluminum. Here is an interesting article calling aluminum the new thimerasol. It discusses the toxicity of aluminum.

Another issue is the measles mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR). This vaccine contains live virus. It’s been attenuated, which means strains of the virus have been made in a lab to disable their dangerous properties. A good analogy is getting your dog fixed, same dog, just shooting blanks. The problem with this is mainly in the measles virus. Studies have isolated the vaccine strain of the measles virus from children with autism. This shouldn’t happen. The immune system should have fought it off and cleared it from the system. Instead studies have found it wrecks havoc with the immune system by dysregulating it, causing gut inflammation and even leading to encephalopathy (brain disease) which is seen in some kids with autism.

To read more about this I encourage you to check out Changing the Course of Autism by Dr Bryan Jepson the chapter titled: Measles and the MMR Controversy. It cites many studies correlating the MMR vaccine with autism.

A really great website to visit that goes into much more detail about vaccine ingredients is Vaccine Risk Awareness Network.

So what are your thoughts on vaccine ingredients? Do you think more studies need to be done to look into connections between autism and vaccine ingredients?

In Part II I’m going to discuss the vaccine schedule and the lack of vaccine safety studies as it relates to autism.

We told the doctor about all the improvements we’ve seen in Tristan since June: better behaviour, less sensory issues and of course the speech. We told him we where doing some supplements and had started methyl B12 shots. He asked who had prescribed them and we told him about our naturopath. His first response was “Well she’s not a real doctor” in the snidest tone you’ve ever heard. Ooo did I get mad! But I kept my cool… surprisingly.

We went on to have a discussion about the biomedical approach to treating autism which led to talk about the causes of autism. We told him we believed that there are different causes to autism and you can’t treat two different causes in the same way. He strongly cautioned us against biomedical intervetntion and going to our naturopath. He believes that she may be giving us false hope and that this could be doing more harm than the good that we’ve seen.

I told him that I had done much research into biomedical intervention, reading books and studies. The doctor cautioned me on reading studies and that not all are scientific and it’s important to look at the peer reviewed studies, not just information on the net. This was said in a very demeaning way as if I had been reading tabloid autism research and I didn’t know what I was talking about. Eventually through the course of the conversation he remembered that Odum and I have honours science degrees (and Odum is almost done his master’s degree) and apologized for seeming to talk down to us. But what about parents that don’t necessarily have a strong science background, it’s not a great feeling to be talked down to and placated by your doctor when you’re concerned about your child. He even eventually conceded to our point about the possibility of different causes of autism. We where shocked to say the least.

We actually ended the appointment on a good note. The doctor even took down the name of the book that I consider my biomedical bible which has so many scientific studies to back up its claims. I think he realized we have differing opinions but he said he really wanted to keep up with us and follow our progress with Tristan as we do the biomedical intervention. He also told us not to hesitate to come in if we had any concerns about Tristan, which was fantastic! So we go for a follow up appointment in six months.

This guy really surprised me, and I really hope Tristan’s improvement has opened his mind a little bit about treating autism. That it’s very well possible that there are different causes and thus there should be different ways to treat kids.

I was really shocked though by his attitude towards our naturopath. I get that their approach to treating patients may be different. But does that mean he needs to undermine her credentials? Has anyone else come across such negative attitudes towards naturopathy? If so what was your response or what would be your response?