Dabbling with Alternative Therapies for Autism

In my pre-Autism mom days, I was a skeptic.  I didn’t really get the whole alternative medicine thing.  I didn’t buy in to theories that we should avoid medicines, eat organic, refuse vaccinations and all that conspiracy theory stuff.

And I certainly wouldn’t have experimented with alternative therapies for any child of mine if the powers that be of pediatric medicine – the American Academy of Pediatrics – hadn’t recommended it.

Let’s just say that my experience with autism has made me much more open-minded to alternative theories of modern medicine and treatments for autism and chronic illnesses.  I no longer believe that traditional doctors have all the answers.  And it wouldn’t surprise me that if it turned out that all the garbage we ingest in modern America is playing a significant role in the rapid increase in autism over the past decade.

We’ve dabbled in our share of experimental treatments – gluten free/dairy free diet, audio integration therapies, and therapies to address primitive reflexes.  Did they work?  It’s just so hard to say.

Yes, Carson has made tremendous progress over the years, but we’ve tackled autism by a therapy bombardment approach.   Since he was three years old, he’s been in therapy overload.  Some things I can say with absolute certainty have made a difference for him – ABA therapy and speech therapy.  But I can’t say for sure about some of the others.

And that’s what’s just so hard as a parent of a child with autism.  There is just so much out there, and very little scientific evidence that any of it really works.  My approach has been to ask other moms, teachers and therapists what they’ve tried and what they’ve seen work.  But I’m always second-guessing our decisions.  Always wondering if we’re squandering time and money with modern day snake oil salesmen.

Vision Therapy

Our latest foray in to this gray area of autism treatment is vision therapy.  For years now, various teachers and therapists have raised concerns about Carson’s vision. He  looks at things out of the corners of his eyes;  he sometimes hunches over his work as if unable to see what’s on the paper; and he has difficulty tracking moving objects.

His eyes have been tested every year at his annual wellness exam and we’ve even had him evaluated by two ophthalmologists.   He’s gotten the all clear each time.   But this year as things intensified with efforts to get him to read, his vision abilities became a real concern.

So, we took him to a so-called developmental optometrist.  The verdict – his tracking ability is well below a typical seven-year-old and the recommendation was intensive therapy for probably about the next 18 months.  (I’ll do a separate blog post on what this treatment is all about).   Sigh…  Somehow I knew that’s where we were headed.

The theory among many so-called “developmental” optometrists is that many children with autism and other learning disabilities actually suffer from an inability to sustain focus, track objects and then translate what they’re seeing in their brain to make sense.  It can manifest itself as poor reading ability, other learning disabilities and lack of coordination.

Makes perfect sense to me.  The problem is most ophthalmologists completely disagree with the theory, saying there’s no scientific evidence to back it up.  In addition, the American Academy of Pediatrics has come out staunchly against it, raising similar concerns.

What to do. What to do. The pre-autism-mom-Heather would scoff at the idea of spending money on something established medicine is against.  I’ve been a Washington journalist for years, and it’s supposed to be about the facts.

But the new Heather – the one whose always searching and hoping for some new treatment that just might be a breakthrough for her son – just can’t walk away from it.

Don’t get me wrong. We’re not going in to it blindly.  I’ve researched, scoped out doctors, and talked to other parents and teachers. For some kids, it seems to make a difference.  So, we’ll give it a shot, science or no science.  I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.

Tagged as: Aspergers, Autism, learning disabilities, therapies, vision therapy