Dachel Media Update: Autism Mom Aghast at 1 in 50 Rate
"Autism is a crisis.
That's according to our guest Alison MacNeil, who is a parent of a child with autism and co-author of an
upcoming book called "The Thinking Moms' Revolution: Autism Beyond The
Spectrum." MacNeil is calling autism a crisis in response to a new CDC
statistic that says:
"The number of children
in the United States with autism spectrum disorder has jumped dramatically
since 2007, federal health officials reported Wednesday. As of 2012, one in 50
kids between the ages of 6 and 17 has some form of autism, compared with one in
88 only five years earlier, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention.
"'I think the new
number is staggering, I really do. What I also think is staggering is, where is
the alarm? Where is the outrage?,' asks MacNeil.
"The CDC says the main
reason for the increase in the prevalence of autism appears to be better
diagnoses, especially in older children."
Alison: "I don't think the public is buying that anymore. They might have a while back, especially when the criteria shifted in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, but I think now, what we're seeing everywhere we go, we're seeing autistic children."
"Why do we have so many children descending into autism? What is going on? One in every 50 children is losing the ability to speak, becoming incredibly sick, detaching. There's something behind this."
Alison went on to describe the crisis we'll all be facing as the children with autism age out of school and childhood services.
It was wonderful to see this dedicated mother and autism advocate on such a public forum as one of the rare voices sounding an alarm over autism.
Rachael - this is the funniest piece of mis-information yet . For me the propaganda mis-information tactics surrounding the vaccine autism epidemic is typical of the tactics the military would use during times of war .
And to my mind , war has been covertly been declared .
And this is a military event .
Posted by: White Rose | March 24, 2013 at 06:52 AM
Not the latest Rachael. Other recent autism 'blame' includes older fathers and mothers, 'genetic' inheritance, and an array of environmental toxins, including mercury in fish, but NOT in vaccines. It seems they will blame anyone and anything EXCEPT vaccines.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23299-women-abused-as-children-likelier-to-bear-autistic-child.html
From above:-
"Women abused in childhood are more likely to have children with autism, a new epidemiological study suggests. The finding adds a disturbing new dimension to the heated debate over the condition's underlying causes."
Posted by: Jenny Allan | March 22, 2013 at 01:08 PM
Haven't you heard the latest? It's the age of the grandfather that is responsible for the huge increase in autism rates.
Grandfather’s Age Plays Role in Autism Development
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2013/03/20/grandfathers-age-plays-role-in-autism-development/
Posted by: Rachael | March 22, 2013 at 10:29 AM
Thank you, Alison, for a very articulate presentation.
Did anyone else get the feeling that the interviewer wanted to get the discussion away from causation before anything truly helpful came up? I wanted to ask her how we're supposed to figure out how to integrate and "help" these "children" without understanding what has happened and is happening to them?
Posted by: Jeannette Bishop | March 21, 2013 at 10:50 PM
Go for a vegetarian diet. Start drinking organic milk 2 years before getting pregnant and continue for the rest of your life. Go organic whenever possible and follow a meatless or fish less diet. I bet you can forget autism in your family. - Rab
Posted by: Rab | March 21, 2013 at 07:57 PM