We have three children, two boys and a girl. I noticed that when our eldest son Jared, aged eight was at playschool, he was invited to play at other peoples houses sometimes. Whereas when Kalen was at playschool he was never invited anywhere at all, in fact I was definitely shunned.

I have never been sure whether the other mothers thought autism may have been catching or whether they were afraid he would go mad and injure their children, despite him being far nicer and more gentle than a lot of the other typical kids. My daughter Talia is now two and I have decided not to take her to any mother and toddler groups or even send her to playschool until she is nearly four, because I am not having her vaccinated with MMR, and I figure if she doesn’t mix too much, she may not be so exposed. Although Talia is able to talk well and shows no sign so far of anything amiss, I think it turns you into a bit of a recluse when you have a child with more than average challenges and I don’t want to be shunned by the playschool mothers again.

It is coming up to the fourth anniversary of Kalen’s withdrawal from us and it makes me thoughtful and sad. We appear to be no further forward, in fact Kalen’s sleeping has become much worse. He wakes up for the day at 4.30am and drives us mad with his screeching for junk food, if he finds any. I have not contacted PEACH, I guess I am afraid that they will say that it is ‘too late’ or something because he is nearly six, I must pluck up the courage to do so though.

North Dorset Health have been very unhelpful and our non-interested GP told us that Kalen was not entitled to gluten-free bread (at £5 a loaf) on prescription or anything else for that matter, and that ‘that is what the Disability Benefit is for’. We went to see a private GP to try and get testing or at least a referral, but have only managed to meet more brick walls. I have my own health problems - thyroid doesn’t work and I have diabetes - so am tired out all of the time, let alone dealing with three children, one of whom is perhaps more taxing than the others, and I’m quite old! I dread the school holidays - there are no out-of-school activities for children like Kalen.

It is easy to become isolated. Kalen goes to a special school and is in a class with four other boys - he has a main teacher and two support teachers, so the ratio is not too bad, but because of the huge catchment area, the children get to and from school in buses, so I don’t have a chance to meet the parents. Before Kalen went to school, I had all sorts of people visiting - health visitor, portage worker, speech therapists, etc. then when he hit four, they all disappeared.

There is a group which meets monthly in Dorchester which is for parents of autistic or aperger’s Syndrome children, which at first seemed like a helpful thing, but then I realised that having a non-verbal autistic child is totally different from having a child with aspergers, and have so far not found anyone at all with the same problems that I have. Some have worse, true. The group also meets at 7.30 which is bedtime for my children (this is the aim, anyhow) and I don’t know of a soul who would babysit Kalen when he is awake because he cannot make his needs known and won’t sit for a story or anything. As a result, I stay home and put the kids to bed (I’m better at it than Steve) whilst Steve goes to the meetings. With all of these people around the country with autistic kids, should we have a huge get together in Battersea Park or take over Alton Towers or something? Imagine it, thousands upon thousands of autistic children in one place, all spinning in circles and ignoring each other.

I read with interest about the potential homeopathic substitute - I mentioned this months and months ago but didn’t know who to take it to, and I am pleased as anything that it looks as if something has happened - I shall definitely be sending off for some (when I can find my cheque book - I think someone’s eaten it). What I don't understand is, how come the company isn’t charging mega-bucks for it, like everyone else seems to be doing? Are these the first people to have moral fibre? I thought that everyone had their own sneaky agenda and it seems unreal that the company are doing this for a reasonable price. Unbelievable. No glory/profit? Fantastic. Have I become cynical or what? Ferring were just horrible to us. Maybe they’ve all realised that we will lynch them if they do not behave.

SECRETIN

Secretin, it’s just fantastic that parents have said to the health professionals - ‘stuff you’ and we are going to beat them all down. I have come across all sorts of stupid things - like people say, ‘well it hasn’t been tested, you know’ or (worse) ‘the doctors don’t believe it’. My answer is ‘when your child is screeching, screaming, beating his head on the wall and pooing on the floor at 4 in the morning, you’ll try anything you can get your hands on, tested or not’. After all, up until about 25 years ago, those eminent medical professionals whom we all love and trust were 100% certain that autism was caused by the mother being unloving ... yeah, right.

I admit to being the world’s worst cook, so am having trouble making anything edible for Kalen, but even I have managed a cake - I use potato flour which makes it moist. All the kids eat it, actually, so it can’t be that bad. The problem is with gluten-free is the cardboard-like texture of the bread and cakes, and the fact that it just doesn’t rise so I was pleased with the results using potato flour. I just ended up with a couple of slabs of what looked like house bricks. When I threw them away they were almost too heavy to lift into the bin. I am going to approach a bakery and see if they can make me some things because Delia Smith I am not. My children have unfortunately not had the pleasure of home-baked cookies, although in my case I think they are all the better for that.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SECRETIN GIVEN AS AN INFUSION COMPARED TO A HOMEOPATHIC FORM? This is perhaps the most common question we are asked. Secretin is a hormone located in the wall of the upper intestine. It was the first hormone to be discovered, named because its release initiated an effect in another part of the body. Secretin is responsible for neutralising the acid contents of the stomach. This is vital because the intestine has an alkaline environment and digestion cannot proceed until these acid contents are removed. As stomach contents arrive in the intestine they trigger sensors in the gut wall which then release secretin into the blood. It travels to the pancreas and initiates the release of an alkaline solution of bicarbonate back into the upper intestine, neutralising the stomach contents. If the secretin pathway is disrupted, for whatever reason, the process above may be inhibited with a consequential impact on digestion. The full effect of this may be experienced well beyond the gut. If some feature of autism implicates a disruption of secretin then normalising the action of the hormone should contribute to improvement. Victoria Beck was the first mother to witness this with her son. By giving secretin as a challenge test to the pancreas she noticed the remarkable improvement in her son’s autistic symptoms. This has been repeated with many other children and it clearly works in some cases. Hence adding more compensates for the disruption experienced. What if we could simply sort out the disruption? Well that is exactly what the homeopathic form of secretin does. In fact this is the only way it can possibly work. For it in no way adds any new secretin into the child’s body. All it does is to send a message jogging the child to normalise its own hormone imbalance. This is only part of the cure but the results in some cases are quite impressive. Tony Pinkus Ainsworths Homoeopathic Pharmacy