Allopathic medicine claims credit for relieving parents of the fear of acute epidemic diseases and the inconvenience of children sick with childhood diseases. In place of these concerns, parents increasingly worry about spiralling rates of allergies, including asthma, childhood cancers and chronic diseases of all kinds.

In the last two decades this shift in child health has also included dramatic rises in the incidence of neurological and developmental disorders, reaching 'epidemic' proportions. According to Professor Baron-Cohen at the Autism Research Centre, Cambridge, one in 68 children, and of them one in 39 boys are now affected by some diagnosable level of Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) (2009).

Enormous amounts of research funding have been poured into looking at the causative factor of autism, much of it focused on identifying a genetic causation, despite the fact that the accepted pattern of genetic spread in a population could not account for the spiralling rates of ASD in such a short time.

The Complementary & Alternative Approach

It has been observed that most children with ASD have an involvement of an identifiable complex of metabolic disorders focused in the gut - inflammatory lesions, the inability to excrete toxicity, especially heavy metals, the presence of chronic candidiasis and other fungal infections and so on, which in turn impacts neurological function. This has in part led to the suggested association of regressive autism with the mercury-based thimerosal preservative used in vaccines.

It has been pointed out that the MMR triple vaccine no longer contains thimerosal, yet the rate of ASD continues to rise. However, the same pro-vaccine lobbyists do acknowledge that other vaccines in the schedule, for example the flu vaccine, still contains it, and where it has been removed, it has been replaced by an aluminium-based adjuvant with currently unknown consequences.

 Jan Scholten has found the lanthanides indicated and effective in cases where the child is 'locked up inside herself' and obsessive behaviour (2009).

Ultimately, though, the body must be able to complete these processes independently in order to sustain health in the absence of supplementation. Once these metabolic processes are reset and working efficiently, external supplementation has the potential to overload the system, especially a system that has already had problems with excreation and subsequent toxicity, so these need to be gradually removed at a safe speed.

Various pilot studies have looked into the use of homeopathy for ASD. One involved the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital (RLHH) and a six-minute video clip of two families recorded during 2007 is available here: http://www.savingalostgeneration.com.