As Henry's Mother I am angry and saddened by some people's comments. I would welcome anyone to see Henry's video of his first day of therapy and then meet him...He is a different child. When you are a parent and you get a diagnosis of Autism or cancer, you will do anything for your child....including self paying for services before your child receives help. Yes, we get help from the state, but we also self pay for therapy items, gasoline to appointments, summer programs, play groups and numerous other items.

If you believe that this type of therapy is wasting tax payer’s money, then I am sorry you feel that way.

The Wisconsin Early Autism Project helps more then just the child and it is not a "glorified babysitting service", they help parents work with their children in order to have success in life.

If you want to know the results of the success rates, you can Google the Lovas research...Dr. Sallows is not even in the office and does not have time for people that just want to ridicule their work.

On for people that want to cut down about ribbons on cars and such...Don't go outside, stay sheltered in your home...Everyone has a right to promote awareness and what they believe in....

To the people positive comments, Thank you for your support.

And remember to research your presidential candidates for this election and most importantly, just vote!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27167445/ any thoughts on BPA ?? i think eviromental things contribute to the gene disorder. what if any thoughts do you have on this plastic problem ??

Obama2008 asked "where was she able to get hyperbaric treatment ??"

She moved to another state to get better help for them and was able to take them to a clinic with a hyperbaric chamber. However, she discovered that with five autistic children to be treated, it was cheaper and simpler to sell other possessions to buy a home hyperbaric chamber.

I have worked closely with the ABA system and autism and this is what I think:

I think genetics and vaccinations are both linked to autism. Every single person is different, yet vaccines are administered at the same dose for everyone. I think some bodies handle vaccines better than others. And I also think that autism may be genetic but the vaccines are what sets it off.

As for people complaining about the therapy "stealing" taxpayers' dollars: Therapy is state funded because autism is not covered on insurance because it is considered to be emotional rather than neurological. So, people that are upset by this should write to their congressperson and urge them to say yes to the bill that would allow insurance to cover therapy.

The article covered one successful story, yes. But there have been many successful stories using ABA therapy. Some people do not agree with it, and a lot of people that do not agree with it are the ones that do not know a single person with autism or anything about it in the first place. Everything, and I mean EVERTHING is documented. So yes, their is proof of progress. And for people calling parents lazy, you would be definitely eating your words if you met them. It's just sad that people take time out of their day to critize people they don't even know and probably never will. I think everyone chooses what they feel is best for their children and its easy for people to judge when they are on the outside of the situation.

There is a genetic link with autism. The cause of her kids diagnosis could be genetic. Just something to think about.

where was she able to get hyperbaric treatment ??

I used to be a little skeptical of the vaccine causation theory, then a friend had five of her six "normal" children vaccinated on the same day and all of them, from infant to early elementary school, became autistic. Only her eldest, who didn't get a shot that day, is normal.

The good news is that through therapy, dietary intervention, and hyperbaric treatment, her children have improved a great deal since then.

everyone should have there shots but, we can also protect babies by removing Thimerosol. just because your baby was not effected does not mean others are not. we know Autism is caused by a gene being turned off at the time of conception. this is not to say shots do not aggravate the condition. much like pollen aggravates allergies. gene therapy when available in America could cure Autism. at this time it is only offered in China and i don't think any parent will go there for it. at any rate when a child hits puberty they produce stem cells again, something that has not happened since conception. this tends to be in most children with autism a time of "awakening" and i have seen it time and time again. Autism is different for every child but for most it means they do not talk. a great book is "the siege" and it will help any parent going threw this.

Autism can be treated-not cured. Medications given to those with autism are used to treat symptoms that some people with autism may have such as anxiety, depression, or even seizures. There is no 'autism medication' that just 'alters the mind'. My sister did therapy with kids with autism and with the intensive treatments she has seen results. She potty trained one child-a six year old. I know-the parents must be lazy. Or maybe a therapist has been taught how to work with the autistic brain and use techniques a parent may not even consider.

