Healing and Preventing Autism: A Complete Guide [Paperback]

Jenny McCarthy (Author), Dr. Jerry Kartzinel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 30, 2010

The must-have New York Times bestseller that tells you what to do now for a child with autism, ADD, ADHD, OCD, and other disorders

For any child with challenges, early intervention is essential and parents need a plan that they can implement right away. Jenny McCarthy, one of the country's leading autism advocates, has teamed up with top autism specialist Jerry Kartzinel, M.D., to offer a prescriptive guide to the healing therapies and treatments that have turned the lives of so many children around. While autism cases have grown a whopping 6000 percent since the 1970s, the medical community is still waking up to the epidemic and parents need tools to begin healing their children and educating their doctors, instead of waiting six months to a year to get an appointment with a specialist. In this book, parents will learn about the following:

•The biomedical diet and supplement protocol

•Where to find alternative therapies and how to implement them

•A list of tests any doctor can perform

•Studies to show your doctor that will help make the case that they need to support your efforts

•Advice for preventing autism during pregnancy and the early years by looking at family history of allergies, depression, and autoimmune disorders as well as Mom's chemical exposure

Whether your child has autism, ADD, ADHD, OCD, or an autism spectrum disorder, Healing and Preventing Autism is the authoritative reference book with the tools to heal your child.

Editorial Reviews

Review

About the Author

Jenny McCarthy is the New York Times bestselling author of Belly Laughs: The Naked Truth About Pregnancy and Childbirth and Baby Laughs: The Naked Truth About the First Year of Mommyhood.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Plume; Reprint edition (March 30, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0452295920
• ISBN-13: 978-0452295926
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (93 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #150,867 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jenny McCarthy is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Belly Laughs, Baby Laughs, and Louder Than Words, among others. The former host of MTV's hugely popular dating show Singled Out, McCarthy began her career as a Playboy model, before launching a high-profile comedic television and film career. She has been featured everywhere, from Time magazine to the cover of Rolling Stone; has appeared on virtually every television talk show, from Larry King Live to Howard Stern; and is a frequent guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show. She has also served as a spokesperson for Weight Watchers.

In addition to her work in the world of healing and preventing autism, she is the co-creator, with practicing speech/language pathologist Sarah Clifford Scheflen, of Teach2Talk, a series of DVDs for children.

Born in Chicago, McCarthy currently resides in Los Angeles, California, with her son, Evan. You can follow her on Twitter @JennyMcCarthy.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

106 of 134 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars GREAT BOOK FOR TREATMENT!!, April 8, 2009

By 

Choosy ""A mother is not a person to lean... - See all my reviews

This review is from: Healing and Preventing Autism: A Complete Guide (Hardcover)

For those that wonder if this stuff is TRUE or junk science. ok, here is some FACT for you. My child was completely nonverbal from 13 months to 7 years old. At 18 months she got OT and speech therapy an hour a day 3 days a week until she was 5. Still NO words. ST and OT didn't help at all. I worked with her everyday after the therapist left for hours doing EVERYTHING I was showed and more. She stopped getting OT and speech at 5 because of funding. Still having low functioning autism at seven years old and not being able to afford other therapies I decided to try the GF/CF diet w/ a full spectrum enzyme, magnesium w/ Vitamin D, codliver oil, Calcium, GABA and B6 etc and in 4 YES I SAID 4 and ONLY 4 months she went from NO WORDS to 50 well understood words with NO speech, OT or ABA at all. We continued this adding more supplements/ vitamins and now at nine she is speaking in long sentences, answers and asks who, what, when and where questions and has a HUGE vocabulary of wow 2,000 or more words. Reads well and oh did I forget to say she could not be potty trained and was still using pull ups at 7 years and when her speech came in and "tummy" felt better so did her understanding of the potty and was potty trained within 5 months and 6 months she didn't even need a pullup on at night!!! It was getting to the point I seen myself changing her diaper for life. That's how hopeless it felt, but THANK GOD I tried bio. It was the best thing we ever done for her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BUT I will say this. If you do not take out ALL the GF/CF from EVERYTHING. It WILL NOT WORK. You can't go to restaurants, ordering off the menu because of contamination from the Gluten coming out of even a cleaned pan when heated. If you want it to work you MUST go all the way. Make it, take it meals. It's hard for us that isn't really "cooks" so to speak, but if I can learn it anyone can and the reward at the end is priceless!! So for the people that say it's junk science I laugh at you, for I lived it. NO ONE ELSE WAS FIXING HER. Everyday I seen my child get better and now life is better!!!!

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This kind of nonsense is dangerous for children, May 20, 2011

By 

Ryouji_Kaji - See all my reviews

This review is from: Healing and Preventing Autism: A Complete Guide (Paperback)

As an autistic adult and someone who works with autistic child this kind of nonsense makes me sad and sick to my stomach. There are some studies that do support some improvement in some autistic individuals when a specific diet (no gluten) is followed. I've tried this myself and had no visible or measurable results. It has however worked for some of the children I've worked with. Chelation therapy is very dangerous and should only be used in cases of heavy metal poisoning under the direct care of a qualified professional. Giving children supplements that are in no way regulated, tested, or FDA approved is dangerous and can put a child at risk.

Testimony after testimony has been given that states in clear black and white that vaccines are in no way linked to autism. This brand of pseudo-science is being propagated by a woman with no medical, scientific, or psychological training. Everyone wants answers as to why autism happened in their family. Everyone wants a bright future where their child is magically cured of their autism. Autism is life changing for everyone who has been touched by it.

The truth is that there is no straight, easy answer and there is no cure. Autism is heartbreaking, painful, and incredibly wonderful all at the same time. Children with autism are not broken and they do not need to be "fixed". These children can and love to be taught. They are the joy of my life. I celebrate and love my autism and the strengths that it has brought me. These kinds of books that blend some scientific fact and a lot of conjecture cheapen the work that I do and marginalize everything I have accomplished for myself as an autistic individual.

28 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Jenny McCarthy is really starting to bug me...., July 13, 2009

By 

Kiwi (Mississauga, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Healing and Preventing Autism: A Complete Guide (Hardcover)

And it's not so much her books, which have all been quite readable, if rather general and not particularly accurate, so much as the "before me there was nothing" attitude which the publishers blurb on this book exemplifies.

The blurb for this book states - "Jenny McCarthy--whose bestselling books Louder Than Words and Mother Warriors told the stories of healing children with autism--teams up with a preeminent autism doctor to write the first book on a remarkably effective treatment."

OK, so what's this FIRST BOOK NONSENSE. This book was published fairly recently. So what about these books then? Is McCarthy suggesting these are not relevant, or is she just unaware... or is it her marketing department at work. Either way, it's annoying and egocentric. Other authors in this field are more than willing to share credit and acknowledgements of others work in the field. All of the below in fact.

Children with Starving Brains: A Medical Treatment Guide for Autism Spectrum Disorder

Healing the New Childhood Epidemics: Autism, ADHD, Asthma, and Allergies: The Groundbreaking Program for the 4-A Disorders

Changing the Course of Autism: A Scientific Approach for Parents and Physiciansor

Unraveling the Mystery of Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorder: A Mother's Story of Research & Recovery

And there's quite a few more. I just used these as examples. Like I said, no real argument about the content, altho as with her book on pregnancy, it's not advice you'd want to follow, more of a light read, but it's the way she promotes herself that annoys me.