How to respond to odd advice??

March 23, 2010

I just heard from a friend whose daughter was diagnosed with autism a few years

back. I had contacted her to ask if she knew of a way to connect with other

parents of AS kids. Her advice back to me was really strange. Her opinion is

that autism is not real- it is a condition caused by vaccinations that can be

cured. She said my daughter is probably having issues because she got a flu

shot this year.

Now this is an intelligent woman who I have known since our kids were born, and

I respect her insight on most issues, but this just seems off to me. I know

there is the huge debate over vaccines, and although I lean toward that not

being the cause, I don't actually know. So I don't really know how to respond

or if I even need to. She emailed me all sorts of links to naturopaths and diet

pages, anti-vaccine info and so on, but this doesn't seem to be the right path

for me.

First of all, my daughter has been experiencing odd behaviors since birth so it

was certainly not caused by a flu shot last October. Secondly, I don't believe

this can or necessarily should be cured. From the research I've read recently,

the brain of a person with Asperger's is actually structured differently than an

NT person. That's pretty recent research. But I guess my point is that yes my

daughter has problems I believe are associated with AS, but she also has amazing

insight and an eye for detail that I think come from that same place. Wouldn't

" curing " her take away the good as well as the bad if this is all caused by AS?

I feel that she needs more support and guidance and because she is so

intelligent, I believe that she could respond well to behavioral therapies and

that there are resources out there that can help her lessen her rigidity, etc.

I'm not saying it will be quick or easy, but I also don't want to get sucked

into believing something can be.

Any thoughts? I'm feeling a little like I'm going crazy right now.

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