According to the background material presented to the Committee by Congressman Burton, “When the Committee began its oversight investigation in 1999, autism was thought to affect 1 in 500 children.” In 2002, when the hearing was held, autism was thought to affect 1 in 250 children. CDC data from 2010 indicates that 1 in 110 children have an autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

As I was leaving the hearing, I saw a woman standing outside holding a sign detailing the $30,000 a year it cost to care for her autistic child.  According to a 2007 study by Michael L. Gantz, MS, PhD, “The Lifetime Distribution of the Incremental Societal Costs of Autism,” autism costs our society “upwards of $35 billion in direct (both medical and nonmedical) and indirect costs to care for all individuals diagnosed each year over their lifetimes.”

For families this translates into direct medical costs estimated at $29,000 a year; direct non-medical costs of between $38,000 and $43,000 a year; and indirect costs, such as lost wages for parents, of $39,000 to $130,000 a year. Read one family’s story, “The High Cost of Autism” by Theresa Wrangham.

With these sobering numbers in mind, shock waves are reverberating through the autism community because of recent news of proposed changes in the definition of autism. The American Psychiatric Association is in the process of editing the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and their expert panel is currently reassessing the definition of autism. It is expected that the panel will tighten this definition and thus reduce the rate of diagnosis.

Proponents for the change contend that the vagueness of the current DSM definition of autism may have contributed to the increase in the diagnosis of autism. Opponents fear that families will be left out in the cold. Changing the definition of autism could effectively end the autism epidemic, according to Fred. R. Volkmar, PhD, director of the Child Study Center at Yale School of Medicine and author of a new analysis of the negative effects of the proposed changes. Quoted in the New York Times of January 20, 2012, Volkmar said, “We would nip it in the bud–think of it that way.”

Writing in The Health Care Blog, Anne Dachel says, “…these children aren’t going away regardless of what we call them…there will be lots of very angry parents who rightly feel that their children mean nothing to the medical establishment whose only aim is to make them disappear.”

Lisa Sykes, founder of CoMeD and mother of a son with autism says, “Deciding to count only some but not all of the children on the autism spectrum is no different than deciding to count some but not all of the children who get hit by a car.  It doesn’t mean they aren’t injured; it just means that we as a society are turning away from the victims and their very real needs.  This manipulation of the autism rates should unite advocates for children and for the disabled to challenge this change in the DSM-V.”

The New York Metro Chapter of the National Autism Association urges families, caregivers, and professionals affected by autism to contact the American Psychiatric Association and other organizations:

American Psychiatric Association

1000 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 1825

Arlington, Va. 22209-3901

1-888-357-7924

apa@psych.org and dsm5@psych.org

Comment on their Facebook page.

Today, January 18, 2012, several major internet sites, including Wikipedia, Reddit and Boing Boing, are dark to protest two new pieces of federal legislation, SOPA and PIPA.

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), House Bill 3261, would allow copyright holders to seek court orders against websites accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement. Proponents of the bill hope to stop the illegal copying of movies and music. Opponents say it would require websites to police their members as well as seriously limit freedom of expression on the internet.

The Senate version of SOPA is The PROTECT IP Act (Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011) or PIPA, Senate Bill 968. A vote on PIPA is scheduled for January 24, 2012.

The bills are supported by The US Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO, among others and are opposed by the Mozilla Corporation, Facebook, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Yahoo, Google, reddit, American Express, Reporters Without Borders, eBay, Google and others.

How would these laws affect us here at Mothering? We routinely publish photos, links and videos uploaded by our community members. While we are always diligent in removing anything that represents a copyright violation when it comes to our attention and include cautions about this in our User Agreement, we might not catch everything. According to opponents of these bills, our entire domain could be taken down due to something erroneously posted by me, another blogger or a member of our forums.

Wikipedia has a good overview of these bills, once the site is viewable again on January 19th. Below are four non-profit sites where you can learn more. Three of the four sites below will also be black today in protest of SOPA and PIPA but their sites will link you to political action tools.

