Nids in the Media

[Guest guest]

I am excited to see all the posts and emails sent to me about the number of

people who have contacted their news channels about and the article in the

Canada Ottawa Sun Paper. I am posting the article again for those of you who

missed it the first time it was posted. Let's start the new year by contacting

our papers and news channels and send them the following article. We are an

army of parents,grandparents, aunts and uncles that will change medicine

forever!!!!

As our own Army, we can accomplish tremendous things if we each send it to

just our local media. It won't take much of your time, to do so much good.

Here is my contact info if you need help or need someone to refer them to who

has seen the protocol to completion with a kid who is recovered. Marcia

Hinds (952) 925-9803 Hindssite@...

My is now 14 and recovered. When he entered kindergarten at almost six

years old, he was in the third percentile for speech. By that time we had been

seeing Dr. Goldberg for about a year. By the third grade, my son tested in the

85th percentile for speech and by fifth grade no longer received any assistance

at all at school. Dr. Goldberg uses only hard science and proven medical

treatments to treat the children.

On my son's current eighth grade report card, he earned straight " A's. " He is

in all the accelerated classes with no assistance. None of his teachers or

friends even knows he was ever diagnosed with autism. But more importantly, he

is well liked and doing all the things the doctors said would never be possible.

I have lots of info to share, but don't want to overwhelm you, please email me

if you want me to forward what I have sent others.

Here is Dave's original post.

Message: 8

Date: Sun, 22 Dec 2002 12:33:48 -0000

From: " kevbaby99 <dnaylor99@...> " <dnaylor99@...>

Subject: Kids in the media!!!!

Sunday, December 22, 2002

'He's coming back to us'

Parents question diagnosis of autism as new approach shows promise in

bringing back their kids' responsiveness

By HOLLY LAKE, Ottawa Sun

Naylor couldn't look or act any more typical.

At three, he freely offers kisses, is all for giving high-fives and

is quite content to make himself at home on the laps of strangers

sitting in his living room.

Furniture is his playground and like most little folk, he's not

always game for sharing toys with his younger sister.

Active, engaged and full of personality, he's not exactly the poster

child for autism. Nor does he possess the qualities most associate

with the disorder. Yet, that's what he was diagnosed with last

January.

Despite the diagnosis, and Naylor don't believe their

son came into the world with a developmental disorder. Rather,

they're convinced that, in his second year, developed a medical

condition called neuro-immune dysfunction syndrome (), which

causes autism-like symptoms.

So is Dr. Goldberg, a California pediatrician who's been

treating since July. He and colleagues at the Research

Institute believe is triggered by multiple attacks on a child's

immune system.

's is pretty much a textbook case. He has endured constant chest colds, 16

ear infections, 21 rounds of antibiotics, regular

vaccinations and at 16 months, a case of the chicken pox.

Goldberg believes these attacks often lead to a stressed, overactive

immune system. Other triggers include allergies and exposure to heavy

metals. In response, the system shuts down blood flow

to the parts of the brain that control social skills, auditory

processing and language. Brain scans confirm this.

This is what creates the autistic symptoms.

" Instead of assuming this was the way a child was born, miswired,

we're learning this is a medical condition, " he says.

In the early 1980s, one in 10,000 children were diagnosed with

autism. Now, as many as 1 in 250 are diagnosed with the disorder.

But Goldberg believes 99% of them are misdiagnosed.

What's happened, he says, is that their display of autistic symptoms

has led the medical profession to expand the definition of autism,

while ignoring what's really wrong.

To look at a classic definition of the disorder from 30 years ago,

it's clear these kids, including , don't fit.

DOESN'T FIT IMAGE

Most people associate autism with Hoffman's character in the

movie Rainman. doesn't fit that image either.

" We've got to wake up to the fact this is not about what we were

taught in medical school, " Goldberg says. " The key is that in

science, you cannot have an epidemic of a developmental or genetic

disorder. It's scientifically impossible.

" That means we've got to start looking at these children as to what

is really going on ... We need to wake up as doctors. "

But not everyone has. Most physicians still see autism as a

developmental disorder, not a medical condition -- something that

sees thousands of children written off as untreatable.

Goldberg, however, has found that cooling and normalizing a child's

system with one FDA-approved drug at a time reduces the child's

autistic symptoms -- sometimes completely -- and helps the child

recover significant cognitive function.

Many children he's treated have gone on to live normal lives.

" It's like the brain is idle, " Goldberg says. " If you get that brain

working, you have a chance to dramatically change these children's

future. "

HELPS IN 99% OF CASES

It's not the answer for everyone and it's not always simple, but he

says a child can be helped in 99% of cases.

" If they were developmentally miswired, I couldn't do anything for

them, " he says. " (But) overall I've reached a level where I expect to

succeed. "

He's not the only researcher looking at the auto-immune link, but

Goldberg believes it will take 10 to 15 years for the medical

community to change its thinking and he's not waiting.

" We're looking at a medical crisis, " he says.

Unless things change, he fears a whole generation of children will be

lost -- but won't be among them.

Admittedly, it didn't always look that way.

Up until September 2000, had developed as he should have -- he

could say five words and could identify objects.

But his progress suddenly stopped and he began to display autistic

symptoms. He started to play alone and sit by himself to watch

movies. His eyes took on a blank look and he gave no response to

verbal stimuli.

