McCarthy's Son Likely Not Autistic

I saw a Huffpo headline the other day that claimed she is saying her son "outgrew" autism

It's possible to 'outgrow' autism depending on the severity. Some people are able to learn work arounds and ways of living which allow them to interact in 'normal' ways with other people.

Well that's not really out growing it. You're learning to cope. You're still autistic though, right?

I'd still hit it. Still.

For the record, jokes like that really bother me. I'm willing to sit through alot of insults around here, but I'd appreciate it if the "Kate is autistic" meme died a quick death.

I love how spiteful and hateful Kate gets about people with mental issues, which of course is a massive part of actually being autistic.

You might need to grammar check your post, I am not sure what you are talking about.

It's all in good fun, Kate. However, you can't deny that was a temepting setup.

This man speaks the truth.


Wear your raincoat, buddy.

Fair enough, it's just a "joke" that's starting to get on my nerves. I hear that kind of thing alot around here.

And from your mom, you once mentioned.

That's why it bothers me.

Some of the damage McCarthy caused is the media's fault. Lately, a lot of journalists have had an unfortunate urge to treat everyone like they have an equal opinion, or can understand that there are things called facts. It creates this weird disassociation from truth, that whatever somebody believes can be true, if it makes them feel good. And well, I know in my suburban childhood, people were all for Self-Esteem! And confidence! Even if it's unearned and there's nothing to back it up.

*dry heave*

yeah I don't think anyone here would not plow her

I wouldn't. When it comes to crazy hate fucks I tend to gravitate towards the extreme right wing of the political spectrum. I think that's because I watched the Ilsa movies when I was very young and I'm still trying to work out some issues.

I would.

Someone needs to get Litmus a pic of Kate so he can make a Rain Man 2 Poster.

Well put. The same thing is true for those birther dumbfucks. Just because someone HAS an opinion, doesn't mean it's worth a damn.

I had a boss whose step-daughter has autism. She swore it was because of vaccinations. She says if she ever has children of her own, they'll never be vaccinated. I would always tell her I'd rather have a healthy autistic kid than a dead one. She wasn't having it. The people who believe this are DIE HARD about it.

Just once I wanted a reporter or intervewer to ask McCarthy what Medical School she got her MD from. Never Happened.

They don't want to be mean to her. Because she cares.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jenny-..._b_490918.html

J'Mc op-ed on HUFFPO on the subject of, you guessed it, autism

I swear to christ, the first part of that sentence is goobledigook.

It still pisses me off that they're saying the kids got cured. They most likely didn't, they most likely worked out coping mechanism and workarounds.

It seems to me, that if you don't what is neurologically causing the symptoms of autism, you have no way to accurately (or truthfully) say if someone's autism has been cured

Pictured below: Jenny McCarthy

Don't you have laws in the US regarding the endangering of public health? Can't anyone shut these bastards up before some poor gullible idiot's kid gets hurt?

Yeah, damn that pesky free speech!

Free speech is for public discourse and for ensuring that political dissent cannot be prohibited. It is not for every dingbat with a podium to peddle their uneducated and self serving opinions. Much less so when these could lead to actual physical harm to others. She's not simply stating an unpopular opinion. She's objectively lying so she can sell more books.

All this hiding behind 'It's free speech' reminds me of the situation we have here with with what we call the University Asylum. This means that the police cannot enter an institution of education without the administration's permission unless they can clearly observe a felony in progress. The constitution guarantees that as a way of ensuring that educational institutions will be a place of free political discourse, no matter how unpopular it is. It's being used though, as the best possible hiding place for everyone running from the cops. By the time the whole song and dance is over and the police are free to pursue everything is gone. It cheapens both the concept and the sacrifices made to achieve it.

I'd be willing to bet that a lot of the folks saying their kids have been cured were misdiagnosed in the first place like McCarthy's kid. Especially if their kids were diagnosed really young...like McCarthy's kid. It's difficult to quantify "qualitative impairment in social interaction" in a two-year-old because kids develop differently, but it's *really* easy to see your kid reflected in the diagnoses if you already think there's something wrong with them and want help.

Autism and Asperger's are a hot diagnosis right now, and many schools will push for a diagnosis for kids so they can get funding for programs.

Awwww, booo.


Maybe rethink you're idiotic and horrible fucking stance on how you treat mentally handicapped people, then we'll all talk.

