Alternative Approaches to Autism

According to the CDC's December, 2009 ADDM autism prevalence report, 1 in every 110 American children is diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder; for boys, the odds increase to 1 in 70. The Autism Society estimates that the lifetime cost of caring for a child with autism ranges from $3.5 million to $5 million; and the United States spends almost $90 billion annually on ASD related costs for research, educational spending, housing, transportation, insurance costs and non-covered expenses and Medicaid waivers for autism, not to mention related therapeutic services and caregiver costs (CDC, 2010).

Although many resources are available for parents of children with Autism, many are still desperate to find alternative techniques and therapies that could help their child move even further. In fact, 1 in 5 parents of children with autism are currently relying on some sort of non-conventional therapy for autism, according to research presented at the annual Pediatric Academic Societies meeting in Vancouver this weekend (Thornton, 2010).

The most common alternative treatments for autism involve placing affected children on a special diet, with quite a bit of anecdotal evidence, at least, showing that special diets help improve the behavior and quality of life among those with ASD. The most common special diets among children with autism are gluten free, dairy free or both (Thornton, 2010).

Diets, picky eating, trouble in digestion and food intake are hot topics in ASD community and this subject has been discussed previously on this ; refer to: this post.


To read more about alternative approaches to autism, you can find this article by the Dallas Healthy Trends Examiner.