"AUTISM YESTERDAY" - A TRIBUTE TO TIRELESS PARENTING

By David Kirby

At a time when Big Medicine, Big Government and Big Media are trying hard to make the vaccine-autism debate go away, along comes a quiet little film like “Autism Yesterday” to throw a wrench in the establishment’s best laid plans to stifle the pesky vaccine chatter once and for all.

Anyone out there still declaring that this debate is over, that medical science has fully exonerated mercury and vaccines, and that thousands of parents who insist otherwise don’t know what they are talking about, really should watch THIS film before embarrassing themselves further.

“Autism Yesterday,” a beautifully shot film with a stirring original soundtrack of softly strumming guitars and plaintive but hopeful songs, tells the story of five West Coast families who bucked all conventional wisdom -- and began to recover their kids.

In each story, we see clear before-and-after evidence of a child’s heartbreaking descent into the silent, baffling world of autism, and then their steady, sometimes miraculous progress back towards health, happiness, communication and, yes, recovery.

In each case, the parents explain how they turned to controversial “biomedical interventions” such as wheat and dairy-free diets, or the removal of heavy metals from the body, to treat their ailing children. And the film, in elegant detail, shows us exactly how far these kids have come.

Their progress stands in glaring opposition to all those “experts” who insist that neither mercury nor vaccines could possibly have anything to do with autism, and that biomedical intervention is nothing short of dangerous snake oil, bordering on child abuse.

Many of them, in the process, have denigrated, ridiculed and dismissed parents who are treating their children anyway. Such parents, the media tell us, are overwrought and hyper-emotional, they are desperate and distraught, confused and ignorant, even greedy and litigious.

But watch “Autism Yesterday” and you see and hear a different story – something I have come to know after speaking with thousands of parents in over 30 states: These tireless advocates for children are neither crazy nor stupid. Their thoughtfulness, intelligence, compassion and determination is what strikes us most.

Instead of slamming them, we should be listening very carefully to what they have to say.

One clear message from “Autism Yesterday” is that parents often know what is going on with their kids far better than the professionals. Many doctors dismissed them when they insisted their healthy children regressed into autism. Studies have proven the doctors wrong.

Now, parents are insisting that biomedical treatments, in at least some cases, can virtually make autism go away. And once again, the moms and dads are being dismissed, even laughed at.

But all the derision, scorn and snickering in the world is, to them, irrelevant. As one mother calmly explains about treating these kids: “If you don’t fix ‘em, who will?”

(Managing Editor’s Note: You can watch the trailer for Autism Yesterday HERE.  The film will be making its premier in April, stay tuned for more information.)

David Kirby (www.evidenceofharm.com) has been a professional journalist for over 15 years, and has written extensively for The New York Times for the past eight years. Kirby was a contracted writer with the weekly City Section at The Times, where he covered public health, local politics, art and culture, among other subjects. Kirby has also written for a number of national magazines. He was also a foreign correspondent in Mexico and Central America from 1986-1990, where he covered the wars in El Salvador and Nicaragua, and covered politics, corruption and natural disasters in Mexico. From Latin America, he reported for UPI, the San Francisco Examiner, Newsday, The Arizona Republic, Houston Chronicle and the NBC Radio Network.

Kirby has also worked in politics, medical research and public relations. He worked for New York City Council President Carol Bellamy as a special assistant for healthcare, cultural affairs and civil rights, followed by employment as chief scheduler to Manhattan Borough President David N. Dinkins. He also was a senior staff adviser to Dinkins’ successful 1989 run for Mayor of New York City. From 1990-1993, Kirby was Director of Public Information at the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFAR), where he acted as press spokesman for Chairwoman Elizabeth Taylor. He also ran his own public relations agency in New York from 1993 through 1996, with clients that included the National Cancer Institute, AmFAR, ABC, BBC, Fox Searchlight, Absolut Vodka, and others.

Comments

[susan]

where can i watch this movie in toronto,
Canada?

[EDWIN NAVARRO]

While I was reading David's blog on this issue I recalled something I read it with regards the heavy metals contamination and the future of conventional medicine. For me, conventional medicine is very close to be over; only once people get what really means mercury and the other heavy metals for their bodies they will be cured!!!

[Fleur Elmslie]

It is great that this film has been made. I am one of those mothers who was patronized by doctors and others, dismissing the gfcf diet and biomed and supplements as snake oil. I paid for it all, sued nobody and ask for nothing except that my son's recovery from autism be acknowledged and learned from by others. Not everything I did was right, but I managed to get my son to the long dreamed of recovery from severe autism. Doctors need to see these parents who have succeeded so that the right treatments become mainstream as soon as possible.
Congratulations, and I will see if I can organise a screening at my school.
Fleur Elmslie www.geocities.com/fleurelmslie/1.html

[Karen B]

Lisa Rudy I take exception to your discourse.
If I had listened to the neurologist that diagnosed my son he wouldn't be in a regular class and talking today. (As the man in the white coat yelled at me that DAN was unscientific.)
We had to advocate and implement 90% of our child's interventions from our own research. Yes, we have spent thousands and yes it stressed our marriage but we are stronger today.
And best of all my little guy can talk and play like the kid he was designed to be.
We knew something was dreadfully but wrong our pediatrician assailed us with blame saying we were talking for our poop smearing, self limiting, flight risk, silent kid.
Physicians work like any other service provider... for the parent.

Thank God for the good ones but their assessment is not the final word on my child's destiny.
We do not live in a fascist state, I have the freedom to seek healing for my child in whatever way I see best.
At one point my husband said if we have to fly to Nome Alaska to get some answers we'll do it!
We vowed to not settle for anything less than helping our kid. Period.