Despite his parents' best efforts, bathtub splashing stopped, as did

his high-fives. Soon, stopped speaking and eating, and began

guzzling milk.

" He stopped paying attention to us in November, " says . " We

could get his attention sometimes, but not with any real

consistency. "

ALTERED DIET

After learning about Goldberg in an online parent group, researching

his hypothesis and learning that food allergies could trigger ,

the Naylors removed all milk, wheat and gluten from 's diet.

's eye contact improved almost immediately. He began to eat and

his constant ear infections and colds disappeared.

Having never believed was autistic, says seemed to

make sense.

This past July, they took to see Goldberg in California. After

a plethora of scans, bloodwork and immune testing, he was put on a

combination of anti-viral and anti-fungal medications, as well as a

pro-biotic to replace the good bacteria destroyed by antibiotics.

The protocol has brought back to his parents -- taken off

pause, he's doing things he hasn't done in two years.

He greets his dad at the door with kisses and high-fives. He smiles.

He's also speaking a few words.

Although autistic children aren't supposed to be able to, will

now imitate behaviours, says.

" He's a dramatically different child than he was three months ago.

There isn't a day I don't see a subtle little thing. People who

haven't seen him in awhile are amazed. "

Adds : " We just feel like he's coming back to us. "

But they lost him bit by bit and that's how they know they'll have to

bring him back. Having seen progress, patience is now the hardest

thing. They expect may be on the protocol for two years.

Nathalie Lessard can relate to the Naylors. Her three-year-old son

Danick is the second Ottawa child to be treated by Goldberg. Much

like , he had hit every milestone, but started to go downhill

between 15 and 18 months of age.

Suddenly, the happy, smiling little boy disconnected from the world --

he wouldn't respond to his name, he'd stare into space and he

started pushing people away.

" It's as if all of a sudden he was in his own world, " Lessard says.

She believes her son's many ear infections and rounds of antibiotics

did him in, but since starting on the protocol in October, he's

made dramatic progress.

" It's like all of a sudden the child is there. It's just amazing, "

Lessard says. " He's giggly. He's responsive and his eye contact is

pretty good. It's not even the same child. "

RESPONDS TO NAME

Danick now responds to his name and seeks out others to play with

him -- something he never did before.

He's still receiving speech, occupational and play therapy, and is

undergoing allergy elimination, but his mother is convinced it's no

coincidence that he's improved since starting the protocol.

" I tend to think we're on our way out, " she says. " When you look at

this from a medical perspective, there's almost no way this can't

work. "

Emmett Vokral's decline and symptoms are almost carbon copies of

and Danick's.

" Most of these kids diagnosed aren't sitting by themselves, rocking, "

says mom Rhoda Boyd. " Emmett definitely has some signs of autism. But

classic autism? I'd say no. "

What Goldberg is doing makes sense to her and her husband. They're

taking Emmett to him in February and know it may not be the answer,

but Boyd says she could never walk away from the possibility her

child might be okay.

" When I heard about , I realized this didn't have to be a life

sentence, " she says.

The number of children diagnosed as autistic and then handed over to

therapists to learn to do things like make eye contact the way Pavlov

trained a dog is frightening, she says.

" For me, Dr. Goldberg says if you heal his mind, he'll look at you

because he wants to, not because he'll get a Cheerio. "

Tammy Cudahy is also convinced her child has .

Like many with the condition, Devlin, 3, has had allergies and

constant gastrointestinal problems since birth. But since CHEO

diagnosed him with autism in June -- after a doctor watched his

behaviour for half an hour -- she's met with nothing but resistance

from doctors in her quest to have testing done on his immune system.

Cudahy says the doctors have refused to look beyond his behaviour or

at documentation on . Doctors told her they'd already been given

material by other parents, but couldn't medically justify doing the

tests Goldberg does. That blows her away, given the dramatic increase

in the number of children with autism.

" If it was up to them, they'd recommend a speech therapist and put

you on the waiting list for playschool, " she says.

When contacted by the Sun, CHEO officials declined to comment on the

matter.

Private testing on Devlin has revealed high levels of heavy metals in

his system and high levels of yeast, which is normally kept under

control in the bowel by the immune system and healthy bacteria.

Everything points to , Cudahy says.

Now, Devlin is being treated by Dr. Coombs, a Perth-area doctor

who has been treating autism as a medical condition for years.

One of only a handful of Canadian physicians who sees autism this

way, Coombs says doctors need to look at a child's behaviour and

biology simultaneously -- but that's not something most of them were

taught to do in medical school.

Holding back change is the general conservative nature of physicians,

leaving them more likely to fight new ideas than accept them. But the

time has come, he says, for physicians to examine the material and

put it to clinical use.

" To label a child autistic and condemn him to a lifelong course of

supervised and structured care without exploring possible biological

components is tantamount to neglect, " he says.

" Something has to change if we're really going to look after these

kids. Parents of autistic children do not want to wait 50 years for

physicians to think outside the box. "

What amazes Naylor is that so many kids have similar warning

signs and so few doctors connect them.

" We feel we've been robbed of ('s) childhood. If people were

doing what they should have been doing, I wouldn't have missed what

I've missed with him. "