Louder Than Words by Jenny mcCarthy

Jenny interviewed on Oprah!
CNN reports on Jenny and her fight!
Another article about Jenny and her son!
It is a wonderful book about her son having autism. You have to put aside all of your preconceptions about a former playboy playmate and read this book especially if you know anyone who is struggling with autism. The statistics given in the book about the increase in autism in the last 10 years is terrifying. It is such a good book and Jenny is such a down to earth and intelligent writer. She talks openly about her sons misdiagnosis and the lack of information offered to her when he was finally properly diagnosed by the best neurologist she could find. True, most of us won't have the financial resources to pay for some of the treatments that Jenny decided to pursue on her own after the state of California and other agencies tried to wait list her and her son for years but she does give a full list of each and every treatment that she tried and thought were useful in the last section of her book along with contact information and web addresses to reach the practitioners or offices. She is very frank and honest in the description of what a struggle her son went through, she doesn't sugar coat it at all. She also doesn't sugar coat the end of her marriage during what was already an unbelievably painful time. She gives lots of resources to check the facts and numbers she gives on Autism in her book, for example; "Dr. Kartzinel had told me that there are children who dramatically improve with something as simple as an anti fungal, once the overgrowth of yeast is removed from their body.", "I saw a study by Dr. Sammy Suissa at McGill University showing that the rate of autism increased to a high of 27.3 cases for every 100,000 kids two years after vaccination, whereas of the unvaccinated kids, only 1.45 cases of autism were found.", "In the seventies, it used to be ONE IN TEN THOUSAND children were autistic. Now it's ONE IN A HUNDRED AND FIFTY. What will it take for people to wake the hell up? One in five children will be autistic, and then what-we can't procreate anymore? If I were a young woman wanting to get pregnant, I would be very afraid....very..afraid." She is very clear in her book that she is not a doctor or a medical professional and she also states over and over again that not all treatments work for all autistic children. Some of the mothers in the UCLA program she was involved with made no or little changes with the same treatments and programs Jenny had her son on. She also gives these women credit sating that they weren't giving up and were just as hopeful as before even after the failed treatments. She also talks about some mothers that seem to enjoy playing the victim card and complain about not being able to shop or have a life like they did before autism. Funny, I bet lots of people would have though Jenny McCarthy would have fallen into the latter group herself but instead she says this is the book she was meant to write that she feels it is her mission to be an advocate for all of these children and their families. She is a great author and a wonderful advocate. I recommend this book enthusiastically. Not only is it informative, it is a great read, I honestly couldn't put it down.