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As you’ve perhaps already heard, celeb autism mother Jenny Mccarthy has been named one of the 10 women who inspired us in 2007.
The zany blond struck a serious note this year, going public with her son’s autism diagnosis. Her book Louder Than Words: A Mother’s Journey in Healing Autism was honest, informative, down-to-earth and sometimes painful. McCarthy took a gamble, going public with her problems and shattering her fantasy image. Mothers everywhere thank her.
“Honest” and “down-to-earth,” okay, okay.
But “informative”? Only if you like your facts served up with a “zany” (read: questionable) adherence to the truth. A passage (see p. 82) that is set in 2004 or 2005 shows McCarthy looking up information on Google—-but the statistics she cites (that 1 out of 150 children has autism and that 1 in 94 boys is autistic) were released by the CDC in February 2007—-in the (now) past year. Other errors: On p. 127, she mentions a “hepatitis C vaccine” but there is no such vaccine; on p. 197, she says that CARD is the “only national organization” providing ABA: What about this provider?. Abraham Reichenberg’s research correlating older fathers and autistic children was published in September of 2006, at least a year after McCarthy claims she heard of it.
As for McCarthy “going public with her problems and shattering her fantasy image”: I thought she already did this in this 2004 book about “what to really expect when you’re expecting” (reviewed on review on Bookslut, who comments—in reference to a certain aspect of the female anatomy, but the phrase applies to McCarthy’s views on pregnancy and more: “She doesn’t give a damn about real”). And then there was this 2006 book about being the mother of a baby and “moving on” and also this 2005 book about being the “first year of mommyhood” and then, just to cite the whole corpus, Jen-X (1997).
With books published in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, I guess 2008 is going to bring another volume of the McCarthy annals (Autism Laughs?……..). But I’m not one for predictions, so I’ll wait and see.
In the meantime, I’ve noted some other errors in Louder Than Words: A Mother’s Journey in Healing Autism and will write about those soon.
1228 days ago
[...] would say I wrote a lot, and probably too much, about Jenny McCarthy in 2008 (and writing less about her, and about the whole vaccine-autism idea, is making its way [...]
It is sad to know that I can be called out when people are making up things about me. You all have fun with each other. I am going to focus on getting my Son better. Good luck with your hate blog.
Kristina said “@HCN,
I could have used your comment and suggestions (IDEA, insurance….) back in the days when Charlie was first diagnosed. ”
Well, that is the main bit about the process, isn’t it? Knowing what your rights are as a parent, plus knowing where and how to get the therapy the child needs.
Plus there are the other factors: socialization, dealing with crowds, finding a dentist willing to work with a child who has sensory integration issues, and just finding educational situations that are not part of a school that are actually useful! (we were lucky with having local community centers that had small classes for kids and understanding instructors, the same goes for swimming classes)
Then there is the search for good therapists, and even better therapy for a budget! One other book I think was very useful was Patricia McAleer Hamaguchi’s book on Childhood Speech, Language and Listening Disorders. In the back was a list of resources for parents, including the suggestion to check for local college training of therapists. My local university has a special preschool set up to work with special ed. kids. In the 1970s it concentrated on Down’s Syndrome, now it works with autism (it is called the Experimental Education Unit).
This is the stuff that should be explained to all parents with disabled kids. I was fortunate in that our son was referred to speech therapy when he was just over two years old (back in the days when it the “wait and see” attitude was common). And from the speech therapist we learned of the special ed. preschool my son ended up in…. And then from the parent meetings at the preschool I learned of the Scottish Rite Center for Childhood Language Disorders (now called Rite Care)… and on and on.
This was all before the internet.
When we did get internet in 1996, I found more good information from the Compuserve Disabilities Forums. Back when the information was actually useful (and when I first encountered the Wrights of WrightsLaw).
This is the kind of stuff that is in the three books I mentioned (oh, make that four if you include Patti Hamaguchi’s book!). This is where you blog excels, showing how to deal with the everyday and the education. The same with Susan Senator’s blog (and book! I forgot to mention her book! It is also a good recommendation!).
Anyway, Happy Mother’s Day.
I spent mine in the garden, and my teenage children all gave me gifts (bought my husband, sorry even as they get older some things stay the same).
Well. I sure feel like *I* got owned…
@HCN,
I could have used your comment and suggestions (IDEA, insurance….) back in the days when Charlie was first diagnosed.
@Bonnie,
I think I’ll let the comment you note stand, though if there are more comments with language of the sort not appropriate for my college classroom, I’ll have to moderate them
@Cliff,
Thanks for saying it!
Well, there we go. A clear, exciting thesis followed by detailed logical support and kind, patient consideration of differing points of view all in graceful rhetorical style.
Sorry, had to say it.
