Re: my 18 month diagnosed with autistim

My autistic son has never been immunized.

If mercury is the cause or a cause, it might very well be related to the fact that he was the first of our children to be breastfed, and my wife had some Amalgam in her mouth. Mercury likes to accumulate in breast tissue.

We also had a fluorescent light shatter in our kitchen when he was young -- another possible source of mercury contamination.

We also lived, at the time, in an apartment complex that was built on a filled in swampy area and had a tendency to accumulate black mold.

...

My point is, we've been down this road. What caused it? What was the problem? What can we do?

We've done many years of gluten and casein free diets. We've backed off in the last several months, however, and it doesn't seem to be an issue at this point. Vitamins, minerals, enzymes, probiotics, oral chelators, oxygen therapies, various MLM-type products, speech therapy... the list has been pretty extensive.

I've been trying for years -- my son is 10 now -- to help alleviate the difficulties with interaction with my son. Things have slowly, slowly, and I do mean slowly, improved. Mostly, though, I interact with him from his frame of reference, and I don't try to hold him to a standard of socialization that is not appropriate for him.

I will tell you that, compared to what he was at that age, with the rocking and the tiptoes and the disinterest in displays of affection... this has all been changed and improved, seemingly through various means. In particular, alpha-lipoic acid (a naturally-occurring-in-humans chelator) really seemed to be the breakthrough with him. It wasn't enough, but it was something. I mean, even now, he will still occasionally stuff his hand (fingers together to a point) into his mouth and bite down, expressing frustration. (He has callouses on his fingers.)

But on the other hand, maybe he did all this on his own.

Anyway, I chronicled my earlier activities in this forum -- go to the beginning and my posts will be there.

I'm going to post something from a guy named Jim Sinclair, an autistic adult who has a little advice for parents on this topic. My wife forwarded this article to me today (it's 14 years old...), and it's a fascniating look at autism from the other side. Look for the article entitled, "Don't Mourn for Us".

=-John-=