Ignoring the input of the two people who are with the child during his entire day is just plain stupid.
Daily we talk to parents who are waylaid in helping their children. Losing precious time because an expert gave them a designer diagnosis rather than solid answers or helpful interventions.
Please research the side effect of adult psychotropic drugs prescribed to Autistic children and then we'll talk "dangerous".

Sure I would love to have been given diet and chelation information from my pediatrician, instead he suggested just sneaking vegetables on the whole pizza my two year old was consuming.
All the while my child suffered from over 30 different food allergies, candida over growth and gluten intolerance. The same trusted doctor did not clear his Thimerosal laced vaccines from his shelf. My son had hundreds of times over the EPA safe amount in his HIB, DTAP and Hep B long after it was recommended to come out.

I think you paint an incorrect characterization of the sea of disinformation parents face.
Signed
Happily Married, Lion Mommy - who uses supposedly dangerous chelation and listens to her son read to her before he kisses her and daddy good night.

[JB Handley]

All:

With loving respect to Kim S., she couldn't possibly have watched our movie in Ridgefield, CT last night because Autism Yesterday will be premiering in April, and no one has a copy of the movie except David Kirby. So, unless David was screening the movie himself, I'm guessing you were watching "Finding the Words" which is also a great movie, just not Autism Yesterday.

JB

[Mark]

Lisa, I understand the sentiment, but you seem to be operating under the assumption that there are benificent authorities who have the slightest clue about what's going on. That's just not the world I experience.

You suggest that parents shouldn't make aggressive demands for services from their school district. But the fact of the matter is that it takes a huge investment to give these kids a shot at a decent life. Is $100k too much to ask? Who are you to say it isn't? The autism crisis is going to pose HUGE costs on society and it's not the parents' job to acccept table scraps and say thank you. If there's no financial pressure on the system, no one will understand there's a crisis.

You suggest that warrior moms are guilty of putting their marriages at risk because they work to hard for their autistic children. But the fact of the matter is that a large proportion of dads simply don't step up to the plate and they should. How much is too much when you're fighting for your child's future? Who are you to say that the moms are at fault? It takes every ounce of parental energy there is to move an autistic child toward a better future and if the dad isn't ready to commit to that then he doesn't deserve the warrior mom as a wife.

You suggest that moms make bad choices about the care they provide for their kids. But that presumes there is someone out there who has the faintest idea what the "standard of care" should be. And that the approved medical treatments (pick your psychotropic drug of the moment) don't do far more harm than doing nothing at all. I agree strongly that we should do nothing that might harm these children when there is so much ignorance out there. But who are you to say that official medicine offers anything even approaching the wisdom and insight that the moms that David describes are pursuing?

The tragedy here is that in a time of crisis the legitimacy of medical authorities breaks down for very good reasons: they demonstrate their incompetence every day they deny the crisis and praise themselves for all their good work. That is the point David is making here and he couldn't be more on target.

[Lisa]

Thank you David. I have write you and thank you again for your efforts. You are fantastic.

I am thrilled families of recovered children will educate the masses that hope is real. This hope is responsible. By looking at the recovery of these amazing kids will lead to answers to other families looking to help their children. MOST (not all) doctors that are practicing medicine have a lot to learn when it comes to autism. The myths and legends about autism need to be updated with the examples of real treatments that could change thousands of lives ... for the better.

Thank you.

[Dan Olmsted]

Hey David, Thanks so much for contributing to Age of Autism. This comment in particular sticks with me: "One clear message from 'Autism Yesterday' is that parents often know what is going on with their kids far better than the professionals." Ultimately, the arrogance of organized medicine toward parents -- in other words, toward their clients -- may be remembered as the biggest scandal of all.

[Clancy]

"These tireless advocates for children are neither crazy nor stupid. Their thoughtfulness, intelligence, compassion and determination is what strikes us most."

David, I think of all the adjectives you put out so eloquently, determination is the one that is going to win the day for the children. There are parental reports of viruses and bacteria pouring out of the kids's bodies on one of the lists and these happen to be what the parents themselves were vaxed with. Things like smallpox and rabies, sure makes it easy to understand why it looks genetic. I think we need to be very careful of what we put in our bodies, our kids and grandkids will someday have to pay the price for it.

[Lisa Rudy]

David, I've gotta say that the "parents know so much more than doctors" rhetoric worries me. Not so much because doctors are so "all-knowing." Of course they're not.

But I feel that, all too often, "mommy knows best" rhetoric winds up giving mothers the message that no one but they can understand, diagnose, treat, and "recover" their children. This message, at least in my experience, can lead to some pretty scary outcomes.

I've seen moms come up with their own logic-free analyses of their child's diagnoses and medical condition - and insist that they MUST be correct because, after all, they're the mom (and moms know best). I've seen moms drive themselves, their children, and their marriages into the ground because they feel so much pressure to "advocate" on their child's behalf, try every treatment, and insist on every special accomodation. I've also seen moms drive school districts toward bankruptcy on the basis that "mommy instinct" KNOWS their child should be in a $100,000 per year school - and so does Mommy's $300/hour lawyer.

I've seen parents insist, despite the evidence, that their child with autism is "recovered;" I've seen parents take on potentially dangerous treatments with no professional background or knowledge; I've seen parents mistreat their children in the name of "mother lioness"-style action.

Of course, some parents are sanely working toward their children's betterment.

But the message that "parents often know what is going on with their kids far better than the professionals" is not always risk free.

All the best,

Lisa Rudy (autism.about.com)