Jenny McCarthy Talks About Autistic Son
Jenny McCarthy vividly remembers the harrowing realization three years ago that her son Evan, now 5, was autistic.
“It started with hand flapping,” McCarthy, 34, told Oprah Winfrey on Tuesday’s show. There were other telltale indications in her child’s behavior, but as McCarthy said, “You only look for the good signs.”
Then came the day when Evan suffered a seizure, which doctors – once she got him to the hospital – blamed on a fever. Three weeks later, however, Evan got “a stoned look on his face” while McCarthy and the boy were visiting her parents.
This was another seizure, she thought, “but this one is different. He’s not convulsing.” Instead, “foam was coming out of his mouth, (and) and after a few minutes, I felt his heart stop,” she said.
When the paramedics arrived, she told them about Evan’s heart. “They looked at me like I was crazy. I don’t know why,” she said. Only, as they discovered for themselves, the child’s heart was no longer beating, so they administered CPR.
“Why, God? Why me … Why? Why? Why?” McCarthy recalled thinking in those desperate moments, but then, she said, an inner voice came over her. “Everything’s going to come out okay.”
Because there was no pediatric hospital near her parents’ home, Evan and McCarthy drove three hours back to Los Angeles, during which time Evan suffered several more seizures.
Initially, neurologists believed Evan had epilepsy, by McCarthy’s “mommy instinct,” as she called it, thought that not to be the case. Finally, a doctor said to her, “‘I’m sorry, but your son has autism.’ My mommy instinct said, ‘This man is right.’ I didn’t want to believe him … but … this man is right. I felt like death.”
McCarthy, however, sprung into action. She researched autism on the Internet and was struck by a message that popped up in a corner of the screen. Autism, it told her, “is reversible and treatable.”
She worked diligently with her son, putting him on a wheat-free, dairy-free and artificial-additive-free diet to detox his system, and her mantra – which she says is producing results – is “hope, faith, recovery.”
McCarthy, who first revealed Evan’s condition last May on The View, has put her experiences down in a just-published book, Louder Than Words: A Mother’s Journey in Healing Autism.
Evan is McCarthy’s son with director John Asher. The couple divorced in 2005, after six years of marriage – which, McCarthy told Winfrey, was strained because of their son’s condition.
But, McCarthy also said, there’s a new man in her life: Jim Carrey. “He’s the ‘funny, cute guy’ in the book,” she told Winfrey and the TV audience. And, she stressed, he is there for Evan.
On the Web site for the Oprah show, McCarthy and actress Holly Robinson Peete, who has discussed her own child’s autism with PEOPLE, will answer questions related to the condition. Click here.
“Keep going,” said McCarthy as final advice to parents of autistic children. “And we’re going to be there online.”
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9 Responses to “Jenny McCarthy Talks About Autistic Son”
Hi there, Long Blond Animal. My Dicky is a bit Autistic, can you help me please?
Comment made on September 19th, 2007 at 10:41 pmI don’t think that people should take what Jenny is saying about autism to heart, yes maybe diet changed helped her son who is a high functioning autistic child to heart. Many families of children with autism have tried everything to bring their children out of their world and do not. She was lucky but so many families have a life long battle with this disorder that as majority of studies point to is genetic not from diet or vacinations
Comment made on October 1st, 2007 at 6:53 pmYes, it is true that a diet alone won’t help many autistics kids, but it is a small thing to try to see if there will be benefits. I have a friend that won’t even try a change in diet at all. She says it won’t work. Well, isn’t it worth a try to see if it will help? If I was the parent of an autistic child I would be trying everything in my power to see what could help them.
Comment made on October 2nd, 2007 at 12:12 pmJenny, I admire you very much and I wish that I was as capable of dealing with my son as you have proved to be.
Comment made on October 7th, 2007 at 12:40 amMy son is now 46 years old. He was diagnosed as Autistic when very few people had ever heard of it. He went into treatment at Bellevue Hospital Psych Ward for children when he was three years old. My ex-husband was a surgical resident at Bellevue at the time.
The marriage broke up when my son was about four years old but we were not divorced until he was 10. At that time my son was institutionalized and he has been in the same place now for 25 years. A few years ago he had a seizure and he has been failing in health ever since. I feel that the anti-seizure drugs that they are giving him are making him act out and are harming him greatly. The Psychaiatrists do not listen to me and just keep giving him more. I feel that I must get him help elsewhere but I am having great difficulty in this. I don’t know where to turn. They tell me at his place of residence that he is too violent to go anywhere else but I am not listening to them. I would appreciate any suggestions. My son is a beautiful man and I love him very much; I have tried my best but I get worn down.
I am sorry to hear about you, Jenna Mccartneyh, et all but do not dispair. Try a naturapathic doctor. #Western medicine, doctors of any training do not understand autism at all. 70% to 80% of all western doctors are asking parents of autistic children who are still at home with the parents, to visit their doctors and explain their home treatments to these doctors; they doctors really want to know how these reversals are done.