Center for Democracy and Technology

Electronic Frontier Foundation

Reporters Without Borders

Stop the Wall

Whether it’s identity security, as highlighted by this week’s hacking into Zappos customer accounts; personal privacy, as illustrated by the new hit TV series, A Person of Interest; or commercial property vs. personal liberty, as dramatically juxtaposed in SOPA and PIPA, the new frontier is the internet. We need to understand the implications of these and other internet laws and act to protect ourselves and our liberties.

Because optimism is a job requirement for parents, I look for ways to interpret life that do justice to the hope implied by my children’s existence. Yet, pessimism tempts me every day.

The word apocalypse is often used to describe our times and to frighten us into believing that the end is near. I don’t want to believe this so I looked up the word apocalypse in the dictionary and found, to my surprise, that the word does not mean the end of the world at all. The word has come to be associated with the end because The Apocalypse of John, the last book in The New Testament, and other Christian and Jewish texts, contain prophetic visions of imminent destruction.

Apocalypse comes from the Greek word, “apokaluptein,” which means to uncover. According to Wikipedia, apocalypse means “a lifting of the veil or revelation, a disclosure of something hidden from the majority of mankind in an era dominated by falsehood and misconception.”

One could interpret this to mean a new beginning, a fresh start.

The Mayan Calendar ends in 2012, but it also begins again in 2012. Do we see the end or do we see a beginning? We make the choice every day.

First, it’s good to remember how little children really want. A ball in a big box wrapped with lots of paper (could be newspaper) to rip off is always a hit. In a great column from last year, GeekDad identified the 5 Best Toys of All Time:

A Stick

A Box

String

Cardboard Tube

Dirt

I would add toilet paper, pots, pans and wooden spoons to this list.

For great ideas on handmade gifts, check our community thread on The Annual Mothering Homemade Gifts Ideas Contest. It’s six pages and still going. Come vote for your favorite idea.

If you have a budget for store bought gifts, take a look at Mothering’s Natural Toy Review Guide 2011. It includes reviews of Dolls and Doll Houses, Baby Toys and Rattles, Art Supplies, Push, Pull & Ride, Games & Puzzles, Educational and Imaginative Play and Blocks and Stackers.

This is the criterion we used for selecting toys to review:

Must be designed for use by children ages infant-16 years.

Must be made of at least 80% natural or recycled materials.

Must be manufactured in the US or Canada or in a facility outside the US that is proven to provide fair working conditions.

Must meet all current US testing standards.

Toys like these contrast with what the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) calls the Nagging Nine, toys and games most advertised on children’s cable television networks during “Black Friday” week. According to CCFC, “Lego Building Sets, which lead the list, were advertised 415 times during these seven days. “If we want companies to stop advertising to kids, we have to stop rewarding the ones that do,” said CCFC director, Susan Linn. The Nagging Nine is a play on the title of Mothering’s article, Why They Whine by Gary Ruskin, an exclusive report on how advertising to children is designed to make them whine for new toys.

If you want to support artisan toy manufacturers who “preserve unique handmade and small batch toys, clothes and all manner of children’s goods in the USA,” check out the Handmade Toy Alliance. Make a donation to the organization or support the members with your purchases.

See the natural wooden toys that we just added to the Mothering Shop. The educational toys, arts and crafts and kids room furniture are made by Guidecraft, a 40-year-old company and leader in the industry.

Buying with a conscience doesn’t have to be cumbersome. There are plenty of companies deserving of our respect and our patronage. We just have to know where to look. Let me know how you keep your integrity intact during the holidays.

I’ve been receiving unsolicited emails from a neighbor telling me where I can get the flu vaccine. Last week when I went to Walgreen’s there were signs up all over the store urging me to get vaccinated. The excessive marketing of the flu vaccine can make it hard to know your own mind.

This is especially true for pregnant women. Up until recently pregnancy was a contraindication to the flu vaccine; now it is recommended for pregnant women. Generally when we are pregnant we want to refrain from ingesting drugs or receiving invasive procedures. The current flu recommendation can seem contradictory.

