Jenny McCarthy's Son: Not Autistic?

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It seems that Jenny McCarthy and her pediatrician may have been wrong all along. From a Time magazine article:

"There are dark murmurings from scientists and doctors asking, Was her son ever really autistic? Evan's symptoms — heavy seizures, followed by marked improvement once the seizures were brought under control — are similar to those of Landau-Kleffner syndrome, a rare childhood neurological disorder that can also result in speech impairment and possible long-term neurological damage."

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article ... z0ghYP8tCU

I have felt that "autism" has become a total buzzword. During nursing school, I worked at a pre-school (ages 2-4). Any time a child acted out, looked a little glazed over, didn't feel like talking, or was "bad", the teachers (who are mostly glorified camp counselors, at least at this facility) said "Yes...he probably has autism." It is very easy to stamp a popular diagnosis on a child, whether it's ADHD, autism, or Asperger's syndrome...and for the diagnosis to be wrong, or only a small part of a complex problem.

How many others might be mis-diagnosed when in actuality the children have a different neurological disorder? Might this be the case with MANY claims of "curing" autism through various unproven yet "miraculous" therapies?

I have no doubt that her school and the early therapy it provides are very helpful for a lot of children, but saying that her son was "cured of autism" by these methods I think provides a lot of false hope to too many people.

She tried a huge number of unproven treatments with her son. It's impossible to scientifically sort out what may have worked, so parents are scrambling to imitate anything and everything she did, including the craziness of chelation. Dangerous! And CNN/Time wrote such a glowing article!

Her son was showing signs before the seizures. She said in her Louder Than Words book how a couple people pointed out her son's flaws and she get defensive about it. She even got a teacher fired for making a comment about her son. She said god gave her a wake up call by giving her son seizures so she help her son. She was pretty religious. I read that 30% of autistic kids have seizures and he was doing better when he was on the gluten free diet. It's most likely he has AS now.

To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if I was misdiagnosed. The lady who diagnosed me thought disagreeing with people was a mental disorder (no joke). But it's such a spectral condition who the heck knows?

Well back in the olden days Health authorities said autism was caused by cold mothers; parents proved them wrong. Now health authorities say vaccines are safe. Maybe in the future this will be proved wrong also. Who knows?

http://blogs.babycenter.com/celebrities ... pe=2Uyqj1g


Jenny thinks her son had autism but recovered from it.

You might find the comments interesting and like them.

Its possible that her son did largely recover. Just think of all the money McCarthy has she probably spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on treatment for her son, which most families of autistic children don't have.

League_Girl--It's most likely he has AS now. that makes very good sense as, many children with AS often at early ages may show classic autism signs but, those qualities can change over time with various therapies of a positive nature and many other treatments..Honestly, my family doctor at the time of my being age 3 felt that I was autistic for, I exhibited many symptoms of such yet, it was not until 2002 that I was diagnosed with AS. Personally, I feel that the label of Autism many times has been wrongfully applied to children whom may not actually be autistic.Well, League_Girl thanks for your words sincerely speaking..

Its starting to look as if there are many different things which can cause symptoms which fit ASD. I think in SOME cases, the diet is the key to helping. In others, such as myself, diet has made little or no difference in the severety of my AS. Other people claim that early intervention is the best thing, but very few people can afford that or in this country, even get access to it. More research needs to be done before people like Jenny MCarthy start saying that these things are CURES. I do feel happy for her because she's obviously found something which works, but shouting about it all over the tabloids is a bit mean on the thousands of parents of severely autistic children who are NEVER going to get better, no matter how much treatments or special diets they are on. If a diet was a cure, I would be on it right now because I hate having AS (This is MY personal opinion, I am aware that some people might not hate having it).

There was also that stupid US magazine with her on the cover, with words in bold letters - "How I Saved My Son!" I'm not sick or diseased and I don't need to be saved.

My understanding is that this is genetic. You cant cure it. I dont want to be cured (im attempting to get diagnosed in Canada and having to fight to do so *I have a right to healthcare in this country and for free, travels killer though*). I do want help understanding others, and maximizing on my strengths work on my weakness...but i would never want to give up the gifts that come with it. There is benefits!

If I could have some relief from the sensory overload issues, and could read social cues better, that would be nice. I don't think I would lose the gifts I got from Asperger's: the large vocabulary, knowledge of history and science, and especially being The Bicycling Guitarist. Those might not have happened without the sensory and social issues of my life, but if those issues go away hopefully that doesn't mean my talents would go away. If I did have to choose, I think my greatest contribution to society is by being The Bicycling Guitarist. I like doing something that stretches people's minds and brings smiles to their faces, even if I am doing it mainly to ease my own pain. If getting rid of the pain meant I couldn't be The Bicycling Guitarist, I don't think that's worth it to me. I've probably only get a few decades left anyway.

ASD is a neurological condition, which means that it has to do with how the brain is wired.
Try to visualize this:
1: How the different parts of the brain(prefrontal cortex, amygdala, little brain and so on...) is placed inside the scull. This is decided by the DNA(DeoxyriboNucleicAcid).
2: How "the wrinkles" in the brainbark(the gray outer layer of the brain, which decides great parts of the personality and how the brain processes information) are shaped. This is decided by how the embryo grows(very similar to the process that creates the patterns on our inner hand and fingers)(DNA can possibly have some effect to on this level).
3: How the brainneurons (the cells we think with) are wired in the brainbark. This "wiring" is being changed all the time as long as we live(that is how we learn things) and can easily be changed(eksample: when you are doing algebra or trying to learn another language).
The cause for ASD occurs at 2. This has been shown by scanning the brains of people with ASD.
Ergo to "cure" ASD, you have to change this. This can maybe be done with surgery on a ridiculously advanced level(with nanorobots), but what food you eat or don't eat has nothing to do with it.
So how can diet possibly help

Are Jenny McCarthy's fifteen minutes at the expense of her son over with, now? Sure, I know, when she was younger, she had had a career of sorts being a hottie. But that's passed, and trying to be an anti-vaccine/cure autism activist is pretty much the only thing keeping her famous. Especially since Jim Carrie got smart and flew the coop.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

Dear Kraichgauer,

Agreed.

SO agreed.

Sylkat

Misdiagnosis is common place in this field and it comes from that fact that there is no definitive method of diagnosing Autism and Asperger's or for that mater anyone on the spectrum. Then add in the fact that many here insist that you are not of us if not diagnosed and we have the perfect storm of doubt and foolishness going on around the spectrum.

What we have here is a pediatrician who probably never before diagnosed a child with Autism say - according to the mother - "your child has Autism" as far as I have heard there was not an autism workup. My son saw "professionals in the psychology field" who did not diagnose him correctly over several years - miss over and over again - until a psychologist who was on the spectrum himself and a diagnostic work up proved it did anyone around him think he was Asperger's. Many missed his narrow scope of special interests - his problems with social interactions ignored meltdowns - all because he was too nice to not be "normal".

Sad to say as long as diagnosis is totally a crap shoot call by some "professional". Weather or not you are officially on the spectrum or not will depend as much on who sees you as on any traits you display. As of today we still really do not have a good solid idea about what autism and Asperger's is or how it comes to be - and they are thinking they are going to cure it??

What we need is some good solid understanding of what Autism and Asperger's are and we need simple definitive tests for finding those on the spectrum.