Article: More Cases of Autism All the Time

So two separate studies are both saying 1 in 100 kids have some form of autism now, with only half of those cases being reported as "mild". That means you've got 1 in 200 kids (about 1 boy in 125) with a serious problem. I think it's interesting how the mainstream media will say that it's probably just better diagnosis and then go on to ask how we're going to handle this dramatic increase financially. The label doesn't matter; if we have an increasing chunk of the population that can't take care of themselves, then something is seriously wrong.

Study: More cases of autism in U.S. kids than previously realized

A study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics indicates about 1 percent of children ages 3 to 17 have autism or a related disorder, an increase over previous estimates.

"This is a significant issue that needs immediate attention," Dr. Ileana Arias, deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday. "A concerted effort and substantial national response is warranted."

The study used data from the federal government's 2007 national survey of children's health. The survey of parents was conducted by the Health Resources and Services Administration, and by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The results are based on a national telephone survey of more than 78,000 parents of children ages 3 to 17. iReport.com: How has autism affected your family?

In the study, parents were asked whether a health care provider had ever told them their child had an autism spectrum disorder. ASD is a group of brain disorders comprising autism and two less severe disorders: Asperger's disorder and pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified.

(more at CNN.com...)

Profile: Jonathon

1) I am answering these questions for my son Jonathon. We currently live in Nashville, TN. Jonathon was born in El Paso, TX and he lived there until the age of 3.

2) Autism in my life has been an opening to a different view of the world. Autism has been a learning experience every single day. With Jonathon being my second child I learned that I had to look at parenting in a new way. Every single obstacle and every learning experience I’ve had with Jonathon has required me to constantly be thinking outside the box.

3) Jonathon was born April of 2003. He was diagnosed at the age of two. Autism ASD has been his only diagnosis. I believe that injecting my son’s small body with multiple doses of viruses when he was just a baby has had something to do with it.

4) He is nonverbal. Socially he interacts only with his immediate family, Dad, mom and sis. At school he interacts with teachers and therapists. He likes adults more that he does children. He usually shies away from other children but is the opposite way with adults.

5) He has had speech therapy and occupational therapy since the age of two. He has improved significantly. He has gone from a appearing to be in his own little world and being super shy to a sweet boy who looks you in the eye and constantly wants your attention. He loves hugs and kisses.

6) Communication is his biggest obstacle.

7) He knows the alphabet forward and backwards. We found this out by working through puzzles with him.

8) I have learned to view the world with different eyes. I learned to question and learn things for myself. A lot of research has come out of this. I feel like this opportunity has been placed in my life and I feel blessed for having the chance to live it.

I Need Your Help!

Sorry, it's been dead on here for a while. I'm currently in graduate school for linguistics, and I don't know how active I'll be on here over the coming months either.

That said, I always have time to post new profiles if you'll only take the time to answer my short list of questions. I'd prefer a photo to make the profile more personal and interesting, but you don't even have to supply a name. You can even post your answers as an anonymous comment if you're concerned about complete anonymity. Whether you answer for yourself, a loved one, or just pass the link onto somebody else, I'd really appreciate your help to get this project rolling!

My original intent for this blog was to be a collection of profiles of people with some form of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), including Asperger's syndrome. I only have a handful of profiles so far, and I'm really hoping to get more from you guys so I can get a better picture of the full spectrum of autistic disorders - what autistic individuals all have in common and what they don't - and share that picture with the general public. I'm particularly interested in the possibility that the autistic brain itself is not deficient at all, but is particularly susceptible to certain outside elements (gluten, mercury, aluminum, antibiotics...), which turns a perfectly natural difference into a true disorder.

Another blog I maintain, LP Notes has been overlapping with this one more and more lately. Call me paranoid, but it really seems to me that people with autistic/Aspergian genes are being intentionally marginalized and subdued. Regardless of your views on this issue, if you think there might be a connection between the ever-increasing amount of vaccinations we're virtually forced to subject our children to and the sharp rise in the prevalence of autism - or if you'd just prefer to make your own decisions about what goes into your body - please take a look at this recent post on forced vaccinations and sign the petition against such practices.

Magnesium: The First Thing to Try

I've said it before, but maybe not strongly enough: Magnesium is amazing! If you're a label-checker, you might have the idea that it's not so important (since magnesium content is almost never listed), but I can tell you from personal experience that it can be the difference between feeling normal and having uncontrollable tension, anxiety, panic attacks, intermittent vision problems, and spasms that keep you (and maybe even your spouse) up at night.

