As a pediatrician, I agree with your analysis! I would only add that fever during pregnancy is a KNOWN risk factor for poor neurodevelopmental outcomes. So telling pregnant people to avoid something that can reduce fever without good evidence that it causes autism could actually result in increased autism rates.
Thank you for this ~ if anyone wants to see a breakdown of the data that RFK is using to justify his intensity about the increase in autism rates, Hank Green made a video about it here ~ https://youtu.be/BdpSfrD3Nzs?si=R5kUBInWI4biZfwo
I used to sit for a family once a week who had a kid with a number of challenges, including autism. His mom was a nurse. She was ecstatic when the guy was about fifteen to find it wasn't the result of some med she'd taken while pregnant. Heck of a burden to bear for all those years.
Point is, little is known about autism. Until Trump and Kennedy came along and then...whatever they say, the opposite must be true. SCIENCE is whatever the newsreader tells you some government flack said it was, sometimes quoting a scientist. And it is irrefutable.
The crisis of irreproducibility notwithstanding. Nor Sokal Squared. The Worm Runners Digest was hilarious (they forgot to clean the lab equipment).
Indicate that you know the Covid vax was issued under an EUA and...you're against smallpox and polio vaccines.
Even the makers of Tylenol have suggested caution over the years. Yet, let Trump and Kennedy get involved and...it's pure gold and must not be questioned.
Point out that the Arctic Ocean still isn't ice-free and....you're a climate change denier.
Amyloid plaque?
Do you have any idea what this looks like from the outside?
Hate to think what would have happened decades ago if T and K had come out against Thalidomide.
On the mild end of the spectrum, autism might be in the eye of the diagnosing professional.
(Ask a high school counselor if there's a gray area between being raised wrong and actual mental illness.)
Which is why the scam of $14 million in autism treatment was so easy in Minneapolis. But between the Lancet's SCIENCE YOU GUYS on autism and MMR, and now T & K on the subject, it's practically sacred.
Something causes autism. We don't know what. But closing off discussion because T & K are non grata is a mistake.
The most surprising revelation in this article was that Beth resents most forms of authority! I gasped with delight. 😂
Hi, auDHD mom here to an 11 year old PDA auDHDer and 7 year old ADHDer. So much to say and much has already been said, but ultimately I come down to my conclusion about this administration that I almost always end up at: they are woefully blasé about how their words and decisions harm people, and so wrapped up in their individual small narrative that they disregard entirely how it impacts the country and her citizens. I’m so tired of it. And really really angry, too.
I was late diagnosed and it helped my past make SO much sense, helped me receive healing from stuff I had thought was just my fault, my problem. I vowed to not let my children grow up that way. No one is a problem to be solved. It’s dehumanizing when we treat others that way. I wish they could see how their comments lead to this.
I am all for research that leads to better understanding which opens up better supports and accommodations for autistics. Of course I want to alleviate the suffering my oldest experiences due to his autism. That does not happen when we blithely subscribe to the narrative that mom did x so she gave her kid autism. What benefit does that bring? Why are we insisting on “lowering” the rate of autism and calling it an “epidemic” as if it were a transmissible disease? How does that lead to better lives for those who are autistic? It just doesn’t, and I am furious that they’ve knocked down the gains so many autistics have made in the last several years towards autism acceptance with a single idiotic claim.
Anyways. Thanks for taking the time to wrestle with and write this, and for the commenters sharing their experience as well.
Beth - as I read this I just wanted to give you a hug. One that lasts at least 20 seconds so that your body relaxes and you start to breathe again. I can just feel the tension you feel in your body and mind in your writing and I just want to give you a moment of peace and rest. I feel this way a lot these days and sometimes I wish someone would just give me a hug and make it stop just for a short while.
