Jenny McCarthy Fights Autism With new Book
Cassandra Spratling - Detroit Free Press
Apr 14, 2008
If you want Jenny McCarthy to accomplish something, tell her she can't.
People told her she'd never make it in Hollywood. They told her she didn't have the stuff to become a successful actress, comic or author.
Yet the former Playboy model did all that. And she believes it was all a setup for her greatest challenge: using her celebrity to become an almost one-woman crusade for autism awareness, advocacy and prevention.
She brings that crusade to metro Detroit on Wednesday, when she'll be the keynote speaker at a conference about autism sponsored by Metro Parent Magazine in recognition of National Autism Month. Along with another Hollywood celebrity -- her man friend Jim Carrey -- she's planning a march in Washington on June 4 aimed at drawing national attention to autism awareness and prevention.
In conversation and in her book "Louder Than Words: A Mother's Journey in Healing Autism" (Dutton, $23.95), she offers plenty of reasons why autism ought to be at the top of the nation's agenda.
Approximately, one in 150 American children is autistic.
That's up from an estimated five in 10,000 children in the late 1980s, according to her book and a variety of sources.
Many doctors and researchers attribute the dramatic rise to better methods of diagnosing the disorder.
But McCarthy and others think there's a correlation between childhood immunizations and the rising rates of autism.
Autism is a developmental disorder that affects children in widely varying ways. But children with autism often have difficulty communicating, playing with other children and toys, and expressing or receiving affection. Some have seizures, tantrums and a variety of allergies.
A son in trouble
Although the growing number of autistic children concerns McCarthy, autism matters to her because of one little boy: her son, Evan, now 5 years old and no longer considered autistic.
He was diagnosed when he was 2 1/2 years old.
"People told me, 'You'll never heal your kid; he'll never talk,' " McCarthy says from her Los Angeles home. "They told me I'd never hear him say, 'Mama, I love you.'"
But they -- doctors and others -- didn't know Jenny McCarthy, who can be fierce when she makes up her mind about something.
"I always love to try to make the impossible possible," says the entertainer, 35.
Within hours of learning that Evan was autistic, McCarthy became a star student at what she calls the University of Google, researching and learning everything she could
One of the most important things she learned came from another celebrity mom, Holly Robinson Peete, who also has an autistic child. She told McCarthy that there is a window of opportunity for healing children who have autism. The earlier in a child's life you try, the better your chances.
McCarthy believes she was successful because of a comprehensive biomedical approach.
Basically, that means she put her son on a wheat-free, dairy-free diet, supplemented by vitamins and minerals, that cleansed his body of an overgrowth of yeast.
Doing so cleared Evan's mind and body so he could be more receptive to other therapies he was receiving in hospitals and privately, including play and behavior therapy, McCarthy says.
Previously, he couldn't absorb the therapies because "he was like a little zombie," she says.
Her first piece of reassuring evidence that her approach was working came about five months after he began the regimen. McCarthy and Evan were in bed together watching SpongeBob on television.
"Instead of just watching the colors flashing on the screen, he understood the joke and laughed," she says.
McCarthy says the regimen may not work for every child, but in the months since her book was released in September, she has heard from hundreds of mothers who believe their children have benefited.
Although positive results are possible, especially with early intervention, it's unknown how often they occur or to what degree because autism encompasses a broad spectrum of symptoms and severity, says Marguerite Kirst Colston, a spokesperson for the Autism Society of America, an information and support network.
"It really depends on what you mean by healing," she says. "But with the right support, you can lose the diagnosis."
"We don't have the numbers because it hasn't been tracked properly, but at the Autism Society of America, we are hearing more and more anecdotal cases where parents are saying their child is healed. The numbers are small, but growing."
Bad doctors, good doctors
McCarthy says it's to her advantage that she has never cared what others think or say about her.
And she can be harsh in the face of resistance to getting help for her son.
"I was only harsh when met with ignorance," she says. "When doctors tell you that trying to feed better food to your child is bad medicine, you better be darn sure I'm going to be harsh."
Although she was blessed to meet several good doctors, she says, she met too many who were rude and condescending and closed-minded.
"I believe doctors need to practice a new behavior called respect," she says. Parents across the country are telling McCarthy about doctors who yell at them and make them feel stupid.
McCarthy says she is not opposed to immunizations; she simply believes there are too many too soon.
She asks aloud why the number of vaccinations recommended by the Centers for Disease Control increased from 10 in 1983 to 36 now.
She recommends looking into alternatives to the standard schedule of shots and studying precautions as outlined on the Web site www.generationrescue.org. It's run by an organization of parents focused on treating and curing autism and other disorders they believe can be corrected with various interventions and precautions
Dr. Ahdi Amer, a member of the Michigan Advisory Committee on Immunizations and a pediatrician at Children's Hospital of Michigan, says the number of vaccines has gone up because there is more knowledge about which immunizations can safely protect children from diseases.
He called it dangerous to advise parents to do anything other than what is recommended by the Centers for Disease Control, which bases its recommendation on well-documented studies.
"This is the reason in this country we do not have the higher mortality rates that you see in some countries," he says. "There is no scientific link or proof between autism and immunizations."
Amer says the rising rate of autism is the result of better methods for diagnosing the disorder. He thinks some parents believe there's a link to vaccines, especially to the MMR vaccine (measles, mumps and rubella), because the MMR is given at 15 months. It is generally after that age than autism evidences itself. However, autism occurs at the same rate in children who don't get the shot at that age, Amer says.
"We are kind of in a race to get these babies vaccinated as soon as they can be to fight against diseases that used to kill them in the past," he says.
Still, McCarthy urges parents to ask what exactly is being injected into their children and to discuss options for spacing the shots farther apart.
"Never, ever, vaccinate when they're sick, and avoid the business of catching up," she says, referring to the practice of several doses of a vaccine being given to a child to catch up for missing the timing of earlier doses.
McCarthy also offers a prescription for parents, especially moms who do most of the caregiving: Take care of yourselves.
"The biggest fear of every mom with an autistic child is that if anything happens to her, no one will take care of our child like we will," she says. That's why it's important that mothers take care of themselves.
"And you have to be able to step away from the autism here and there," she says. "You can be consumed by it all day, and it will rape you of any sense of self."
Also important, she says: Parents must know there is hope. Increasing attention is being given to autism, and eventually medical and governmental agencies will have to pay more attention to mothers.
"The tide is turning," she says. "One day, we will look back and say, 'Oh, my God, this was big tobacco for children.' "
'A hug from heaven'
McCarthy need look no further than the progress her own son has made.
The health department in Los Angeles, where they live, no longer classifies him as autistic. He attends a regular private school and requires no special services.
She believes her faith in God directs and sustains her.
At every point when she was unsure of what to do, she prayed: "God, show me the way."
One of her greatest joys since Evan's recovery has been watching him go from being a child who didn't show affection to one who revels in it.
"I craved for years for my boy to say: 'Mama, hold me. Let's cuddle.' I kept envisioning it," McCarthy says.
"The first time he jumped on my lap and squeezed me, it made all the painful experiences disappear. It was like I got a hug from heaven."
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Copyright 2008 by Detroit Free Press
