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Jennifer Buettner, who has three young children, has created a new company called Efficacy Brands which makes placebos for children. The company will see cherry-flavored dextrose tablets (”Obecalp”—-guess what word that is, spelled backwards?); $5.95 for a bottle of 50. Buettner came up with the idea while taking care of a niece with a “raging […]
According to Dr. Fernando Miranda of the Bright Mind Institute, maybe not. A report in the May 19th Good Morning America/ABC News describes some children who were initially diagnosed with autism, and later found to have Landau-Kleffner Syndrome. For some of the children, anti-seizure medication has produced dramatic results and Dr. Miranda is said […]
I never got around to making a list of last week’s top posts last week so here’s two weeks of “top posts” about autism. Rather than arrange them in chronological order, I’ve arranged them by topic:
My son Charlie turned 11 last Thursday, on May 15th. Life on the road with Charlie is my constant theme […]
The decision to put an autistic child on medication is never easy for a parent to think about. When the medications in question are antipsychotics (like Risperdal) and antidepressants (like Zoloft), and when the child is disabled and has little or no language to explain how he feels while on the meds, a parent has […]
The April 1st CNN Money.com reviews the “recent brouhaha about 9-year-old Hannah Poling,” whose family received a settlement under the federal government’s Vaccine Injury Compensation Program “based on their claim that childhood vaccinations aggravated a rare metabolic disorder in Hannah, triggering autism symptoms.” Writer David Stipp notes that, in a 2006 survey, 54% of families […]
More than a few autistic people, parents, and professionals have noted that software and technology has helped them or an autistic child learn about real-life situations (from emotions to street traffic). CNN recently reported about Naughty Auties, a “virtual resource center for those with autism” created by 22-year-old David Savill of Gloucester, England, using the […]
A study in the March 2008 volume of Pediatrics on psychotropic medication use among Medicaid-enrolled children with autism spectrum disorders noted that there is “ongoing debate” about the uses of psychotropic medications. Only Risperidone, an atypical neuroleptic, has received FDA approval to treat autistic children for aggression and irritability. The AAP study also noted […]
Charlie has taken Zoloft—a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), which works by inhibiting the uptake of serotonin, and thereby allows for more serotonin to be available to be taken up by other nerves—-for some years. He was prescribed it by his pediatric neurologist for anxiety that we linked to his head-banging and aggressive outbursts. Charlie […]
Should Child Protective Services of San Diego have removed 17-year-old Nate Tseglin from his parents, Ilya and Riva Tseglin, after a teacher reported seeing self-inflicted scratches on Nate’s body and complaining about the doctor-approved arm restraints that his parents used? Nate has been in the Fairview Developmental Center (formerly Fairview State Hospital) in Costa Mesa, […]
Neon-bright marquees and music (from B.B. King’s theater–Buckwheat Zydeco is playing) and tour buses driving up halfway onto 42nd street and Russian Spanish Korean Twi being spoken and the smell of the gyros and steam from the subway grates: That was what Charlie walked through, holding Jim’s arm and grinning, with my parents and me […]
Autism mother gets on her soapbox.
Written by Kristina Chew, PhD [email] for b5media.
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