I, too, have an autistic son who lives in a special home four hours away from me. I hardly ever see him. I have not money living in my home alone, divorced. Ian, autistic, has a brother, Joey, who lives with his mom. Joey is ok.
I’ll be getting into a $350 boarding house soon so that I can put the majority of my money into Ian, if the courts and Children’s Aid will allow it to happen. I was away, excorted, for one full year when my ex wife put both of our children in Children’s Aid and then foster care. I couldn’t take them; that’s the way they do it in Canada. 90% of the men lose their children.
IAN;
Gluten free and cassien free products are essential but mostly gluten free. Your child should be hair tested for heavy metals first to determine how much and exactly what type of metals are present – probably all twenty. Mercury is the worst; molecules or mercury attach themselves to about 97% of the human body. Chelation therapy and bentonite clay pawder at used to remove these metals. A regular diet of proper vitimins along with a supplement of omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids, vitamin B12, selenium(check this one out first) and zinc. Zinc is removed when the heavy metals are removed and it is used effectively for the immune system therefore it must be injested again.
There is much more to know and I have done a tremendous amount of researth. Can these children be reversed? Yes, in many if not most cases depending on serverity and age. Find a naturapathic doctor see your child first as he/she is the only one who can put your child on the right track. The appointment will consist of testing and removing of heavy metals from the body with chelates and bentonite clay bath is used to remove heavy metals from the brain and nervous system. He/she will also explain about ‘leaky gut syndrome’ to you which is part & part of the problem. With this information I will leave you. If I can help in any other way please email me — gmiles@sympatico.ca —.
Graham and Ian Miles
Comment made on October 7th, 2007 at 7:25 pmPS: I have a feeling your young lad will be fine. Your next step will be getting him enrolled in a regular school and then the fun begins.
Thank you for what you have written. I can’t show you enough gratitude. Everything you have to do I already have in the making. Ian is still young yet for, probably, a complete reversal; I hope for his sake. I already several naturopathic doctors. I am waiting for a reply from those people who will be taking care of his health. I also found some stores that sell the proper food for him. Anyway, I could ramble on forever about Ian. He is in a special home for his problem and two of the other children already have a special diet. Ian is still being given the wrong foods; I checked that myself. His physician, dietition and his pediatrician are all wrong because they think they have the answers, but you and I know differently. They just never learned it and I think there is a little pride problem regarding their lack of knowledge and the knowledge of a naturalist. Perhaps one day all the doctors will share their respective patients with each other according to specialties and the country, or world, will be a better place for these kids.
Again
Comment made on October 11th, 2007 at 2:24 pmThank you
Graham Miles
My son was diagnosed at 23 month’s. He has had 10 moths of early intensive behavioral treatment. He is on a GF/CF diet. He just started preschool today in a special autism preschool. He is now 3 year’s old. He also just recently had 2 seizure’s, Dr.’s said they were febrile. I followed up with all the tests. Any advice?
Comment made on November 27th, 2007 at 12:12 amThere has been some great work done with an alternative treatment called LDN – From Jacquelyn McCandless, MD: LDN is low dose naltrexone, a generic, FDA-approved opiate antagonist that has been used widely in its regular doses to combat drug addiction for more than 20 years. At less than one tenth the usual dose, LDN has been found to be an effective immune system modulator that is non-toxic, non-addicting and inexpensive, with only a small capsule or small amount of transdermally applied cream once daily at bedtime needed. I originally wanted it for immune modulation/enhancement, but the first and most noticeable effects are an increased socialization and language facility for most children. The immune effects take longer to show up, and my studies showed that even after 16 weeks some markers were still not enhanced. Whether this is because it only helps certain aspects of the immune system or just takes longer for these changes to take place, the jury is still out – more testing is needed. However, some important immune markers were elevated in the majority of children tested, and a sizeable number of parents report improvement in overall health of their children.Â
Should you try it on your child?
Comment made on January 14th, 2009 at 6:15 amSince LDN is non-toxic and inexpensive, I believe all autistic children should be given a trial to see how your child responds. There is no test to see who might benefit; a trial is the only way. About 15 percent may show hyperactivity and insomnia when first started; especially those who have not been on dietary restriction are more likely to have this side effect. This usually subsides by a week or less. Lowering the dose helps in some, restricting diet helps in others, and there are always a few who cannot tolerate it. It must be prescribed and in these tiny doses it must be compounded, as it normally comes only in 50 mg tablets. 75-80% of parents in our database report positive experiences, especially in children’s socialization and language. Anyone may join: the Autism_LDN Yahoo Group to check out other parents’ experiences in our database to help you in your decision to try it.
it is sad to see how snake-oil peddlers (homeopathic, naturopathic, alternative “doctors”) and conspiracy theorists (for example, the anti-vax crowd) will latch onto desperate mothers who are willing to try anything to help their autistic children. i can’t really blame these moms, but really, the sooner they face the facts, the better it will be for their kids. fake treatments waste money and time and may make you feel like you are doing something helpful, but in the long run get you nowhere.
Comment made on June 6th, 2009 at 8:27 pmLeave a Comment