Fox Atlanta Features Lyn Redwood and Autism Treatments
(MyFOX ATLANTA) - For parents, hearing their child has been diagnosed with autism can be devastating. One of the first questions they face is how do they help their child. For years there haven't been any easy answers and progress has been slow, leaving families searching for their own treatments.
Autism can run the spectrum of developmental disorders that goes from mild to severe.
The problem is a lot of parents with kids on that spectrum feel like they've been left without a road map. Parents want to help, but they don't know how to get it.
One Georgia family said they found a road map.
Will Redwood is a 15-year-old Tyrone High School student who leads a pretty typical life.
Redwood started showing signs of a mild form of autism just after his first birthday.
"He had no language. He couldn't communicate with us. He wasn't potty-trained. He wouldn't look at us, he wouldn't interact with us," said Redwood's mother, Lyn.
The Redwoods and thousands of other parents have tried some outside-the-box autism treatments to help their children... Read the full article and comment at My Fox 5 Atlanta
HERE. It's important that parents share their own treatment success stories so families with newly diagnosed children (or older children who have not had treatment) know that autism is indeed treatable.
"Biblical" proportions?
Truth is, they don't want to know about the parents that did XYZ treatment and their children began to speak. My child had no language until we chelated with DMSA - he spoke for the first time 6 weeks into it. How's that for your BIBLICAL proportions, doc?
They don't want to hear this. It's all coincidence. None of it is real, or possible.
And another thing, not all of DAN treatments are ridiculously expensive. DMSA suppositories are about $40/month. So I don't want to hear that crap either.
Congrats to Lynn and her family!
Posted by: JessicaF | March 07, 2010 at 10:51 PM
I think part of the problem with parents of newly diagnosed is we rarely if ever hear about adults with Austim. News reports, books,and magezine articles are ALL about children with Autism. Well, those children do grow up. I am married to a man on the spectrum and we have a 17yr old on the spectrum. So people with Autism do grow up, marry and have children!
Posted by: Jo Ann | March 06, 2010 at 08:16 PM
Sigh, Dr Rubin is about as in-personable in the news as he is in person. My family and I have had personal experiences with him, as he is my son's developmental pediatrician and the one who diagnosed him with Autism close to a year ago.
During our 6 month check-up, and our initial visit, my husband and I have discussed our son's digestion issues with him and he asked us if we had used the GFCF diet, which we had, but it became unaffordable for us to continue. Of course he went on about how the diet doesn't work and that we should work harder on the therapies that Micah was receiving at the time and to visit a gastroenterologist.
Although we are using the Feingold approach, with success mind you. Though we are not finished in our quest to at least prevent our son from specific behaviors, we have seen for ourselves that the great doctor is wrong PERIOD! Reading this story has me pumped up for our visit with him in May. It will be interesting to see Dr Rubin's reaction when my husband and I tell him what an idiot he really is.
Most importantly, I commend the fact that this Will and his family has beat the odds and he is in the direction of recovery. This should and will give many families hope that there is some light at the end of the tunnel.
Posted by: Sarah | March 06, 2010 at 07:54 PM
Go Will! Go Lyn!
Of course they could only get the story out at all if they placed parents beside the usual cranky, windy opposing expert, in this case, Dr. Rubin.
"Dr. Leslie Rubin, a developmental pediatrician with the Emory and Morehouse Schools of Medicine.."
Do they mean THIS Emory?
http://www.pharmalot.com/2010/01/grassley-targets-nimh-funding-of-academics/
Of which Grassley (here http://freepdfhosting.com/c8e742ce71.pdf ) wrote the following?
"In each of these cases, the researcher(s) involved received funding from the
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Because I have uncovered so many
problems at the NIMH, I wonder if there is something in particular about this institute
that leads to so many funding problems. In one particular case, the researcher from Emory who had failed to report his outside income left Emory and is now at the University of Miami and still has NIMH funding...".
Posted by: Gatogorra | March 06, 2010 at 06:07 PM
"serious doubts about chelation" the doctor in this piece says....
Thank God Lyn could figure some things out without the help of the "still clueless modern medicine."
From my collection of past information....
What many Pediatricians were calling a “small amount” of mercury was actually a grand total for Will of 213 micrograms or 316,530,973,856,000,000 molecules of mercury. (I think it is the same Will but I am not sure..)
The doctor featured cannot understand how these children could be mercury toxic... a true medical bozo.
Posted by: cmo | March 05, 2010 at 11:15 PM
Kristen,
You could ask her "Have you decided how you are going to do the vaccines--with all the controversy around it...?" This could be an opening for you to recommend a certain book or to at least warn her that the first decision she will have to make will be on the day of BIRTH with the Hep B for a *sexually transmitted disease*. I wish someone had warned me about that ahead of time so that when I was in a morphine-induced fog following an emer. C-section, I could have pre-emptively made it clear that I did not want it for my newborn son!! I honestly don't know how they got permission to give that shot.
