Mutterings Of A Mindless Mommy

I just watched a BBC Four Documentary called “The Autism Puzzle” by Saskia Baron and found it to be one of the more balanced documentaries on autism that has been produced in recent years.  The documentary dates back to 2005 and Saskia Baron approaches it as the sister of a profoundly autistic man (Timothy) who was diagnosed back in the 1960s.

In that day and age, children with autism were typically sent away to institutions.  Saskia and Timothy’s father, Michael Baron, ended up co-founded the National Autistic Society in the United Kingdom in 1962.  The documentary had several clips from the autism school.

Saskia Baron touches on the belief that some hold about the MMR vaccination causing autism and explained that there was no MMR vaccination when her brother was young and he was most definitely autistic. 

In watching the documentary - a few things really stood out to me:

An autistic boy of 12 or 13 was working with his speech therapist and he stopped in the middle of his activity to rub his cheek on the therapist’s arm. Watching the way he rubbed his cheek back and forth reminded me exactly of my daughter. She loves to rub her cheek on people and the motions/mannerisms between my daughter and the boy in the video were almost identical!

A common thread brought up by the parents in the video was that their children had major difficulties with sleep. This is something I’m actively dealing with right now - *yawn*.

John Peters, a British man, was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome at the age of 56. One of his grandson’s was being evaluated for autism and the doctor mentioned the grandfather’s quirky mannerisms. Sure enough - an Aspergic grandfather has two Aspergic grandsons.

A mother of two children on the spectrum stated that if there were a magic wand to take the autism away, she wouldn’t use it. She doesn’t feel that there is a “normal” child trapped within her children like being in some sort of prison. The mother went on to say “I think our job is to learn to live with it, with them and to allow them space to be the sort of people they are.” Talk about accepting autism!

So while watching this video - an interesting ad popped on my screen. 

The Body Ecology Diet - We Have Answers to Heal Your Gut…Prevent & Reverse Autism

Huh?  Prevent autism?  I understand that a lot of people on the spectrum also have gastrointestinal issues but prevent autism?  So I decided to check out the Body Ecology Diet website and there is a link to Autism & ADD with information on a three day workshop - “Taking the Mystery Out of Autism.”  Okay, that doesn’t sound too bad - everyone and their mom is hosting an autism workshop these days.

So I decide to look at the brochure (just curious, mind you) and guess what the price tag on this three day workshop is?  $999.  Yup, that’s right - a smooth thousand dollars to have the privilege of attending a workshop “based on the teachings of Donna Gates, M.Ed. and Leonard Smith, MD.”  So the Body Ecology Diet was created by a person with a Master’s in Education?  Odd.

Back to the $1k price tag - that is outrageous.  Here are some comparisons:  Autism Society of America, four-day conference, $225; DAN! Conference, three days, $425; Autism Summit 2008, three days, $395.  Now I’m not saying any one of these conferences is a great place to go but just comparing apples to apples…one autism conference/workshop to another. 

I may be off base but it sounds like the Body Ecology Diet is just another way for people to profit off of the whole hyped up autism issue.