It feels like the White House thinks women are delicate little flowers who also have control over every aspect of our children’s lives from the moment of conception forward
I appreciated the newsletter today, Beth. I especially liked the "stream of consciousness, conversational, sort of figuring things out as I go" feel of it. Maybe because I so often have a "figuring it out as I go" sense about what I'm doing. So, I enjoyed getting to ride along with you as you went about it. But I was struck near the end when you got to "If I could speak with the President, I would ask him to wait for a press conference that will freak people out until we have more to go on than Bobby’s gut. We’re already a little stressed out here," how that sounded like an approach you (or I or anyone) would take with a "normal" president. But I just don't think there's anything "normal" about what we're dealing with just now. Do you believe he'd give a rat's ass that we're freaked out & stressed? Because I just don't. Consequently, I don't believe "normal" ways of responding will help, not about autism, or Tylenol use, or embarrassing us at the UN (totally agree with you on that!), or indicting Jim Comey, etc. In my mind, we need to be thinking creatively about how to respond to things as they are now, because normal responses will not help. Or so it seems to me.
Hi, it’s me, a reader who commented in January asking for support in getting a D&C for a very wanted pregnancy that did not want to stick around. Here I am, months later, pregnant again and starting my second trimester on Saturday. It won’t be too surprising if I share I’ve been a wreck and have had a hard time finding joy when I’m spending most of my energy waiting for the pain around the corner constantly. Toughing it out is all I do, all I have been doing. Why did I lose my previous pregnancies? No clue, you’ll be fine, just tough out the pain of the medication and the surgery and emotional damage. What’s with that bleeding some people get early in pregnancy? No one really knows, tough it out. What if I feel so sick I consider how to run out of an important meeting? Oh well, tough it out. Why do I have to give this food up, or switch topical acne medications, or change workout habits? The data isn’t great but why risk it, right? Tough it out.
I am tired, more so because this tiny thing that somehow has a heartbeat and a brain and moves on an ultrasound is sucking it all out of me. And to be clear, I love it and am happy to have gotten this far. But also, “news” like this from our government undermines everything and makes it a battle. I’m tired of everything being a battle.
I took an Advil the day of my first doctor’s appointment around 7 weeks because my headache was so bad, probably because of the anxiety that I’d been having over if this one would even be viable, and I didn’t know that I shouldn’t have taken that. But I hadn’t even gotten the shockingly short list of approved medications and wouldn’t until after that appointment. All to say what Beth did so much better: we’re already all toughing it out, but we can change if we need to. I’m giving up my favorite Jersey Mike’s sandwiches for this pregnancy among other more legit things, so put this BS on the pile of things I get to worry about I guess.
Alexa, I see you and hear you. I believe, for every ‘heart’ on your vulnerable post, the person who clicked the hollow shape to fill it grieves the losses with you and will carry hope alongside you - and for you, if necessary. ((( hugs )))
My husband just told me there are people taking videos of themselves taking handfuls of Tylenol, then having living failure. I said I'm sure there are videos of people putting Tylenol or something that looks like Tylenol in their mouths, then spitting it out after they are done recording. Miss me with the tide pods.
Thank you for this. For the record, I was a very anxious first-time pregnant mom back in 1999. Zero alcohol, zero caffeine, zero soft cheeses, zero deli meat, zero over-the-counter medications. If they told me not to do something, I didn't, because it meant I could control the outcome (lol sweet 27-year-old me). Our son was born healthy, APGAR scores of 7 and 9, hit all his milestones early that first year, clearly because I did everything right. Gold stars and blue ribbons all around!! <sarcasm font>
Between ages 1 and 2, he started to withdraw. Lots of hand wringing and worrying and specialists, the TL;DR is he was diagnosed with autism at age 2. Self-contained special education his whole life. He will be 26 this January and he lives at home, attends a day program, will never live on his own without support (although, for the record, none of us "lives on our own without support" but that's a whole other conversation).
You know who else is on the spectrum? My sister. Her three kids. My brother's son. In hindsight, clearly my dad. I don't know the scientific reason autism exists, why it shows up on some branches of our family tree and not others, whether or not environmental factors play a role. I do know autism exists as part of the tapestry of humanity, and it always has.
As a pediatrician, I agree with your analysis! I would only add that fever during pregnancy is a KNOWN risk factor for poor neurodevelopmental outcomes. So telling pregnant people to avoid something that can reduce fever without good evidence that it causes autism could actually result in increased autism rates.
