Hey, If You Want To 'Treat' Your Autistic Kid With Dangerous Snake Oil Cures, That Is Fine By The FDA
Please do not actually give your kid bleach or raw camel milk.
How is Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Making America Healthy Again this week? Is it by declaring “steak” to be the healthiest food of all? No, that was last week. Is it by no longer recommending children and adolescents get vaccinated against Hepatitis A or B, the flu, COVID-19, rotavirus, and meningitis? No, that was also last week! Is it appointing a vaccine “skeptic” and a(nother) self-described anti-vaxxer to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)? Yes, but that’s not what we’re on about right now.
Hey, it’s not my fault the man is an ongoing train wreck.
This week, the FDA, under his purview, removed a webpage devoted to discouraging parents from giving their autistic children ineffective and dangerous treatments, including one that literally killed a child last year. Isn’t that lovely?
The page, “Be Aware of Potentially Dangerous Products and Therapies that Claim to Treat Autism,” provided a list of some of the more prominent therapies, along with the dangers associated with them. It’s probably not a huge coincidence that these therapies are frequently championed in the “wellness”/”batshit ideas about autism” spaces by some of Kennedy’s friends and recent hires … and by Kennedy himself.
Before it was taken down, the first thing the site warned about was “chelation therapy,” meant to remove heavy metals and toxins from the body. Now, there is a legitimate use of chelation therapy — for people who get lead poisoning or OD on iron — that is approved by the FDA and for prescription use only. There are also OTC “chelation therapies” promoted by wellness gurus that people use on their autistic children in hope of curing them. Not only does this therapy not work, it rids the body of essential minerals and can cause kidney damage. The latter is pretty ironic given that people use chelation therapy to rid their body of toxins … which is what the kidney actually does and why you don’t need nonsense snake oil to “remove toxins” from your body.
Previously, it read:
These products claim to cleanse the body of toxic chemicals and heavy metals by binding to them and “removing” them from circulation. They come in a number of forms, including sprays, suppositories, capsules, liquid drops and clay baths. FDA-approved chelating agents are approved for specific uses that do not include the treatment or cure of autism, such as the treatment of lead poisoning and iron overload, and are available by prescription only. FDA-approved prescription chelation therapy products should only be used under professional supervision. Chelating important minerals needed by the body can lead to serious and life-threatening outcomes.
And now it says nothing because the page does not exist.
David Geier, who was hired by RFK Jr. last year to “investigate” whether the government had covered up evidence that vaccines cause autism, is a major proponent of chelation therapy. As you may recall, Geier got in trouble with the Maryland State Board of Physicians back in 2011 for practicing medicine without a license, and this was one of the treatments he offered.
Next, the FDA recommended against hyperbaric chambers, of which Secretary Brainworms is a known fan — somewhat ironic, since a hyperbaric chamber quite famously did not save his cousin, Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, from dying of infantile respiratory distress syndrome, the most common cause of neonatal death at that time, which led to scientists working to discover more effective treatments.
Like chelation therapy, hyperbaric chambers have their legitimate uses. As the FDA previously pointed out, they are used for “treating decompression sickness suffered by divers.” They do not, however, cure or treat autism and can be dangerous. Last January, five-year-old Thomas Cooper was on his 36th hyperbaric chamber treatment for ADHD and sleep apnea when he died in a fire caused by static electricity. There are other risks as well, including oxygen toxicity and lung damage, especially when used regularly.
While there is some evidence (not a lot) that suggests it could be helpful for ADHD and sleep apnea (though neither is currently recommended by the FDA), there is none suggesting that it would do anything for autism — so putting your child at risk for something that is probably not going to work and will also be quite expensive seems like a bad idea.
The site also previously noted that “detoxifying clay baths,” raw camel milk, magical miracle bleach (MMS or chlorine dioxide), and essential oils will also not treat autism. It did not mention some other shady treatments, like giving children borax, colloidal silver, zeolite, bleach enemas, homeopathy, or the rest of the seemingly endless list of fake autism treatments, all with their own dangers.
I have a lot of empathy for parents who want to help their kids and are “willing to try anything” to do so, but many of these treatments are, if not actual child abuse, something close to it. As is, frankly, the inability to accept that your child’s brain just works differently. Autism isn’t a disease, it’s not an illness, it’s a neurodevelopmental difference. It cannot be cured with magic beans or magic hyperbaric chambers or magic bleach.
There is a lot of bad information out there and it is part of the government’s job to counter that. Or at least it was. Those scared, confused parents need solid information they can rely upon to help them make good choices that will help them raise happy, healthy children. It sucks that they can no longer rely on the FDA to help them do that.
PREVIOUSLY ON WONKETTE!
My autistic child is _fine_. So's the father he inherited the neurospicy from. Bob Jr can fuck all the way off
I'm sorry, but raw camel milk? Was raw cow milk not horrendous enough?