My husband and I decided to throw our son his first birthday party at age 5 — the first official birthday party we’ve thrown for him, not because we didn’t want to, but because it’s the first time that he really gets it.

See, a year ago, he was diagnosed with “Aspergers with Hyperlexia”, which is kind of a new way of defining Savantism. So, the last 5 years have been interesting, to say the least. “G” is unique. While fairly unnoticeable to the average spectator, he doesn’t engage with other children except his older brother. He never asks about other children, he never shows an interest in any sort of friendship. He has no use for kids his age really.

Well, last year, I made the very difficult decision to move him from a special ed. school opting to mainstream him into a Montessori school. Even though I’m not really a Montessori fan per se — it’s a little too fairy godmother for my tastes — I felt that the special ed school was holding him back in many ways.

Furious, the special ed school made no effort to hold back their displeasure with my decision and basically told me that I would being doing G a disservice (hence: you are a bad mom). I questioned myself many times, but after consulting with a world renowned expert in G’s “condition”, he succeeded in convincing me G was misplaced.

So, fast forward to Fall of ‘07.

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I suppose all parenting is based on some sort of ideology, but when does ideology interfere and cross the line of what is in a child’s best interest?

It’s too bad that far too often, a parent’s desire to influence a social movement leaves them vulnerable in order to make a point or act in protest.

For example, and I know this is a touchy subject with some, but parents who refuse to vaccinate their children, claiming that it’s all part of some conspiracy theory to line the pockets of pharmaceutical companies. Many parents are so busy trying to find ways that vaccinations cause more harm than good, I think they forgot why vaccines were introduced to begin with. How much evidence does one need to make the logical conclusion that your political gain may compromise the health of your child?

For example, a recent Measles outbreak in San Diego:

On Jan. 25, the 7-year-old’s parents took the youngster to the Children’s Clinic of La Jolla. The child may have coughed and sneezed in the office, thus infecting four other children.

Those four patients returned to the clinic between Feb. 5 and 8, possibly spreading the virus to 60 other children.

All of the 11 confirmed patients, from 10 months to 9 years old, were not vaccinated either because they were younger than 1 – the minimum age for measles inoculation – or because their parents objected to having them vaccinated, county officials said.

…and, although it has NEVER been proven that vaccinations cause Autism, and countless studies fail to even make a link, there are still those holdouts that don’t care what science has to offer, the political statement of pharma vitriol means more to them than what they consider to be a minuscule risk. Nevermind that the risk WIDENS and INCREASES as more and more parents decide not to vaccinate. (Oh, the irony!) Facts, in these cases, don’t seem to be a priority.
One physician tries to uncover the psychology of it all…

It seems to have taken on a life of its own and may be a good example of a socio-psychological phenomenon known as “groupthink,” a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive group.

There may be many parents who will never be convinced that the benefits of immunization for their children in most cases outweigh the risks. In free countries, that is their prerogative and I, as a physician, accept that.

Society must understand that such convictions must not dictate public health policy. Failure to offer people a sound vaccination program would no doubt result in a resurgence of contagions such as polio, measles, and heaven forbid, perhaps even smallpox, should the wild virus ever be reintroduced into the world.

The human toll in lives and suffering, long forgotten by our postmodern world, would be incalculable in a jet age which rapidly spreads infectious disease to all continents.

I’m sure we all have different, conflicting examples of “group think” and some “group think” is beneficial to a child, like the disdain of child abuse, but when does group think interfere with our own sensibilities? I think the Internet, for better or worse, has propagated much of this and found validations for practices in which some critical thinking would go a long way. I can think of a bunch just off the top of my head, can’t you?

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This week’s People Magazine features a story of a diagnosed autistic boy, 12, that was killed after being tied down and abused by nursing home aides. Apparently he was put into the nursing home after a series of violent outbursts at home and trying to choke his little brother. Shortly before his death, he was heard talking to his sister about cartoons and telling his mother that he loved her.