A book you may want to recommend is:
The Parents’ Concise Guide to Childhood Vaccinations: From Newborns to Teens, Practical Medical and Natural Ways to Protect Your Child
by Dr. Lauren Feder
Good luck!
Posted by: timeforchange | March 05, 2010 at 10:30 PM
Good question Kristen. All you can do is offer your friend the information on vaccine risks. The rest is up to her. You can present the information as a friend without judgement. It doesn't have to become a big debate. But at least then you will have the peace of mind that you did your part. Whether or not she choses to explore the issue is on her.
I hope all goes well for her!
Posted by: Sylvia | March 05, 2010 at 08:41 PM
Kristen, many of us have friends and families facing the same issues and we, or at least I, ask myself the same question you are asking of us. I can tell you what I do, I keep my mouth shut unless asked for my opinion. Usually I am asked and when asked I am honest, there is no proof what happened to my son but he changed immediately after his vaccines on his 366th day of life. If they ask more I usually tell them Ill send them email with links they can review. I do this because I don't trust myself to answer specific questions, important questions with my poor memory. Sometimes it is hard to keep my mouth shut but for the same reason I dont want someone telling me what's right for my child, I dont want to do that to others, even though I know I am right. I have to live with those people, go to their child's birthday parties, sit across from them at Thanksgiving, most know what we deal with and how we feel about what happened. It is their decision, they have to make that decision on their own and I will respect it. Same way pediatricians should. It's up to the parent.
Im sure some here can rattle off a list of links that you could copy and paste should you need to.
Thanks for caring enough for this soon to be born baby to ask the question. It's a question we are all familiar with.
Posted by: bensmyson | March 05, 2010 at 08:34 PM
I need some advise - soon I will be babysitting my friend's child (she is due in April). My friend received the swine flu vaccine in her 5th month so I believe she will continue to vaccinated her baby once the baby is born. Knowing what I know (and most of you know), should I warn her about the dangers of each vaccine? I'm sure all of you have been yelled at or criticized for voicing your opinions about this matter, so I am alittle hesitant. Suggestions?
Posted by: Kristen | March 05, 2010 at 02:08 PM
It is so great to see this on the air -- definitely a positive breakthrough compared with no coverage of these topics. Too bad, though, that is still being presented as "parents vs. science" and that Lyn was cut off before describing their experiences with chelation. And odd that they only showed Will feeding minnows to his eel and using his laptop, when it sounds like he is fully engaged in many activities. And I went to the Fox Atlanta web site and it looks like the only links are to Kennedy Krieger/IAN, NIH, and IACC.
Odd too that they said Will had "a mild form of autism" when "He had no language. He couldn't communicate with us. He wasn't potty-trained. He wouldn't look at us, he wouldn't interact with us." Doesn't sound so mild!
But, still, a good story overall -- at least it gives a taste of what is going on in this arena. And congratuations to Lynn for all the wonderful work you have done for your son and for the autism community. Just stellar, and I am so happy for you that your son is doing so well.
Posted by: Twyla | March 05, 2010 at 11:44 AM
When our sons were getting early-intervention ABA, one of their therapists acknowledged that EVERY SINGLE ONE of her "clients" was on the diet. Funny how what's clearly the mainstream for autism families is still considered "alternative" and "out of the box" by the medical community.
It just shows that families have taken treatment into their own hands. How sad.
Posted by: Jack's Dad | March 05, 2010 at 10:51 AM
Thank you Lyn Redwood for brining attention to this.. your son seems to be doing so well.
The fact of the matter is that NIH has blocked studies on chelation for autism so it will never be proven.. not only are we left without a map but they give us no medical direction on how to help our kids.
Behavioral therapy? may work to an extent but I'm not seeing the kids of results he's talking about. It's simply not enough.
Posted by: Sarah | March 05, 2010 at 08:45 AM
Yes, Lyn, why?? Why don't you take your son fishing, Lyn, WHY????
No wonder he was messed up, sheesh; well what boy WOULDN'T be, after NEVER HAVING BEEN TAKEN FISHING!!!!
Posted by: Robin Nemeth, shaking her head in disgust.. | March 05, 2010 at 08:18 AM
"serious doubts about chelation" the doctor in this piece says....I'm sure glad I followed a group of parents instead of following any advice from a mainstream pediatrician. How come no one in the mainstream medical community has asked me about my experience with chelation??? Fortunately, thanks to chelation and several other treatments my son has recovered. I'm so tired of "specialists" who think because it doesn't fit into what they were told in medical school, that it isn't real.
Posted by: Nicole | March 05, 2010 at 07:56 AM
terrific piece Lyn! (Will is a very handsome young man!)
Posted by: GrammaKnows | March 05, 2010 at 06:52 AM