James Striding is a pseudonym.

Our child has just turned 4. He was recently diagnosed in October 2011 with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), 2 years after he began receiving early intervention services for what we parents originally thought was a speech delay.

I'm a bit of a nerd; I have a PhD in biochemistry and out of habit go into research literature for various health related issues. Be warned: some of my posts may be littered with jargon but I'll try not to do that too much.

I was recently talking with a parent who has a 20-year old daughter with autism. She said that when they first received the diagnosis, a friend told them to be careful, that this is a field where you will find more charlatans and snake oil salesmen than anywhere else. Well, maybe next to cancer (a field I used to research in.)

I am discovering this to be true. There is so much false hope and quackery out there, that it is frightening how much we can spend in such a small amount of time. Even I wasn't immune, and I was trained as a scientist. I felt better, though, when I read this MD's confessions with quackery. Hell, if MDs and PhDs fall prey, imagine the number of parents who fall prey. I'm not against hope, I'm not against doing "everything we can" to help our children. I'm against falling prey to quacks who use anecdotes and hyped up stories of miracle cures and misleading parents with promises no one can consistently deliver (the key word is consistent.)

I'm using this blog to share our journey, but more often I use it to share news and blogs that I really like or think is important.