Does "therapy" for autistic children really work? Or is "therapy" just another way to bleed your bank accounts dry? Seems to me that if "therapy" and behavioral pharmecuitical treatments were actually effective, that autism wouldn't even be a news story filler. Autism isn't a new syndrome by any means. It has just gained further attention via the major three news networks that historically have been pushing the prescribed medication down your children's throats, via their advertising contracts. The only people that benefit when you get mind-altering medications for your children are the C.E.O's at Pfizer and Merck. And if you think any of THOSE multi-billion dollar corporations have YOUR best interest's in mind, well then you trully ARE brainwashed. Spend hundreds of dollars on a sticker campaign? Or donate that money instead to your respective cause? We can't read your stickers as we travel down the road behind you anyway. So stockpile that box of stickers and put your money where tour mouth is. Stickers and "brochures" are a waste of money.

My mom's seven kids were fine. My eight nieces and nephews are fine. My four kids are fine. All immunized. Yeah, I know, anecdotal evendence. None of my kids-or any aformentioned relatives-have had any of the diseases they were vaccinated for. I'll take it. I'm not saying anything against the choices others make-I'm talking about what I think is right for me and my kids. To each his own.

from the cdc:

Contact with infectious blood, semen, and other body fluids from having sex with an infected person, sharing contaminated needles to inject drugs, or from an infected mother to her newborn.

They are trying to eradicate the disease, however, I just think it's another in a long line of unnecessary injections for a brand new brain and immune system to handle.

Didn't you notice the other ways one can get Hep B? No, I don't think a lot do. But it is possible for a child to get Hepatitis B. I even said I don't know the rationale for the administration of the vaccine being so early. Maybe it's to prevent life long liver problems.

so you think newborns get a lot of std's?

http://www.vaccinationnews.com/DailyNews...

Go here and scroll down to see the comparisons between autism and mercury poisoning symptoms

You can get Hep B from blood or organs. Some kids need those things and the screening for disease isn't always perfect. And I hate to say it but kids can get STD's. There are a lotta sicko's out there. I don't know the reasoning for getting it so early, honestly, but just saying.
And some people aren't good parents. Some people who have kids just aren't very bright. Is it the best thing for them to teach their kids? Broad statements...

Oh and just so everyone knows, I'm not against vaccines, I think they are vital to the health of a community. I'm against giving a child so many and such a young age, when not only is their brain developing, but so is there immune system. To inject them with harsh chemicals on purpose, is just something I'm not willing to do.

I think you should follow your own schedule, research human development for yourself, and come up with a vaccination schedule that works with the body and not against it.

Make sure what you are vaccinating them for is something that is vital to their survival, it's just my opinion, but I don't think Hep. B is a vaccine a newborn should get, you know, since it's an std and all.

Try to avoid combo shots, although most insurance companies won't cover it if you split them up.

I tried to teach my daughter letters before kindergarten. I just must not have been doing it right. I couldn't get it through her thick little skull. She went to school and was taught by someone trained to teach and learned immediately.
I'm not a teacher. Just ain't my thang. Pulling my kids out of school and teaching them would be detrimental. Am I a stupid person? 3.76 GPA in college right now-prolly do have half a brain. Can I teach-apparently not.
In developing countries-well in developed countries too, I guess, they are more able to accurately assess signs and symptoms of autism than before. There are more guidelines to diagnosis. With this new structure in diagnostics it isn't saying that more kids have autism than before-but more kids are diagnosed. Diagnosis is more accurate than in the past.

The drug industry knew the additional vaccines posed a danger. The same year that the CDC approved the new vaccines, Dr. Maurice Hilleman, one of the fathers of Merck's vaccine programs, warned the company that six-month-olds who were administered the shots would suffer dangerous exposure to mercury. He recommended that thimerosal be discontinued, "especially when used on infants and children," noting that the industry knew of nontoxic alternatives. "The best way to go," he added, "is to switch to dispensing the actual vaccines without adding preservatives."