About 75% of Americans don't get their minimum recommended daily allowance (RDA) of magnesium. In addition to anxiety-related problems, this can also cause depression, migraines, PMS, lethargy, and heart disease, and a lot more trouble. Some form of magnesium deficiency is responsible for roughly 150 thousand deaths a year in the US alone! So let me tell you, getting enough magnesium is important!

For someone with autism, it's even more important to get enough because they seem to need more magnesium than non-autistic individuals. In fact, a therapy combining magnesium with vitamin B6 has been shown to be effective for treating (but not curing) autism.

How much is enough? For an adult male, somewhere around 400 mg should be OK. Females need a little less, maybe around 350 mg. For children, the RDA is 80 mg from 1 to 3 years old, 130 mg from 4 to 8, and 240 mg from 9 to 13. But as I've said, children with autism may need more. Excess magnesium works as a laxative, so that's a good way to gauge how much a particular individual is able to absorb.

A good magnesium supplement (one using magnesium citrate) might be a good idea to have on hand, but you should also try to get enough magnesium in your diet. I've made up a little list of some foods I like that are pretty high in magnesium.

cup of peanut butter = 397 mg
cup of buckwheat flour = 301 mg
cup of peanuts = 257 mg
head of cabbage = 189 mg
cup of spinach = 156 mg
cup of black beans = 120 mg
cup of oats = 112 mg
cup of coconut milk = 104 mg
cup of pinto beans = 86 mg
cup of kidney beans = 80 mg
can of tuna = 53 mg
medium potato = 48 mg
cup of squash = 43 mg
can of sardines = 36 mg
tbsp of molasses = 35 mg
tbsp of cocoa = 27 mg

And remember that although wheat and dairy are good sources as well, people on the autism spectrum might want to avoid these foods for reasons I've talked about before. That's why I left them off of the list. Here's a somewhat flexible daily menu I made up for myself that adds up to around 400 mg of magnesium.

• 2/3 cup buckwheat flour or 1/2 cup peanut butter = 200 mg


• 1 cup black beans or 1 1/2 cups pinto beans = 120 mg


• 1/3 cup spinach or 1 cup squash or 1 medium potato or 1/4 head of cabbage = 50 mg


• 1 tbsp molasses or 1 tbsp cocoa = 30 mg

Of course, you'll want to design a diet to fit your own personal needs and preferences. The USDA National Nutrient Database is an awesome reference for this sort of thing. You can look up a nutrient to see which foods have the most or look up a food to see what nutrients it has. Very handy!

It really would be convenient if the problems associated with autism could be treated with a pill. But despite what some doctors would have you believe, they can't. Luckily a lot of problems can be fixed with good old-fashioned diet, exercise, and sunlight! I know it's not easy to keep track of all that stuff, but it's worth it. Good luck to you and yours! Hang in there!

Caleb Goes to Austin

My dad's been sending me a lot of emails lately, updating me on how my brother's doing. Caleb's on so much medication, it's ridiculous. That's why he's going to a state school in Austin for a few weeks; it's sort of like rehab. I hope this little story can serve as a warning to parents of autistic kids to resist medication as much as possible. We tried to, but we also trusted doctors a little too much, in my opinion at least.

Caleb Update
By Cliff Jones, Sr.

I met Caleb Wednesday morning at Brenham and he was packed and ready to go to the state hospital. Brenham insisted that they drive him, so I followed in my truck, right behind. Three staff went: the psychologist and two guys.

A couple blocks down the street, Caleb turned around and saw me following and smiled real big. We stopped halfway there for a break at Whataburger.

When we arrived at the Austin State Hospital, the admissions building was downright scary. There was a barred gate and fence with security locks, as if we were checking into a prison. The intake room was also security locked with plexiglass windows and three bureaucratic women sitting behind the windows. One woman asked where the commitment papers were.

Let me back up. Caleb's psychiatrist had suggested the hospital after a year of trying to reduce his meds at Brenham, which only resulted in behavior problems and self-injury, and ER visits and stitches and staples. She said Austin was set up for this kind of problem and we could reduce him off his meds much more quickly and safely. I was hesitant about it, but agreed. The psychiatrist also gave me the understanding that no judge would need to be involved because they had an arrangement with the hospital that if Caleb stayed less than 30 days, it would not be necessary.