One of the contradictory things about the flu vaccine is that it must be created newly every year in anticipation of the upcoming flu season so it is, by nature, not that effective. The CDC says that the influenza vaccine is 60% effective for all age groups combined. The swine flu vaccine only has an overall efficacy of 40 to 45%.  In addition, 80% of illnesses that appear to be flu are not, in fact, flu and of the 20% that are, most resolve on their own.

Another concern for pregnant women considering the flu vaccine are its additives. Flu vaccines still contain mercury in the form of the preservative thimerosal, which has been taken out of vaccines for children due to health concerns. In addition, flu vaccines can contain adjuvants, an additive that primes the immune system. Adjuvants have not been tested on pregnant women and many contain squalene (shark liver oil), implicated in autoimmune disease in animals and/or polysorbate 80, implicated in infertility in animal studies. In addition, flu vaccines are recommended for pregnant women after 14 weeks because of fear of possible miscarriage.

I’m old fashioned and want to inform pregnant woman. I asked Jennifer Margulis, who wrote The Vaccine Debate, to investigate flu vaccines for pregnant women. We’re featuring her hard hitting, exclusive article, What You’re Doctor Isn’t Telling You About the Pregnancy and the Flu Vaccine in a Vaccination Special Report that includes other articles and resources.

Some of you may have already gotten the flu vaccine; others may still be debating. As long as you are informed about your options, whatever decision you make will be right. I hope that you find our new article helpful in making your decision.

Hailed as a “breath of fresh air” by Steven LaTourette (Rep-OH)), the bill effectively blocks school lunch standards that would limit French fries, pizza and salt and increase the use of whole grains. It also allows tomato paste to be counted as one of the required vegetables in federally subsidized school meals. I’m not making this up.

It’s pitiful to think that we have to wage a national campaign to remind our representatives that healthy food for our children is important. But, even if we did, it wouldn’t make a difference. Congress is beholden to the pizza industry, the potato-growing states, and the American Frozen Food Institute.

So, don’t wait around for Congress to help; do it yourself. There are many inspirational models for healthy school lunches that you can duplicate in your community. Here are just a few:

Download The Rethinking School Lunch Guide from the Center for Ecoliteracy. The guide has ideas and strategies for changing your local school lunch programs.

Chef Ann Cooper, known as the Renegade Lunch Lady, has new ideas, strategies, tips and recipes for transforming school lunch and tools for connecting to a network of people doing the same.

Thelunchbox.org is an online toolkit with free tools and recipes that have worked well for school districts around the country.

Farm to School connects local farms with schools so that healthy meals can be served in school cafeterias.

Cooking with Kids, started by Lyn Walters in the Santa Fe public schools is being duplicated all over the country.

The Edible Schoolyard in Berkeley, California, an initiative to build and share a national food curriculum, is supported by Alice Waters and The Chez Panisse Foundation.

Salad Bars 2 Schools is a comprehensive grassroots public health effort to support salad bars in schools. Partnered with First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move Initiative, the goal of Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools is to fund and award 6000 salad bars by the end of 2013. Schools can apply for grants online.

I’d love to hear what’s working in your community.

When my oldest daughter was ten we would sit on my bed watching the birds at the bird feeders on the porch off my bedroom. We learned to identify our local mountain birds together and later incorporated some aspects of an ornithology course from Cornell University into her homeschooling studies. Now, years later, we both still love watching birds and plan on making a trip after Thanksgiving to Bosque del Apache, a National Wildlife Refuge.

One February I participated in the Great Backyard Bird Count sponsored by The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, which counts specific species of birds. This year, I’m thinking of participating in the Christmas Bird Count sponsored by the Audubon Society, which goes from December 14, 2011 to January 5, 2012.

The Audubon Christmas Bird Count began in 1900 as an alternative to “side hunts,” contests to shoot the most birds on Christmas day. Frank M. Chapman suggested that we count birds rather than kill them and today the Christmas Bird Count helps amateur and professional bird lovers study the long-term health and status of bird populations across North America.

If you are already providing food, water and habitat for the birds in your area or want to, look into the Wildlife Habitat Certification offered by the National Wildlife Federation.