For Merck and other drug companies, however, the obstacle was money. Thimerosal enables the pharmaceutical industry to package vaccines in vials that contain multiple doses, which require additional protection because they are more easily contaminated by multiple needle entries. The larger vials cost half as much to produce as smaller, single-dose vials, making it cheaper for international agencies to distribute them to impoverished regions at risk of epidemics. Faced with this "cost consideration," Merck ignored Hilleman's warnings, and government officials continued to push more and more thimerosal-based vaccines for children. Before 1989, American preschoolers received eleven vaccinations -- for polio, diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis and measles-mumps-rubella. A decade later, thanks to federal recommendations, children were receiving a total of twenty-two immunizations by the time they reached first grade.

As the number of vaccines increased, the rate of autism among children exploded. During the 1990s, 40 million children were injected with thimerosal-based vaccines, receiving unprecedented levels of mercury during a period critical for brain development. Despite the well-documented dangers of thimerosal, it appears that no one bothered to add up the cumulative dose of mercury that children would receive from the mandated vaccines. "What took the FDA so long to do the calculations?" Peter Patriarca, director of viral products for the agency, asked in an e-mail to the CDC in 1999. "Why didn't CDC and the advisory bodies do these calculations when they rapidly expanded the childhood immunization schedule?"

I too am skeptical of the link between vaccines and autism. However, the datasets the FDA and other government agencies have used included children as young as six months old which is much younger than any diagnosis can be made and those datasets have not been open to outside review because of "privacy" reasons, even though there are no names attached to the data files. These studies also almost always address these exposures as long term whereas most children receive them in high level short term exposures. Thimerosol has been removed from "most" vaccines, however, it has not been removed from RH factor which would provide fetal exposure to Thimerosol.

Parents initially became concerned about Thimerosol because of EPA recommendations of exposure levels which stated that a child should not receive more than 5mcg per pound and many children have received upwards of 60mcg in a given day.

Recently, a study involving chelation was stopped when initial results from experiments on rats demonstrated the possibility of long term brain damage. I found this to be somewhat ironic considering that for many years ethyl mercury was put into vaccines.

The FDA's and CDC's record on drug safety is not very good so I am naturally skeptical of any study that is not open for review from an outside party. In other words if someone cannot look at the data for themselves and come to the same conclusion it is not really scientific.

If I am wrong with my information please let me know, I wish to know the truth.

Because I'm not a scientist I won't get as far as to say that I know they are linked, let's just say I'm skeptical.

The cdc would NEVER come out and say that vaccines containing thimerosal can be linked to autism, the fall-out from all the malpractice lawsuits would be too great. You may think they have your best interest at heart, and they might, it's just after their own first.

In China, where the disease was virtually unknown prior to the introduction of thimerosal by U.S. drug manufacturers in 1999, news reports indicate that there are now more than 1.8 million autistics. Although reliable numbers are hard to come by, autistic disorders also appear to be soaring in India, Argentina, Nicaragua and other developing countries that are now using thimerosal-laced vaccines. The World Health Organization continues to insist thimerosal is safe, but it promises to keep the possibility that it is linked to neurological disorders "under review."

"You couldn't even construct a study that shows thimerosal is safe," says Haley, who heads the chemistry department at the University of Kentucky. "It's just too darn toxic. If you inject thimerosal into an animal, its brain will sicken. If you apply it to living tissue, the cells die. If you put it in a petri dish, the culture dies. Knowing these things, it would be shocking if one could inject it into an infant without causing damage."

your right on one thing, pulling your kids out of school and home schooling them would be a better choice.

Moe-the CDC has info on the link between the MMR vaccine and autism. (There isn't one). It explains better than I could why people think the two are connected.
Just FYI.

Autism is able to be diagnosed at a certain time in a child's life. Vaccines are gived at certain times in a child's life. If those two times correlate they must be related, right? My son just got vaccinated and the next day he tripped and bumped his head. The vaccine caused the bump on his head.
There's a lot of research on the correlation between vaccines and autism with no conclusive evidence.
I don't think parents seeking treatment makes a parent lazy. Not everyone makes a good teacher-even if they're trained to teach. To make such a broad, judgemental statement is ignorant. I supposed I should just pull my kids out of school because apparently it looks like I just don't care about them.

read "evidence of harm" it goes into great detail about vaccines and the fact that no environmental scientist is ever used to disprove it. wonder why that is. as far as these "therapist" go they are really just babysitters for parents to busy or to lazy to take care of their own child. point in case, you can become one of these "therapist" without any experience. the program pays 10.00 an hour to teach the "therapist" the basics and that's it. i love the autistic children i know and their fantastic parents for caring for them and not passing the buck. it's a very difficult job. science knows a lot about autism and all the material is available for you to read. some parents just don't care and see their child as a burden. how sad ! take responsibility and help your own child, which is the best medicine of all, a parents love. i know many parents that make sure one of them is with their child 24/7 and it can be done. just give up your cable, second car, vacation.... whats more important, stuff or your child ?

