FOX 5 Special: Autism Treatments
The Autism News | English
By Beth Galvin | My Fox Atlanta
For parents, hearing their child has been diagnosed with autism can be devastating. One of the first questions they face is how do they help their child. For years there haven’t been any easy answers and progress has been slow, leaving families searching for their own treatments.
Autism can run the spectrum of developmental disorders that goes from mild to severe.
The problem is a lot of parents with kids on that spectrum feel like they’ve been left without a road map. Parents want to help, but they don’t know how to get it.
One Georgia family said they found a road map.
Will Redwood is a 15-year-old Tyrone High School student who leads a pretty typical life.
Redwood started showing signs of a mild form of autism just after his first birthday.
“He had no language. He couldn’t communicate with us. He wasn’t potty-trained. He wouldn’t look at us, he wouldn’t interact with us,” said Redwood’s mother, Lyn.
The Redwoods and thousands of other parents have tried some outside-the-box autism treatments to help their children.
The Interactive Autism Network was launched two years ago and it’s a way to track all of the autism treatments parents are trying. According to the network, there are have been 400 treatments and counting.
Will Redwood’s parents first tried traditional speech and behavioral therapy and then moved on to enzymes, and supplements, and vitamins to help his digestive problems.
Then the Redwoods tried a more controversial treatment.
“When we found out that he was mercury-toxic, and we started chelation therapy,” said Lyn Redwood.
Will Redwood was given prescription medication commonly used to treat lead poisoning to bind and pull heavy metals from his body.
Dr. Leslie Rubin, a developmental pediatrician with the Emory and Morehouse Schools of Medicine had serious doubts about treatments like chelation.
“If this is something that really worked, you would have everybody recommending it. Why would we withhold a treatment that should work?” asked Dr. Rubin.
Dr. Rubin said he worried that the unproven treatments could do more harm than good, and give parents false hope.
“If somebody says, ‘This product works, it’s excellent,’ and somebody says, ‘My child didn’t speak and then I gave him this medication, and then the next day he spoke, wow!’ That’s impressive. It’s of biblical proportions,” said Dr. Rubin.
Dr. Rubin said that the only treatments scientifically proven to work are programs like this one at the Walden School at the Emory University Autism Center. The center pushes intensive speech, communication, and behavioral therapy.
The Redwoods insist something worked for their son and they said they believe he has recovered from autism. The Redwoods aren’t alone.
More than 650 families have posted videos on YouTube, saying their children have made huge improvements and most credit alternative treatments. New research shows about 10 percent of autistic children may recover, but the key seems to be intensive behavior therapy beginning by age four or five.
“So, many kids on the autism spectrum may become highly successful as adults. And, in fact, they’re exceptional people, because they’re different, they see the world differently,” said Dr. Rubin.
Will Redwood still faces some challenges with his speech, and attention span, but his parents said they felt like they have their son back.
“I’m just like a symbol of what people, or teenagers, or kids can become with autism. Just with a little bit of time can probably be like anyone else,” said Will Redwood.
Lyn Redwood said she agreed with Dr. Rubin that most of these treatments are unproven she said that’s why we desperately need more research so parents won’t feel like they’re shooting in the dark.
Source: http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/dpp/news/fox-5-special:-autism-treatments-030310
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