After decades of feeding the birds and leaving out fresh water for them, I now see new generations of birds growing up already accustomed to the bird feeders. Watching them helps me to keep in touch with the wild and learning the names we give them helps me to feel part of it. I’d love to hear about your experiences sharing bird watching with your children.

Harvey Karp’s book The Happiest Baby on the Block has changed the landscape of parenting in the US. As a result of its irresistible title, easy to learn method and national network of 2500 teachers, most new parents in the US today are instructed to swaddle their babies. Despite this popularity, there are growing concerns that swaddling is not the cure-all parents hoped it would be.

Since the publication of the book in 2003, I have increasingly heard reservations from health professionals about its recommendations. A nurse practitioner wonders if the shushing sound recommended in the book can hurt the baby’s ears. A renowned neonatologist worries that preventing a baby from flapping his or her arms to cool down might hurt temperature regulation. And, more recently I began to hear that routine swaddling had adverse effects on breastfeeding.

As a result of these concerns, I commissioned Gussie Fauntleroy to write an article on swaddling, which we’re releasing today. It is accompanied by a piece by renowned lactation consultant, Nancy Mohrbacher. And, our web editor, Melanie Mayo, has put together a special report on swaddling.

For even more coverage of the subject, read Mohrbacher’s exceptional critique of swaddling and debate with Dr Karp on its merits in the International Journal of Childbirth Education. She looks at alarming research: Swaddling newborns delays the first breastfeeding and leads to less effective sucking. Swaddling during the early months puts an infant at risk for respiratory illness, hip dysplasia, overheating and SIDS. And, finally, a small, 2010 study showed The Happiest Baby interventions ineffective in reducing crying.

Take a breath. Many parents have found swaddling helpful and these articles are not meant to discredit their experience. This research comes as shocking news to us all. We do not mean to offend other parents; we all want our babies not to cry. Rather, we hope to shed light on a practice that has benefits, but that has become dogmatic and thus may interfere with parental instinct.

The first question one certainly asks is, “If I don’t swaddle, what else will I do.” Here are some things that have been shown to be highly effective:

Hold your baby.

Breastfeed your baby.

Walk around holding your baby.

Rock your baby.

According to neurologist Richard Restak, MD, “Physical holding and carrying of the infant turns out to be the most important factor responsible for the infant’s normal mental and social development.” Neural and neuroendocrine functions underlying emotional behaviors are responsive to early experiences in enduring ways. For example, the anthropologist Margaret Mead found in her research that the most violent tribes were the ones that withheld touch in infancy.

I realize that these swaddling articles are provocative; I hope they will also be helpful. We’ll be talking more about their findings in the community and on Facebook. Please join us to share your comments, concerns and suggestions.

In 2003, one of our Mothering community members, Tracy, started the first Holiday Helper Forum. Gemini, SpatulaGirl, JustVanessa, DreamsinDigital, Maluhia and other members have developed the program over the years.

In 2009 we helped 73 families, nearly 100 in 2010 and this year we hope to help up to 150 families; we have 40 families signed up so far.

FAMILIES IN NEED

To be eligible, a member’s family must have significant financial need. The member must have been a Mothering member for one year as of October 24, 2011 and have posted 500 times. In the interest of privacy and security, Families in Need remain anonymous to the community and are identified by a number. Only the administrators and moderators of Holiday Helper know their contact information.

If you would like to apply to be a Family in Need (FIN), please fill out the Holiday Helper Application (scroll down to the middle of the page) and send it in a Private Message (PM) to AdinaL. Applications will be taken on a first come first serve basis.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

If you would like to help a Family in Need, here are some things you can do:

Cash Donations will be used to buy gift certificates for the Families in Need. To donate cash to the Holiday Helper paypal account, email MDCHolidayHelpers2011@gmail.com.

Post the gently used items you have available, items you are willing to buy or gift certificates to the “I Have Available Thread.” We’ll match you with a FIN.

Donate to a specific family by checking the Families in Need Forum. Send a Private Message to the person who started the particular thread and she will send you the family’s address.

