Autism answers

Autism is one of those topics I generally steer clear of because I do not have any firsthand experience with the disorder, and I am often confused by the contradictory information about autism, which affects 1 in 110 children in the United States.

But today I read a new report on autism that made me think one more time how confusing and frustrating it must be to be a parent of a child with autism.

The report by a commissioned panel of experts, says there is no solid evidence that autism is linked to increased digestive problems or that special diets work to help treat autism.

While I think it’s great that researchers are taking autism seriously and trying to understand it better, I can only imagine how frustrating it is for parents to constantly be told one thing will work and then be told there’s no evidence it works. Many parents of children with autism, for example, put their children on special diets in hopes that it will be the effective treatment promoted by actress Jenny McCarthy in her book about searching for treatments for her autistic son.

So I’m wondering what parents out there who are dealing with autism in their family think of the report. Is it helpful information or just one more stab in the dark?

If you’ve dealt with autism in your family, do you get frustrated by conflicting information? How hard is it to get straight answers about autism? What could be done to get better answers?