Snake Oil

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In the past few weeks I've posted about the difficulties at school with a new Special Ed teacher who doesn't have a clue about Asperger's. The previous Special Ed teacher was wonderful and my sons were doing really well.

I've made a formal complaint to the school and things are happenening.

Anyway, my post is this ..... since my boys had their support at school withdrawn they've deterioriated.

I'm tired of well-meaning friends and workmates telling me what I should do. This lists have included:
- Dore
- Fruition (an after school tuition company)
- Naturopathy
- Homeopathy
- Iridology
- Supplements
- Detoxification

etc

I'm frustrated by this advice. I just nod politely.

What my sons need is what worked for them last year ..... support from a Special Ed teacher who understands Asperger's!

There are so many dodgey businesses out there selling false hope with crap products. I'd spend millions if I tried them all!

This is the end of my rant!

Helen

I especially resent that there are so many "treatments" and "therapies" available that MIGHT help, but aren't covered by any insurance and aren't affordable otherwise for a lot of (most) people. I sometimes feel like the message is, "If you love your kid enough, you'll fork over money you don't have and do 'whatever it takes' to get help. Money should be no obstacle."

In this country/culture we can't even agree about what's healthy to EAT from one year to the next, and there's a pill for everything from dry skin to dandruff. Insurance companies are much more willing to pay for pills than actual therapy.

Anyway, yeah - snake oil.

I was a support teacher, working with kids with learning difficulties. The amount of money some parents spent trying to fix the problem was astronomical. The same thing happens in the Health industry.

In our society we are programmed to believe that there is an easy solution to everything. Only a wealthy society can be so indulgent!

There is so much crap out there to digest and just spit out...its very fustrating. I know someone where my son goes to therapy that has her son going thru chelation (has been doing this for a year and a half 2x a week), massive amounts of supplements (Im talking about a list of atleast 25), severe diet restrictions (I usually see him eat pork rinds and applesauce), hyperbaric therapy, and of course speech and OT. This child looks very ill now and I dont think she sees it. He is kind of grey looking. I feel so bad for him. His speech and OT therapists had an emergency meeting with her about it, and what do you think was her response...... she took her child out of the only place he can get speech and OT in the area. She is caught up in the "cure". I dont want to "cure" my son, he does not need curing! I love him just the way he is! I just want him to be able to effectivly communicate with me/ teacher/ everybody!

I am so aggravated at all the 'snake oil' that is out there. Greedy people who really dont want to help our children, they just want a fast buck from desperate parents.

I find it really destructive. It sells a hurried schedule that absolutely cannot be what is best for kids like ours. Stress on the parents, stress on the kids, and parents insisting, "don't you want to do everything you can for your child?" As if I'm NOT? As if all those parents who "recovered" their children by working diligently with them, whose experiences laid the groundwork for many modern therapies, didn't have the best answer in the first place?

Once someone starts down that road, they get emotionally invested in it. All that time, all that money, MUST have been justified, right? So, of course, they are going to see "improvement" whether or not it really is there.

And they are going to continue to snottily think that those of us who don't believe in this crap are short changing our children.

A waste.

It troubles me that parents seem to want their children to be "just like everyone else". They see other children and only notice what they're doing that their own child may not be. We want our children to "fit in". I know, because I tend to do that with my 3-year old son. He's not potty-trained yet, has no real interest in sports, and all he wants to do is play with his trains. It's nerve-wracking! However, he also will bring a book to me during the day and ask me to read it, he'll start singing the songs he's learning in daycare.

Now, AFAIK, my son is not ASD (unlike myself). However, even if he were, I don't know that I'd want to "fix" him. He's not broken. But I would certainly want to help him find his place in the world where he can be happiest and most productive.

Autism and ASDs can not be "cured" (at least not right now). Anyone who tells you different is trying to make a fast buck off your desperation as parents. Instead, use the cognitive and behavioral therapy to help them cope in today's world so that they can find happiness as part of that world. Cherish and love your child for who he/she is, and recognize that they were given to you as a blessing from God, and act accordingly.

yep

Can you imagine what would happen if they stopped making schools wheelchair accessible, or denied a deaf student a translator? I'm getting really tired of people saying that autism is a behavioral problem. or the other extreme, an immune problem. My son is physically very healthy, he needs accomodation, not to be made NT.

That's an excellent analogy KimJ. That's what it feels like .... my sons' 'wheelchair ramp' has been taken away from them, and now it's suggested I buy some snake oil to fix them!

The anecdotes I hear are ridiculous.

"My Aunt Freddy's next door neighbour's milkman's brother's 2nd cousin-in-law had a friend who took his autistic child to a naturopath. The naturopath prescribed supplements and now the kid is cured from his Autism! You should take your sons there."

Helen