I understand and agree with what your saying, Autism is the new ADD it seems, but it still rankles a little as someone who has been diagnosed and properly statemented at a later age. It sort of makes Autism and Aspergers seem like joke diagnosis which carries no real weight. It's like a mental 'get out of jail free card'.

I hear you there. It cheapens the diagnosis of people who actually have issues that need treatment when the diagnosis is thrown around so fast and loose. I don't really understand what you mean by "properly statemented"...does that mean that you were diagnosed early informally, and then had a proper evaluation later on that confirmed it?

It's really too bad that help for kids who need it is tied pretty much directly to a diagnosis...at least in our school district. For the past four years, people have been trying to give my son, now 6, that "mental get out of jail free" card, and it's been tempting. But my wife is an insufferably intelligent pediatrician who does not suffer lightly the fools who diagnose using criteria from articles in USA Today instead of the DSMIV.

Bingo. Diagnosed when I was six, but the Doctor advised that it would be more condusive for me to be in a 'real' enviroment with other kids and learn how to deal with the condition on my own terms. I had it properly statemented, as in registered as an actual disability, when I was Twenty One, partially for my own piece of mind and partially on the behest of my employers (who are a Mental Health Provider) so that they could know of any support I needed in the role. Anyways, life story over.

I hope I didn't insult you with that get out of jail free remark.

It's great that your wife is taking that stance. From what I've been told it's actually far worse to coddle someone with autism or aspergers as it means they never work out how to properly interact with people. Dealing with other people can be traumatic, but it does enforce certain social behaviours which can lead to people finding coping mechanisms that work for them.

Sweet Jeebus, no. Not at all! I agree with you completely. It sounds like the way your situation was handled is the way I'd like it to be. You identify kids that might fit the diagnosis, but help them out along the way in every way you can and make a real determination later on. There are a lot of kids that need some sort of help in the social skills arena that wouldn't necessarily need to be diagnosed and medicated. And even those who do need special care would benefit from helping them with social skills.

My son's behavior can definitely be seen to fall somewhere on the autism spectrum, and meets a few of the criteria dead on. Especially "encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest that is abnormal either in intensity or focus". Specifically the color orange and sea creatures (little dude knows more about marine biology than most high school students, I swear). He's since moved on from the letter "i", but his preoccupation with the letter "i" was pretty much the reason he got kicked out of his first day care at 20 months.

I just want to see a little more rational thought going into both diagnosing kids and helping kids who have trouble in social situations like school. We've got the resources to get him a lot of help, and to make sure that he's getting properly treated, but there's a lot of kids out there who don't. So yeah, Jenny McCarthy, spend your time lobbying for increases in special education budgets in schools or something now that you've been shut down.

It just really bothers me, and I wish you'd consider that and alter your behavior. Even if you think my use of a scientific term for people with an IQ below 70 is inappropriate, I don't get why you'd insist on teasing me with something that I've stated upsets me. If you think I'm being cruel, that gives you license to be cruel to me? I don't understand that thinking.

That's all

I was told that I had "ADD" when I was in first grade. By fourth grade all the kids suddenly seemed to switch over to an "ADHD" diagnosis (I was never told I had that, and retroactively my ADD diagnosis was retracted by another more level headed doctor). Then I guess that went out of vogue so by the time I was leaving HS, you had people talking about the "autism spectrum" ETC

They have no real clue what goes on inside peoples brains, so basically they make up disorders and "syndromes"* to pacify parents seeking the newest trendiest explanation for why their kids are not perfect. It can't be shitty parenting at fault, only a disorder could be to blame!

*a syndrome is collection of symptoms, that could be chosen at random. I could say people who enjoy Monday mornings, American Idol and Republican Politics have "Retards Syndrome" (or RS, in the medical vernacular) but that wouldn't make it a real thing like a disease which can be examined under a microscope.

It's not just the diagnosis, it's tied to the severity of the diagnosis, at least where I'm at. My house is going on the market on Monday so we can move in my my inlaws and redirect our mortgage payment towards 3k in monthly in-home therapy.

My three year old son is autistic, officially diagnosed by the Kennedy Kreiger Childrens Hospital, one of the leaders in autism research. It's not a "he doesn't behave, so I think he's autistic" thing, he's almost completely non-verbal. Even at three, he uses no recognizable words, and doesn't really respond to a lot of other non-verbal forms of communication (ie signing, photo exchange, etc).