So we get there and the intake people had no idea what we were talking about and insisted on a judge's commitment papers. Everyone got on their phones and started calling all around. The doctor sounded like she was trying to get the commitment done quickly. I stepped up to the window and asked if there was such a thing as a 30-day stay without court papers and she said absolutely not.

I was ready to leave with Caleb right then. Finally, the admissions administrator came out and apologized profusely and explained it again as Caleb's psychiatrist had at Brenham and that their admissions staff were mistaken. At this point, I wasn't going to trust these strangers with my son, and I asked if there was anything written describing all of this because up to that point, everything had been done strictly on the basis of conversations. She went back to her office and had a hard time finding anything. After a long while, she brought out several printed items from state law that described this situation, so I was thinking about this and what to do when the bureaucrat from the intake desk came out and informed the Brenham staff that they could leave, and insinuated that I could leave as well. Brenham people were starting to go when I said, "If you all leave, you are leaving Caleb with me, because I haven't decided yet whether Caleb will stay here." The doctor asked if I'd prefer that they stay, and I said it would be nice.

The bureaucrat lady then told me that Brenham had custody and had transferred that custody to Austin hospital. Basically, that I had nothing to do with it.

Meanwhile, sheriffs with mental patients in handcuffs were coming and going. It was a very rough place.

I told that lady that I was the guardian and whatever I said was the way it was, and that I could take Caleb home with me right then if I decided to. She left the room without saying anything. Five minutes later, she came back and told me that I was the guardian and whatever I said was the way it was, and that I could take Caleb home with me right then if I decided to. In other words, she had been corrected by her boss and told to come out and apologize to me.

This whole time, Caleb is right there with me, hearing all of this going on. Then the admissions administrator came out and again apologized profusely. I told her I wanted to talk with whoever would be treating Caleb and see his room, etc. She took us both back inside the hospital, where we waited and spoke with the admissions doctor. The Brenham staff left.

Eventually, Caleb's admission was complete and I was satisfied that it would be safe to leave Caleb there.

It was time to take Caleb to the Specialty Services department, which was across campus. I followed the van that carried Caleb and hospital staff. When we got to the other building, they got out and Caleb was having problems. I decided to let the staff handle it because I was supposed to go around to the other side of the building to check in as a visitor. Caleb was looking around for me as two people dragged him into the back door. This broke my heart.

It was quite a while before the social worker came to the front to talk with me. She said Caleb had needed to be put into a restraint chair as soon as he arrived.

However, I was impressed with the social worker and Caleb's new doctor. She is all for the plan of getting Caleb off of as much medication as is possible. She said Caleb's situation is not unusual because many facilities are not able to handle behaviors like his, and over the years, more and more medications are added, then they end up at her hospital, being taken off of them. She has been successful before with this.

They also have a psycho-pharmacologist who will be studying everything about Caleb's meds and also a neurologist who will be examining him and monitoring his progress.

Next morning, there was a phone message asking that if I were still in Austin, that they could use my help in managing Caleb's clinic visits that day. I spent several hours working with Caleb and helped him get his physical and EKG. First, though, I spent a really nice hour with him in the visiting room.

I was stunned when he got up and began marching around, singing the song the guards sing in The Wizard of Oz. ("Ohhh-weee-Ohhh...") I don't ever remember him singing by himself like that, his entire life. He was getting pleasure from the singing, and bouncing his hands as he marched, keeping rhythm. Caleb had never been able to keep rhythm before and I take this as one more miracle in his development. I believe new connections are being formed in his brain, thank God!

I had to hand-feed Caleb his lunch, since his hands are still in the padded gloves.

Caleb had a one-on-one staff member, but he mostly just observed how I dealt with Caleb as we went to the clinic. It took a lot of doing but I managed to get Caleb to allow them to place the electrodes on his ankles, wrists, and chest. However, we were both down on the floor and the guy running the test had to bring his stuff to us, not the other way around, haha. They thanked me a lot for my help. They were going to give up.

The physical went fine, too, and then we went outside. The staff guy was waiting and wondering why the van had not arrived back. I felt it best for Caleb to go with him instead of my truck. However, by this time Caleb was becoming agitated at the wait and I got a very painful bite on my neck. The van arrived just in the nick of time and I said goodbye to Caleb and they left. Then I started back to Magnolia. Wheww.

I called Friday and Caleb had had no more behavioral problems. The social worker said that he had been happy and singing all day!

So it was a very scary and rough start but I feel Caleb is doing great now. Thank God!