People magazine also writes of a 13-year-old boy, also diagnosed autistic and also killed by a nursing home aide. After restraining the boy in a car because of unruly behavior, the aide went about, doing his errands and returned to the boy, who was dead upon discovery. The parents institutionalized”him because they were still unable to potty train him at 13 years old and he was continually throwing temper tantrums, much like a toddler would.

Admittedly, it’s extremely difficult for me to remain neutral on this subject as I am the mother of an extremely high functioning Asperger child, but I have to believe there must be more to these children being warehoused in nursing homes than People Magazine’s explanation.

My fear is that autism has been the soup de jour diagnosis in order to give parents and children social services and is so commonly diagnosed that we may be missing serious mental disorders in children by giving them a non-specific medical diagnosis. Although there are degrees of autism — hence ASD (autistic spectrum disorder) — landing certain behaviors on the spectrum of autistic disorders, the child in the first example was clearly able to communicate in his nightly phone calls home and express emotions, which is uncharacteristic of autism. Autism is not strictly defined by violent outbursts, as is the reason for this child’s “prison sentence” to a nursing home.

The second child, 13, might have been autistic, but I have to ask, is the lack of being able to potty train and acting like a 2-year old, reason enough to be institutionalized? Although it is difficult to put yourself in that situation and I’m sure most parents would like to think that they wouldn’t institutionalize their children for being difficult and unable to potty train, it still leaves me questioning, are nursing homes the new mental institutions?

What are the requirements in putting a child into a nursing home?? Why aren’t we giving parents the tools in order to facilitate treatment with psychotherapy, various behavioral therapy and/or medications? Are nursing homes really the answer to undesirable behaviors?

Has this become America’s dirty little secret? Typically nursing homes only require the ability to pay them in order to accept a resident, but children should be given more consideration, no? In this day and age, why are we warehousing kids in nursing homes, especially homes that are more qualified to take care of ailing elderly people than children. Why are parents allowing this?

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Today marks a major blow to the many parents claiming that vaccinations, namely the MMR, is linked to autism, once again confirming that you can’t base truth on lack of evidence.

One of the most outspoken opponents to the MMR, and of which his expert claims gave many parents cause for concern, is facing many accounts of professional misconduct. So many, in fact, that I’ll decline to list them all here.

I think parents who insist on a linkage between vaccines and autism without hard evidence need to take a moment of reflection and ask themselves, why is it so important to blame someone and why do those accusations happen to fall upon a multi-billion dollar industry? In other words, you can’t sue oxygen, cultural patterns or genetics, can you?

The doctor who sparked the MMR controversy paid children £5 to take their blood samples at his son’s birthday party, a disciplinary panel heard today.

Dr Andrew Wakefield is accused of showing “callous disregard for the distress and pain” he knew or ought to have known the children might suffer as a result of his actions.

He is also accused of abusing his position of trust and bringing the medical profession into disrepute.

The article goes on to say:

One of the charges he faces is failing to disclose he was paid by solicitors to do separate research for parents who said their children were harmed by the jab.

It is also alleged that he broke the hospital’s ethical rules by subjecting the children to unnecessary medical examinations and “abused his position of trust” by taking blood samples from children at a birthday party. Read the rest…

A list of MMR and Autsim evidence and Dr. Wakefields interests in chronological order:

March 1998
A panel of experts convened by the Medical Research Council on Government orders says there is “no evidence” of a link between the MMR jab and bowel disease or autism.

A total of 37 researchers reviewed the available evidence and said there was no reason to change the current MMR vaccination policy. The panel comprised experts in virology, epidemiology, gastroenterology, immunology, paediatrics, autism, and child psychiatry.

April 1998
A long-term study from Finland, published in The Lancet, finds no evidence of autism being associated with MMR.

Of three million children given the combined jab, 31 youngsters were found to have developed gastrointestinal symptoms such as diarrhoea and vomiting within 15 days of the injection. But their symptoms generally lasted no more than a week.

None of the 31 children developed any signs of autism or any similar condition, the researchers said. Read the rest…

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