TV as the cause of Autism study

I am the mother of a 10yr old boy with autism. I was also outraged when I read the article. My son did NOT watch an excessive amount of television. He did immedately regress folling his MMR/Varciella vacinations. I watched my son who was developing completely normally slip away from me. He stopped responding to his name. Stopped looking you in the eye. Stopped playing games and on and on. This article is nothing more than another distraction to take the focus off what is really causing this epidemic. And almost every parent of a child with autism knows what that is.

by April (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments) on Saturday, October 21, 2006 at 11:43:42 AM
 

Everyone should have been watching IMUS

For about three years I have watched Imus in the A.M. His
story is that Autism is caused by the preservative in the injections given to babies. Themerosal, and I'm not certain of the spelling on that. His arguments beat the heck out of anything else I've heard. Themerosal is also a preservative in flu shots, that most seniors try to get each year. (NOT ME.) Add that to all of the aluminum salts used in so many products, (American cheese, anyone?) It might be an answer to the Alzheimers and other forms of Dementia so prominent today. Parents can ask for themerosal free injections, by the way.

by Pat Herrick (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 143 comments) on Saturday, October 21, 2006 at 1:46:29 PM
 

Autism and phony science

Kendra Pettengill wrote a excellent response to Cornell University Professor Michael Waldman's "research" that claims there's a link between TV watching and the epidemic of autism now affecting one in every 166 U.S. children. Waldman now calls for additional research on this ridiculous hypothesis.

It is simply beyond belief for the parents of autistic children that this bizarre piece of phony science done by an economist on a devastating condition like autism, was actually given credence anywhere. This comes shortly after the press everywhere cited older fathers having babies as the reason for the soaring autism rate.

In the face of a national autism crisis, hundreds of news sites happily picked up Waldman's findings as if they represented legitimate science. The Houston Chronicle and Orlando Sentinel along with hundreds of TV sites from around the country see no problem in speculating on autism like they were discussing Is Pluto really a planet? Shame on you, Michael Waldman and shame on you, CBS Central in New York, and FOX News who published this insulting junk science.

These same news sites completely ignored Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) and the Republican leadership recently when Barton's committee successfully prevented The Combating Autism Act from reaching the House floor before adjournment. This bill would have made real autism research a national priority.

We have thousands of disabled autistic children in the U.S. that go unnoticed by the Centers for Disease Control who constantly tell us the soaring numbers are merely due to "better diagnosing and greater awareness," and no real cause for concern. The CDC just embarked on a five year study to look at the numbers again.

With 80 percent of autistic Americans under the age of 18, maybe when one in every 166 eighteen year olds starts going on disability for life with autism,
the academic community and the media will show some genuine concern and professionalism.
The words of Laura Bono of the National Autism Association should be sounding an alarm. She recently said,
"As those children reach adulthood, the U.S. is ill-equipped to care for them. Not only do we not have enough services for adults now, the light at the end of the tunnel is a train. Frankly, we don't know what we're going to do."

by Anne D. (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments) on Saturday, October 21, 2006 at 8:58:21 PM
 

TV and autism

This study linking TV and Autism demonstrates how desperate the pharmaceutical industry and the corrupt officials within our regulatory agencies are to come up with an excuse for the epidemic in autism other than the truth.

The cause is really simple to understand, beginnig in the late 1980s, the government allowed themselves to be talked into adding a slew of new vaccines (purely for profit) to the childhood vaccine schedule for every bogus disease under the sun and each contained a full dose of the preservative thimerosal (mercury).

They did this without keeping track of the increased mercury children were getting when each new vaccine was added to the schedule. In addition, when they injected the 3 in one vaccines, that meant there was a triple dose of mercury in those. Also, often many shots are given in one day during a single visit to the doctors office.

By the time the FDA figured out how badly it had erred in 1999, by not keeping track of the cummulative amounts of mercury being injected into infants before age two, a decade of newborns had already recieved the shots and autism and a host of other developmental disorders are the result of their grave error.

But instead of owning up to the mistake and getting mercury out of vaccines immediately, officials and drug companies have been coming up with rediculous explanations for the epidemic, starting with there was no epidemic, that autistic children were always out there but they went unnoticed and undiagnosed, all the way to the now pathetic comment that autism is caused by watching TV.

People are not aware of the severity of this epidemic because they seldom see autistic children because parents don't take these kids out in public because they are too difficult to control in an unfamiliar environment. I advise anyone who has never seen a severely autistic child to go down to your local school and visit the special ed classes and see what these families (and soon society) are up against with your own eyes. The special ed classrooms are flooded with these kids.

And then ask yourself whether these kids could have been out there all the long but went unnoticed.

