Jenny McCarthy: um, maybe my kid isn't really autistic

The 'University of Google' has made every boob an instant subject expert, on everything.




"I'll tell you the problem with the scientific power that you're using here -- it didn't require any discipline to attain it."

 

Isn't part of the problem with all of this on us (and by that I mean all news media)? We've become so black and white on any important issue, giving undeserved equal credence to "the other side" no matter how much bullshit they have in their arsenal. What happened to our own BS detectors? We won't or can't use them because then we don't look like we're being fair and balanced.

This is true on the autism vaccination topic as well as things like global warming and intelligent design. It's lazy journalism, actually. We quote one side and then the other and present it as an equal debate when, in reality, we should have been reporting the vaccination myth for years without giving any more credence to those who still thought/believed/didn't want to know the truth that the shots caused autism.

We had a writer/editor at our paper once who did a story on same-sex marriage. He interviewed two people for the story. 1. The president of the local college's GBLT group and 2. An evangelical Lutheran minister. Then his lead said something his interviews showed that there's a "deep cultural divide" on this subject in our area. This is what passes for covering big issues: Who believes something? Who doesn't? Got both sides? Run it.

Anyway, as the dad of a child with on the autism spectrum, I am bothered by the amount of time basically wasted on the vaccination debate long, long after it was debunked when that time could have been used better to help people, kids, families, teachers, etc., get educated on the subject.

End of rant.

 

There are a lot of doctors out there who have been saying that a large percentage of the kids being diagnosed as autistic, are not actually autistic.

I know there are varying levels of autism, but having seen a close relative deal with a truly autistic child and seeing what sometimes gets passed off as "mildly autistic" or something like that, I think parents almost want a diagnosis like that when in reality, they simply have a child that may be antisocial or have normal learning disabilities.

 

The autistic umbrella is huge. I'm not saying that is wrong either, but until you can start placing some subsets in autistic children and adults you are going to have a wide, wide range.

Some autustic children can eentually hold full time jobs as adults and live on their own, while some autistic children might be challenged just to bathe theselves. But right now, for what is known about autiusm, you really cannot break this group up too much.

 

My cousin's kid requires 24-7 care and will probably for the rest of his life.

We have neighbors with an "autistic" child. He plays basketball in the driveway by himself and from what I've seen of him, there is nothing wrong with him whatsoever, although he's hyper and doesn't pay attention to what anyone says, basically, like every other 7-year-old on the planet. The kid is in regular day care and the mom acts like everything the kid does is a colossal accomplishment, and kind of ignores what her other kids do. They have three other kids and if I lined up the four of them, none of you would be able to pick out the one who supposedly has autism.

Apparently, one doctor very early on said the kid "might have shown signs of autism" and from that moment on, the kid has been autistic, no matter how normal he seems.

To be fair, the mom participates in every autism fundraiser known to man, so it's not like there isn't something good coming out of it. Her oldest daughter, who babysits for us, seems to hate her mom, and adores her dad, which could just be a sign of a 15-year-old rebelling, or it could be as a result of the endless attention the mom pays to the youngest child.

It's sad.

 

Huh-huh-huh....."boob."

 

And in a few years that mom will be filing lawsuits against school boards for failing to sufficiently make special accomodations her "autistic" son.

I don't mean to diminish the seriousness of autism, but common sense tells me something ain't right about the irrational explosion in the number of kids diagnosed with it (and the number of autism related lawsuits) in recent years. Either a lot of these kids are not really autistic, or a helluva lot of autistic kids from our generation were never diagnosed with it, but I don't believe for a second that we just suddenly started producing several times the rate of autistic kids.

 

Stoney, I went to primary school in the 70s, and I would say many kids were not diagnosed.

My other theory is that with better medical technology that many children who might not have survived childbirth are now surviving childbirth. These children might of had a lack of oxygen issue to the brain or had a virus attack the fetus during the pregnancy. In the past these children might have passed away. But now that they are surviving, this stress to their body might have affected their brains.

I'm not saying this is true for all autistic children, but it is a thought of mine.

 

From what I've read, her son received a wrong diagnosis and she tried to find out what had caused him to have a disease that, in reality, he dind't have. Can't blame a Mom or a Dad for doing that for their kid.

And who would be more likely able to go on Larry King a half dozen times to talk about this and carry that cause forth? An ex-Playboy model who still looks great and is married to a superstar comedian or your unattractive neighbor from Podunk who's just scared for her kid?

 

Agree. Except, she and Carrey aren't married.

I really can't blame McCarthy for almost any of this. Parents are not rational when it comes to the health of their kids. I don't think anyone thinks her intentions were anything but good. If she got publicity out of it, so be it. Considering what people do these days to get on TV, I don't think you can fault her for doing what she thought was good for her son.

 

Sure, next time she should just yell fire in a crowded theatre.

 

One of the great products of White Sox country.