Face Of Recovery Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Kb9GWOig...

I wonder what percentage of these kids started having autism symptoms shortly after receiving a vaccine.

Being the parent of an autistic child I can say that there is nothing wrong with trying different techniques so long as you document your methods and chart their progress so that you know what your doing is effective. This isn't that though. Lovaas' technique which is nearly thirty years old is advertised as a viable therapy that is supported with taxpayer dollars. If you want to spend your own money on snake oil therapy that would be your choice, however, spending taxpayer dollars is tantamount to stealing. I understand that this is an inconvenient truth for parents desparate for a solution, however, it is the truth.

Upton Sinclair: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."

How do you know it isn't just a coincidence that they are improving. They're doing it for forty hours a week. Do you understand how science even works?

I would like to think that there were more people out there that would be willing to give something a try without science having to be behind it. As a mother and a grandmother of handycapped children it is good to see that there is someone out there that is willing to not only do it alone without science but as well willing to help others like themselves as well. And as for science how is it that each child is different and science is can not study one child and come up with some thing for every child out there with a disablity.

IF it works then where are the studies? Where is the science behind it? There are only anecdotal stories that provide a false hope because they are not grounded in science. Treatments need to prove they are effective not hope they are effective.

I am amazed at the narrow way of thinking of some people. This project works, speaking from someone that once was a therapist for the project. Kids that had difficulties overcoming simple things that most people take for granted for their children to do. In many cases these issues and things wouldn't develop for these children for years. Different ways in teaching a child to learn is not only benefical to everyone, but should not to be made fun of by people unwilling to look outside of the box. So in the future, gottabkiddin69 and villalamesville think of all that you have been blessed with in life, instead of first making fun of others for trying to get ahead further in life and giving out information for others that are also dealing with similar situations.

This of course seems to be a success story, however, it is anecdotal and in no way reflects the actual outcomes of Lovaas treatment. Lovaas treatment has a limited research base. It proves successful less than 50% of the time and 10% of the children do worse than before the treatment started. So, there is scant evidence that it is effective. When I emailed Dr. Sallows, a doctor in charge of the program at one of the Madison hospitals, about any peer-reviewed studies and success rates he did not return my email.

You will notice that all the media stories center around individual success stories but never provide hard facts about the effectiveness of the treatment. Current research at the University of Wisconsin Madison by Paul Shattuck concluded that individuals with Autism generally improve throughout their lives. ( http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2...) This "get to them early" theory has no basis in fact and is used as a form of pressure to get parents to use a treatment that works less than half the time that the state pays for. It also places a great deal of guilt on parents who didn't get their children into treatment early. In the interviews of autistic teenagers I have seen who have learned to type or communicate without speaking they say that behavior modification will never get them to speak. (Search for Tito at the http://researchchannel.org or Carly at the ABC News website.)

Maybe you should stop reading the newspaper, watching television and going online? The "big gaudy stickers on trunk lids" do get the message across because people always see them so the will always remember. Sadly there are too many people out there that forget about such things and too many people feel that because it is not their family member they don't need to worry about it. These people don't know how hard it is. What would they do if it was someone in there family? Think about it when it's too late?????? P.S Those stickers are also called freedom of speech, move to another country if it really bothers you!

I'm going to have some ribbon shaped stickers made up that read "Enough with the "Awareness" stickers already!" Anyone that can read a newspaper, own a television, or get their news online are continually bombarded by the same old messages every day. A big gaudy sticker on your trunk lid isn't going to make the message sink in any deeper.