We started noticing the delay at 18 months, and have been working with county programs to get him the services from professionals that are available. We have to work within the county set up, because the private foundations don't take insurance, and they're unreachably expensive for any but the quite rich. But we're working with him as much as humanly possible, and we have him in school for five half days a week now. We have him on a gluten free reduced casein diet, on purely the fact that some have said it can help, and we have noticed an increase in his attention span as a result.

I say all of this for a reason. I've read McCarthy's books. I'm not a stupid or naive person. I'm certainly neither of those in regards to the care of my child's life, a life I care about more than my own. But it's very easy for anyone to judge from the sidelines. It's very easy for people with no kids, or people with kids developing at a normal rate to cast aspersions at parents of autistic children choosing not to give their child the MMR vaccine. We will most likely give him the vaccine later, but for now, we're not taking the chance that giving him the vaccine could possibly make his already precarious condition markably worse, especially before we ever have a chance of helping him get better, or at least get to a point where he can effectively communicate.

Before anyone goes on any witch-burning crusades, they should consider the intense personal challenge this can bring for parents. I'm not saying every parent with a child displaying any potential symptoms of autism should eliminate any and all vaccines, far from it, I'm pretty worried about the possible consequences myself, but it's caught between a rock and a hard place.

I get the logic behind "why take a chance on doing this thing that might make our kid worse." The problem is, there's as much scientific reason to believe vaccinations will make him worse as there is to believe sunshine, puppies, or rainbows will make him worse. On the other hand, catching a disease WILL affect him negatively. Instead of not taking a risk, you're instead doing the opposite and actively taking an extra risk.

You're absolutely right. But as I said before, it's a rock and a hard place situation. We haven't eliminated all vaccines, we're just hesitant to get more right now, and we're not ruling out getting them in the future. It's not an easy decision, and truth be told, left to make it alone, I would have most likely gone for getting him vaccinated. It's not just my decision though, it's his mother's also, and I understand and respect her reticence, and I'm willing to take the risk for right now.

It's a risk with no upside (imo at least) but you at least seem aware of that.

Note: The following is a general statement and not directed at Chris Miller

The problem I encounter is that a lot of the things parents do aren't really intended to help the kids; they are intended to help the parents, even if the parents themselves don't realize that. Crazy fad diets, skipping vaccinations, unscientific therapy methods, etc. are all things parents do to make themselves feel better, to feel they have control or are doing something to help their child. I completely and totally understand the mindset that makes someone like Jenny McCarthy say and do what she says and does. It's a normal human reaction to the situation, and probably does a good job helping her cope with the situation. It just doesn't do her kid any good, and in her case because of the stage she's on it actively hurts others who take what she says seriously.

For the record, my son is in a pretty good place. He's quite a bit smarter than most kids his age, and we are fairly confident that with intense early therapy he'll learn to cope at a level that will leave his condition virtually undetectable by the time kindergarten rolls around. I also am in a very fortunate situation in that I can move in with relatives and literally throw my entire income at getting him help. On top of that, one of my good friends and his wife are both PhD's who specialize in autism, and who run clinic at the local university. It's pretty easy for me (compared to most parents anyway) to stay positive and stay rational. Most folks aren't in that position.

Our blessing is the fact that our sons disability as it relates to the spectrum is mostly just being non-verbal. He's very cheerful, very emotionally attached and loving, he just doesn't talk (plenty of babble, and what's more and more seeming to be his own language). I'm hoping that with the intense work we're doing with him he'll have 10 words by 4.

Non-verbal communication is something that children can get past though, I barely spoke til I was six. It's difficult trying to express this without sounding condescending or over dramatic but I really hope for the best for your kid. I hope he works out his own way of getting through and that he's just a 'late developer'.

Also gotta admire the amount of thought and rationality Louris is showing with his kids.

I don't really like to enter these autism debates because I become an emotional, rampaging bitch, but I wish your son (and Louris' child too) all the best.
My little boy was completely non verbal until the age of five, and then he started picking up words just out of the blue. We still don't know what caused the breakthrough, but it happened.
He's nine now and is still severely speech delayed, but we can communicate with him fine. Other than his speech and usual autism "quirks", he is a loving, affectionate, rambunctious little boy. His infant and toddler years were a nightmare to be honest, and if anyone had told me that he would mature to be this great kid, I wouldn't have believed them.
His situation and diagnosis seemed so bleak and hopeless at the time, even though we weren't.

Good luck to your families. Early intervention is the key.

Solid last handful of posts here. I don't want kids, generally can't stand 'em (they have to be pretty kickass), but you guys sound like awesome parents with some lucky kids.