And then ask yourself whether you remember anyone who ever caught all these dreaded diseases kids are supposedly vaccinated against today. If not, where are all these sick people who went unvaccined before 1990.

Clear and simple, when the vaccine program began, there were diseases that called for vaccinations and they were valid but by now the childhood vaccine program has turned into a racket for the drug companies with most of the cost for all the vaccines funneled through kids and paid for with tax dollars.

Many of these severely autistic children are now reaching adulthood and they are going to need to be financially supported for life and many have other serious health problems that will require care for life.

If the Republicans get away with immunizing their top compaign doner, the pharmaceutical industry from being held accountable, tax payers are going to have to foot the bill for this generation of injured kids and experts estimate that caring for these kids for life will cost trillions.

Evelyn Pringle

by Evelyn Pringle (186 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 10 comments) on Sunday, October 22, 2006 at 5:08:38 AM
 

Autism and television

I agree with the very thorough point of this article. However, the Cornell study does serve a purpose. Sadly, I have a grandson whose parents have put him in front of a television/dvds for hours on end since birth. It is no surprise that this little guy has serious undiagnosed developmental delays. There is a case for child protective services here, but if parents take the information from this study and decide to eliminate or reduce tv watching before the age of two, I am glad certain folks will be "scared" smart about tv viewing for infants.

by Jones23 (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments) on Sunday, October 22, 2006 at 5:29:31 AM
 

Thank you, Kendra!

Gregg's viewpoint is preposterous, and you gave an outstanding response. Although my words pale in comparison, here's my blogged opinions:

click here

-Lorin

by Lorin Thwaits (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments) on Sunday, October 22, 2006 at 9:42:17 AM
 

Autism Study

There's different kinds of research, i.e., correlational, descriptive, experimental. This study is correlational and correlational research does not imply causation. These researchers are guilty of bad science if they are suggesting otherwise.

Here's an example. Did you know that there's a direct relationship between ice cream consumption and crime? Yep, as greater qualities of ice cream get consumed, crime goes up also. One might be lead to the conclusion that we should avoid ice cream as a means of discouraging crime. But, I hope, you know intuitively, that would be nonsense. Another variable, temperature, is also related to ice cream consumption and crime. So, as temperature increases so does the rate of crime--but, temperature doesn't cause crime. And, that's the point.

by JeffC (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments) on Sunday, October 22, 2006 at 3:42:50 PM
 

Refrigerator Economists ?

Isn't amazing what damage can be done to the education and health of several generations of the developed world by a gaggle of 'Refrigerator Economists & Reporters ?'

Or would 'Freezer Economists' be a better term ?

by GeorgeWade (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments) on Sunday, October 22, 2006 at 8:54:08 PM
 

ADD

I don't think Television causes Autism it causes Attention Deficit Disorder: ADD.

by Dom Jermano (20 articles, 0 quicklinks, 40 diaries, 934 comments) on Monday, October 23, 2006 at 3:18:36 AM
 

Criticism Applies to Most Other Theories Then

"For about three years I have watched Imus in the A.M. His
story is that Autism is caused by the preservative in the injections given to babies. Themerosal, and I'm not certain of the spelling on that. His arguments beat the heck out of anything else I've heard."

Interestingly, about half the arguments in this article are applicable against the thimerosal hypothesis. And I tend to agree with them (except for # 6 -- the literature is ambiguous on that one).

Anyway, I have posted criticism of the correlation analysis here.

by joseph (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 2 comments) on Monday, October 23, 2006 at 12:13:53 PM
 

Mold and Autistic Characteristics

OUTSTANDING writing, Kendra. I was so pleased to see your references to mold and its possible link to autistic characteristics. I am the mother of two, ages 6 & 8. We were poisoned by a moldy home (new construction), and my sons would have been diagnosed as autistic. They had severe sensory issues, compulsivity, auditory processing problems, etc. Mold wrecks the gut, preventing children from absorbing the vitamins and minerals necessary to develop neurologically. I treated my boys for mold exposure (antifungals, probiotics... all related to the brain-gut connection, DAN protocol), and they have improved dramatically. My oldest has been released from a special ed classroom and occupational therapy. My youngest is well on his way.

I believe the incidence of autism is so high in Oregon because our Building Codes Division is in the pocket of the homebuilders associations. Standards are so low that homes are built with OSB (moldy) wood, closed wet and closed too tightly for energy conservation reasons. This mold/autism connection is not common knowledge because insurance companies and homebuilders associations have more money and more time than we mothers of sick children. Watch Louisiana in the next couple of years. The autism numbers will skyrocket.
RHaynes668@aol.com

by Renee J Haynes (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments) on Tuesday, October 24, 2006 at 3:33:04 PM