As a mum to an autistic child, I have found some great communities online and found some great information; unfortunately, I have also seen the dark side of autism on the web. There are many claimed medical cures for autism; some are dangerous all are bogus. The only purpose these cures serve is to distract parents from what they should be doing; loving, supporting and protecting their family.
I have listed just a few of these so-called cures below:
ABA Applied Behaviour analysis
ABA is the most widely used therapy for autism, but it is controversial. Many autistic adults who have gone through ABA criticise ABA as it coerces autistic children into conforming to neurotypical standards of behaviour instead of giving them management strategies that will actually help.
Aversive Conditioning
Aversive conditioning is dog training applied to children. It does not cure autism but teaches the child to bottle-up their problems inside leading to mental health problems in later life.
CEASE “therapy”, Complete Elimination of Autistic Spectrum Expression
The name says it all for me ‘Elimination of Expression’. In other words ‘behave normally’.
Chelation/TRS/CEASE
Chelation is a fancy term for detoxification. Advanced Toxin and contaminants Removal System (TRS essentially makes the same claims).
Detoxing can only remove what is currently in your stomach or gut. If you think the contents of their stomach or bowel is the cause of a child’s autism, then you should probably reconsider the junk you are feeding them in the first place. There is no such thing as toxins in a biological sense, and any attempt to use activated charcoal or other such chemicals will lead to loss of positive nutrients. Long term use of such treatments will likely lead to deficiencies in vitamins and minerals.
Chiropractic manipulation
Systematic reviews of this research have not found evidence that chiropractic manipulation is useful for any condition, let alone autism, the
touchy manipulation involved in the treatments may be traumatising for some autistic people.
Chlorine/Chlorum, MMS (Miracle Mineral Solution), sodium chlorite, hydrochloric acid and Borax
Chlorine is good for cleaning swimming pools and toilets, it really won’t cure a neurodevelopmental condition.
Miracle autism cure’ seller exposed by BBC investigation https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-33079776 other chemicals have no proven benefit.
Clay baths
If you want clean skin and an excuse to sit in a bath in peace and quiet for half an hour, then go ahead, I imagine your autistic child would love splashing around in a bath of mud too but it won’t do anything to cure autism.
ECT (Electroconvulsive Therapy)
The use of ECT in autism has never been systematically assessed.
EFT Tapping (Emotional Freedom Techniques)
“Tapping provides relief from chronic pain, emotional problems, disorders, addictions, phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder, and physical diseases”. If only life and its ills were so simple to fix. EFT is plain old pseudoscience.
Gluten-free diets
There appears to be a higher incidence of gut problems in autistic children. In such cases, it is vital to seek medical advice to determine the cause. Gluten-free diets are not healthier for people who do not have a gluten intolerance. Products labelled as gluten-free often have higher sugar content to replace the missing gluten. Eliminating an ingredient from the diet may seem like a safe thing to do but eliminating an ingredient without meticulous substitution can lead to whole food groups being withdrawn, leading to vitamin or mineral deficiencies.
GcMAF/Pig secretin/GAPS diet
Unproven quackery hanging from the coat-tails of real scientific research.
High dose vitamin C
High doses of vitamin C act as a purgative, quacks claim that this detoxifies the body of the vaccine toxins that they claim are the cause of autism. The best that this method could achieve is to purge the body of something bad the child has eaten in the last few hours. Even if the child has toxins from a vaccine, forcing them to throw up will achieve nothing at all. High doses of vitamin C can lead to diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting, heartburn, abdominal cramps, headache and insomnia. Causing vomiting could lead to severe dehydration.
Holding Therapy also known as Wrapping or packing
In the 1960s, it was believed that autism was an attachment disorder caused by poor parenting. The professionals who promoted this therapy ignored the fact that the parents often had neurotypical children too. This ide of cold parenting led to the idea of ‘Holding Therapy’, an intervention involving forced eye-contact and prolonged holding of the child.
Juice Plus+
Vitamin supplements aren’t a terrible idea if your child has a limited diet, but there is no evidence that expensive brands will work any better than a supermarket multi-vitamin. No amount of vitamin or mineral supplementation will cure autism.
Urine therapy, Camels Milk, Acupuncture, Cupping, Reiki
Just no.
Vaccine Refusal
Andrew Wakefield is a discredited former doctor who became an anti-vaccination activist. He was struck off the UK medical register for unethical behaviour, misconduct and dishonesty for authoring a fraudulent research paper that claimed a link between the MMR vaccine bowel disease and autism.
Extensive research has proven that there is no relationship, causal or otherwise, between vaccines and autism. Nevertheless, anti-vaxxers continue to promote myths, conspiracy theories and misinformation linking the two. The effectiveness of vaccinations in the second half of the 20th century has led to complacency amongst parents who no longer know people who have died from or suffered debilitating effects from measles, polio and other infectious diseases.
Zinc
Studies have linked autism and zinc deficiency though nothing has yet been seen in humans. Giving a child Zinc is risky as taking too much zinc reduces copper absorption, which can lead to anaemia and weakening of the bones. If you must try this cure, ensure your child has a balanced diet of fresh foods such as meat, shellfish, legumes and chickpeas and include copper-rich foods such as nuts, seeds, shitake mushrooms and organ meats.
Love, understanding, support and flexibility
While these won’t ‘cure’ your child, they will help you learn what your role is as the parent of an autistic child.
Love is the basis of all of the others.
Understanding is something that takes time but will help you pre-empt stresses and melt-downs.
Support will help your child achieve their potential.
Flexibility will save much stress for you and your family as you realise that screen time worries, modern parenting fads and typical kids activities are for neurotypical kids and that you have to find your own path.