Easing the effects of Autism: A diet and a debate

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By Ann McGlynn | Wednesday, February 28, 2007 1:11 AM CST | () comments

(Photos by Kevin E. Schmidt/QUAD-CITY TIMES) Keegan Walker, who is autistic, reads a book during his free time in kindergarten class at Franklin Elementary School, Moline. His mother has turned to “biomedical” therapies, such as a restricted diet, to ease the effects of autism.

Keegan gets a puppet from teacher Tamia Keppy during his “half-birthday” party.

His favorite dish is rice, peas and chicken. He’s a banana freak and loves his “line chips,” which are really potato strips. What Keegan Walker does not eat is anything containing wheat or milk. The 6-year-old Moline boy has undergone a low level of treatment known as chelation to remove metals from his body, and he takes supplements and enzymes to boost his nutrition.

Keegan is autistic. His mother, after hours of research, chooses to include the dietary restrictions, supplements, enzymes and chelation therapy among the more traditional treatments, such as speech therapy, for her son.

“I am going to do everything I can to help my kid, even if it’s not a respected thing in the medical field, to make him better,” Katie Walker-Wiege said. “We foot the bill. Even if I go into debt, I don’t care. If I look back and say I didn’t try everything ... There are some people who think I am crazy for doing the things I do.”

With autism growing as a public health concern, thousands of parents face bewildering and often-conflicting claims over the mysterious neurological disorder’s origins. Those parents are often on the front lines of experimenting with their own mix of treatments.

“We almost become our own doctors,” Walker-Wiege said.

In the past few years, a good share of the discussion and debate within the autism community has focused on thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative that is being used less and less in vaccines. Many contend that the compound contributes to autism. But several organizations, including the Institute of Medicine and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have found no relationship.

Meanwhile, a growing amount of scientific research is targeting potential environmental causes, the role genetics play and the effectiveness of alternative treatments.

The National Institute of Mental Health launched three clinical studies on autism late last year. One of the three will examine the “widespread, but unproven, theory” that autism can be treated with chelation therapy to remove heavy metals from the blood.

“Because chelation therapy is not specific for mercury alone, it is important to conduct a systematic, controlled trial to determine whether or not chelation therapy is beneficial or potentially harmful to children with autism,” said Susan Swedo, a physician at the institute.

The institute also announced last week that the first results from the Autism Genome Project show that rare variations in genes may heighten the risk for autism. The project, institute officials said, is “pursuing specific genes and gene variants that contribute to vulnerability to autism. These include explorations of interactions of genes with other genes and with environmental factors … ”

The Institute of Medicine is hosting an April workshop about autism, the environment and research. The workshop will look at “strategies focusing on the potential relationship between autism and an array of environmental exposures.”

And a federal court is set to hear arguments this summer on claims made by families of autistic children to the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.

David Kirby, a journalist who wrote “Evidence of Harm: Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic — A Medical Controversy,” is encouraged by what he sees as an upswing in autism research and discussion. But at the same time, he said, “I am getting a little tired of waiting. We should have had this figured out a long time ago.”

Kirby became interested in autism while researching a magazine article during 2002. He heard about a group of parents in Los Angeles with autistic children who were using alternative therapies.

Parents just like Katie Walker-Wiege. Kids just like Keegan.

The treatments Keegan responds to, his mom sticks with. The ones on which he does not show improvement, she stops.

With the assistance of a teacher’s aide, Keegan attends a regular education kindergarten classroom at Franklin Elementary School in Moline. “He’s incredibly smart,” Walker-Wiege said of her son. “He’s exactly where he is supposed to be. It’s the social things he struggles with.”

But he has made one good friend, a child who has come to their house to play, she said. “Making a friend has been amazing for him,” she added.

Walker-Wiege does not believe Keegan would be in a regular education classroom without his therapies — all of them.

“I think the diet alone made an amazing difference,” she said.

Ann McGlynn can be contacted at (563) 383-2336 or amcglynn@qctimes.com.