Thank you for this ~ if anyone wants to see a breakdown of the data that RFK is using to justify his intensity about the increase in autism rates, Hank Green made a video about it here ~ https://youtu.be/BdpSfrD3Nzs?si=R5kUBInWI4biZfwo
The Tylenol fuss is about advising caution. Strikes me that sometime back, an untried vaccine was mandatory for pregnant women. Is that right?
I used to sit for a family once a week who had a kid with a number of challenges, including autism. His mom was a nurse. She was ecstatic when the guy was about fifteen to find it wasn't the result of some med she'd taken while pregnant. Heck of a burden to bear for all those years.
Point is, little is known about autism. Until Trump and Kennedy came along and then...whatever they say, the opposite must be true. SCIENCE is whatever the newsreader tells you some government flack said it was, sometimes quoting a scientist. And it is irrefutable.
The crisis of irreproducibility notwithstanding. Nor Sokal Squared. The Worm Runners Digest was hilarious (they forgot to clean the lab equipment).
Indicate that you know the Covid vax was issued under an EUA and...you're against smallpox and polio vaccines.
Even the makers of Tylenol have suggested caution over the years. Yet, let Trump and Kennedy get involved and...it's pure gold and must not be questioned.
Point out that the Arctic Ocean still isn't ice-free and....you're a climate change denier.
Amyloid plaque?
Do you have any idea what this looks like from the outside?
Hate to think what would have happened decades ago if T and K had come out against Thalidomide.
On the mild end of the spectrum, autism might be in the eye of the diagnosing professional.
(Ask a high school counselor if there's a gray area between being raised wrong and actual mental illness.)
Which is why the scam of $14 million in autism treatment was so easy in Minneapolis. But between the Lancet's SCIENCE YOU GUYS on autism and MMR, and now T & K on the subject, it's practically sacred.
Something causes autism. We don't know what. But closing off discussion because T & K are non grata is a mistake.
The most surprising revelation in this article was that Beth resents most forms of authority! I gasped with delight. 😂
Hi, auDHD mom here to an 11 year old PDA auDHDer and 7 year old ADHDer. So much to say and much has already been said, but ultimately I come down to my conclusion about this administration that I almost always end up at: they are woefully blasé about how their words and decisions harm people, and so wrapped up in their individual small narrative that they disregard entirely how it impacts the country and her citizens. I’m so tired of it. And really really angry, too.
I was late diagnosed and it helped my past make SO much sense, helped me receive healing from stuff I had thought was just my fault, my problem. I vowed to not let my children grow up that way. No one is a problem to be solved. It’s dehumanizing when we treat others that way. I wish they could see how their comments lead to this.
I am all for research that leads to better understanding which opens up better supports and accommodations for autistics. Of course I want to alleviate the suffering my oldest experiences due to his autism. That does not happen when we blithely subscribe to the narrative that mom did x so she gave her kid autism. What benefit does that bring? Why are we insisting on “lowering” the rate of autism and calling it an “epidemic” as if it were a transmissible disease? How does that lead to better lives for those who are autistic? It just doesn’t, and I am furious that they’ve knocked down the gains so many autistics have made in the last several years towards autism acceptance with a single idiotic claim.
Anyways. Thanks for taking the time to wrestle with and write this, and for the commenters sharing their experience as well.
"Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has a number of suspicions and enough data to confirm his biases in his own mind" This right here!
Excellent newsletter Beth ❤️
"Women can stand on business, always." Let's go, Beth!
Beth - as I read this I just wanted to give you a hug. One that lasts at least 20 seconds so that your body relaxes and you start to breathe again. I can just feel the tension you feel in your body and mind in your writing and I just want to give you a moment of peace and rest. I feel this way a lot these days and sometimes I wish someone would just give me a hug and make it stop just for a short while.
Love everything about your post!! It’s exactly how I am feeling…and I related to it all!! Thank you!
This line… yup! Perfection.
It feels like the White House thinks women are delicate little flowers who also have control over every aspect of our children’s lives from the moment of conception forward
Brilliant, Beth. I connected with every sentence.