Donate specific items by checking the Families in Need Master List where items are listed by category and are linked to the specific families who need them. Again, PM the person who started the thread for mailing information.

THE SHIPPING FAIRY

Donate to the Shipping Fairy. This account helps pay postage for people who have things to send but may not be able to afford the shipping. If you donate $3.00 or more to the Shipping Fairy, a customized tag will be placed under your username. PM incorrigible if you are in need of Shipping Fairy help.

Adina told me today that already one member had decided to take care of an entire family. Another gave gift certificates directly from Amazon. And, Sarah’s Silks, one of our advertisers, made a generous contribution.

BUSINESSES WHO CARE

As a thank you, Mothering will be providing special free promotion for companies who donate through November and December. Please contact our web editor, Melanie, to take part.

I’m proud to be part of such a generous community that wants to help our members in need. At a time when many of us feel uncertain about the future, we are reassured by our sense of community and inspired by our generosity. We renew each other. Thank you for helping.

Holiday Helper FAQ

Questions: AdinaL, Queen of the Meadow, TiredX2

Shipping Fairy Questions: incorrigible

Canada Questions: weliveintheforest

On October 25, 2011, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that all 11 to 12-year-old boys get vaccinated against the human papillomavirus (HPV). According to the CDC press release, “The HPV vaccine will afford protection against certain HPV-related conditions and cancers in males, and vaccination of males with HPV may also provide indirect protection of women by reducing transmission of HPV.”

First licensed in 2006, the HPV vaccination, branded as Gardasil or Cervarix, has previously been recommended only for girls. With this new recommendation, private insurers will be able to pay for the vaccine for boys. The vaccine is expensive, costing more than $300 for the three-shot series.

The HPV vaccine has been controversial for reasons other than its cost. Parents have been reluctant to give their pre-adolescent children a vaccine to protect them from sexually transmitted disease (STD).

The HPV vaccine for boys is also controversial because its benefits are not consistent. For example, Gardisil has been shown to prevent genital warts, but only in heterosexual men. There’s no evidence that Gardisil protects homosexual men from genital warts. Similarly, Gardasil has been shown to prevent anal cancer precursors in homosexual men, however these precursors rarely progress to anal cancer in heterosexual men.

A further rationale for the male vaccine is that preventing genital warts in heterosexual men will help reduce infection in women. However, this is only so if the vaccine is efficacious for a very long time. Every vaccine has a duration of efficacy. According to the Immunization Action Coalition(IAC), the HPV vaccine lasts five years.

Diane Harper, MD

However, Diane Harper, MD, the leading international expert on HPV, says that HPV antibody titers in the blood are detectable for only two years after HPV vaccination. Regardless of whether HPV is efficacious for two or five years, a child will need an HPV booster before he or she becomes sexually active.

Even with a booster, the efficacy of the HPV vaccine is questionable. According to Harper, “The cost modeling data indicate that with 50% female vaccination, vaccinating up to 50% of boys will provide some protection for females if and only if Gardasil lasts for a lifetime of duration. This modeled prevention of disease in females by vaccinating males does not exist if Gardasil loses efficacy earlier than 20 years.” Currently less than 50% of girls have had one shot and each shot lasts just two to five years.

It will take decades for the US population to be protected by the HPV vaccine alone and we will not see a substantial decrease in cervical cancer from vaccines until 70% are fully vaccinated. Until we reach that level of HPV vaccine saturation, STD screening alone is at least as effective as STD screening with vaccines in preventing HPV infection.

Controversy over the HPV vaccine erupted in the press earlier this year when Michelle Bachmann claimed that someone had become mentally retarded in one week from the HPV vaccine. While her statement has been widely discredited, more than 18,000 reports of adverse events associated with the HPV vaccine have been made to the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) since 2006, including 72 deaths.  In fact, the risk of adverse events associated with the HPV vaccine is 7 events per 100,000 vaccinated, while the risk of cervical cancer in the developed world is 3 cases per 100,000.The story of Gabby Swank, who reportedly died from complications of the HPV vaccine, is documented in the new film The Greater Good, streaming live on mercola.com until November 5th.