Cliff
Such a negative attitude. What a shame she blames it on autism. Hopefully the comment with the F word will be deleted by admin.
Kristina Chew, PhD
I wanted to add that Yes Mercury Poisoning is vile and that it is causing this Pandemic of Autism!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love my Son and I know he will be fine. You all should put your energy towards something good instead of this stuopid site. See ya it is Mothers Day and I have many things to enjoy with my Family.
You are all a bunch of BS…. FUCK OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kelly said “We have done testing and his little body is full of Thimerasol. He had the Hep-b at birth and 3 boosters.”
I call this a bunch of BS. He is too young to have had the “thimerosal” filled vaccines. Plus the HepB schedule is a total of three shots, not four. (don’t pull the “they did not really remove it” crap, that is also a bunch of BS… just because you keep saying it over and over and over does not make it true)
If you had him tested by Doctors Data or the Great Plains laboratories, you’ve been played. They are trying to sell you stuff, not give you any meaningful information.
You seem to be playing the “Oh, look at me! My boy is poisoned! Oh, look, look… it was done by THEM, THEM! I had nothing to do with it! Oh, poor poor me!”
You have a three year little boy. You should know that your anger is misplaced (and you even paid for it if you had to send off his hair or urine to a laboratory out of state). Your attitude towards him does and will have an effect on him. You need to get past the worthless blame game and start doing constructive things for your child’s development and well-being.
What you should be doing NOW is familiarizing yourself with IDEA (the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act). You need to find out what special preschool opportunities are in your community (look for ChildFind, http://www.childfindidea.org/ ). Plus there is the whole medical insurance bit to wade through. You should also be looking to see if your community has neurodevelopmental therapy opportunities like “Rite-Care” or local university clinics (my younger son got language therapy at the university speech and hearing clinic from speech therapy students for $10 an hour, that was 13 years ago, so rates have gone up).
Get over yourself, and start thinking about your child as a child who needs some extra help.
Oh, and here is some much better reading than McCarthy:
“No Time for Jello” by Berneen Bratt (also a mom who looked very hard for a way to “cure” her son… I think this book should be given to anyone when they first get a diagnosis that their child is not “perfect”… I found it a great antidote to the “how to cure your brain damaged baby” that I read after my son’s last seizure)
“Not Even Wrong” by Paul Collins (a dad of an autistic little boy)
“Unstrange Minds” by Roy Grinker (another dad of an autistic daughter, who is an anthropologist who studies autism in other countries)
Unfortunately, it seems you must say just that, and that you’ve said it a lot at some level, haven’t you? It’s an important thing to say, for sure!
Cliff
And autism is definitely not vile—not that I should have to say that!
Right, but there isn’t simply the amount of mercury ever present in a vaccine to have your child be “filled with it”. In fact, you could have taken a far greater number of vaccines with themerisol and never reached the point of childhood mercury poisoning. So where would these levels have come from? Surely you’re not saying that the amount increased as he grew, are you?
Cliff
Cliff he had 8 vaccines with Thimerasol. His body could not get rid of it. It is in his system causing Autism WEe have done Hair, Urine, Blood and stool tests. They have all come back the same. Mercury Toxic.. The Mercury came from the vaccines he had.
Clarify; usually the theory of themerisol damage involves a small(way too small in truth to normally be considered effective, but that’s not the point) amount of themerisol causing damage that then, because of the age, develops in a damaged way for that. It usually doesn’t involve actually having large amounts of themerisol. Given that there are no usually considered sources for themerisol outside of the vaccines, which carry a tiny, tiny, tiny amount of the stuff, where is all of this themerisol coming from?
Cliff
HCN
We have done testing and his little body is full of Thimerasol. He had the Hep-b at birth and 3 boosters. The others I would have to check his records. This is what happened to us and it does happen to other people. Vaccines caused our Son to be Autistic and there is nothing beautiful about that.
Kassiane You are very wrong. My Son is not vile. The fact that he was poisoned by at least 8 shots with mercury is Vile. You need to get a life and keep your ugly comments to yourself. I Love my Son and I am glad that I am not your child. You have a lot of illusions about people that you dont know and It is very sad.
HCN, the vileness question wasn’t directed at you, I know you don’t think that about your son, I see your comments around.
It was towards Kelly and her “vaccines ate my perfect baby who is now a vile deformed creature” attitude. It’s really very much a scary thing to see from the point of view of one of those apparently vile and deformed creatures *wry smile*
oh, wow… I know that my son is not vile. He is a very sweet soul.
Even though he could not speak at all when he was three years old, he is becoming very independent. He is 19 years old and in community college. It was his own decision to repeat a college-prep writing class, all the time complaining that high school did not prepare him for college! (okay, it was special language arts, and it was his decision to not do the homework… but he is doing it now).