I appreciated the newsletter today, Beth. I especially liked the "stream of consciousness, conversational, sort of figuring things out as I go" feel of it. Maybe because I so often have a "figuring it out as I go" sense about what I'm doing. So, I enjoyed getting to ride along with you as you went about it. But I was struck near the end when you got to "If I could speak with the President, I would ask him to wait for a press conference that will freak people out until we have more to go on than Bobby’s gut. We’re already a little stressed out here," how that sounded like an approach you (or I or anyone) would take with a "normal" president. But I just don't think there's anything "normal" about what we're dealing with just now. Do you believe he'd give a rat's ass that we're freaked out & stressed? Because I just don't. Consequently, I don't believe "normal" ways of responding will help, not about autism, or Tylenol use, or embarrassing us at the UN (totally agree with you on that!), or indicting Jim Comey, etc. In my mind, we need to be thinking creatively about how to respond to things as they are now, because normal responses will not help. Or so it seems to me.
Hi, it’s me, a reader who commented in January asking for support in getting a D&C for a very wanted pregnancy that did not want to stick around. Here I am, months later, pregnant again and starting my second trimester on Saturday. It won’t be too surprising if I share I’ve been a wreck and have had a hard time finding joy when I’m spending most of my energy waiting for the pain around the corner constantly. Toughing it out is all I do, all I have been doing. Why did I lose my previous pregnancies? No clue, you’ll be fine, just tough out the pain of the medication and the surgery and emotional damage. What’s with that bleeding some people get early in pregnancy? No one really knows, tough it out. What if I feel so sick I consider how to run out of an important meeting? Oh well, tough it out. Why do I have to give this food up, or switch topical acne medications, or change workout habits? The data isn’t great but why risk it, right? Tough it out.
I am tired, more so because this tiny thing that somehow has a heartbeat and a brain and moves on an ultrasound is sucking it all out of me. And to be clear, I love it and am happy to have gotten this far. But also, “news” like this from our government undermines everything and makes it a battle. I’m tired of everything being a battle.
I took an Advil the day of my first doctor’s appointment around 7 weeks because my headache was so bad, probably because of the anxiety that I’d been having over if this one would even be viable, and I didn’t know that I shouldn’t have taken that. But I hadn’t even gotten the shockingly short list of approved medications and wouldn’t until after that appointment. All to say what Beth did so much better: we’re already all toughing it out, but we can change if we need to. I’m giving up my favorite Jersey Mike’s sandwiches for this pregnancy among other more legit things, so put this BS on the pile of things I get to worry about I guess.
Alexa, I see you and hear you. I believe, for every ‘heart’ on your vulnerable post, the person who clicked the hollow shape to fill it grieves the losses with you and will carry hope alongside you - and for you, if necessary. ((( hugs )))
Sending you all the love, Alexa ❤️
Beth, so often your words & your perspective breathe life into me when I’m struggling with all the things. Loved this so much.
My husband just told me there are people taking videos of themselves taking handfuls of Tylenol, then having living failure. I said I'm sure there are videos of people putting Tylenol or something that looks like Tylenol in their mouths, then spitting it out after they are done recording. Miss me with the tide pods.
Thank you for this. For the record, I was a very anxious first-time pregnant mom back in 1999. Zero alcohol, zero caffeine, zero soft cheeses, zero deli meat, zero over-the-counter medications. If they told me not to do something, I didn't, because it meant I could control the outcome (lol sweet 27-year-old me). Our son was born healthy, APGAR scores of 7 and 9, hit all his milestones early that first year, clearly because I did everything right. Gold stars and blue ribbons all around!! <sarcasm font>
Between ages 1 and 2, he started to withdraw. Lots of hand wringing and worrying and specialists, the TL;DR is he was diagnosed with autism at age 2. Self-contained special education his whole life. He will be 26 this January and he lives at home, attends a day program, will never live on his own without support (although, for the record, none of us "lives on our own without support" but that's a whole other conversation).
You know who else is on the spectrum? My sister. Her three kids. My brother's son. In hindsight, clearly my dad. I don't know the scientific reason autism exists, why it shows up on some branches of our family tree and not others, whether or not environmental factors play a role. I do know autism exists as part of the tapestry of humanity, and it always has.
🥹 thank you for sharing your experience