SiFs or NaF flurides?

What can citizens and parents do to reduce ADHD, Autistic Spectrum, intellectual disability and other developmental disorders?

Make sure that all children have safe, healthy water to drink.

no chemicals water

Find out what your community puts in the water children drink.

Communities switched from NaF — which has a track record of safety — to use of SiFs — which have zero record of safety. Two huge studies of children (280,000 in Mass. and 150,000 in New York state) show elevated iron with use of fluoridated water.

Perhaps communities should use of NaF instead of SiF to fluoridate water? Might safer water remove or reduce symptoms associated with lead poisoning?

Go to Keepers of the Well.com. Or contact Jeff Green 800 728-3833 greenjeff@cox.net for more information. Let’s do all we can to see that all children and adults drink healthy water.

Material below is from Keeper of the Well.com

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1. Fluoridation On-Point:
Congressional Investigation and Recent Events PDF (33K)
Highlights of the written statements from five government agencies in response to questions posed to each agency in 1999 and 2000 by a subcommittee of the House Committee on Science.

2. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 2000, response to questions posed by subcommittee of the House Committee on Science PDF (69K)
“Fluoride, when used in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease in man or animal, is a drug that is subject to FDA regulation.” “No New Drug Applications have been approved or rejected for fluoride drugs meant for ingestion.”

3. Title 42 Ð The Public Health and Welfare, section 300g-1. (194K)
“(11) No national primary drinking water regulation may require the addition of any substance for preventive health care purposes unrelated to contamination of drinking water.”

4. Letter, April 2, 1998, from EPA Director, Office of Science and Technology PDF (33K)
“In the U.S., there are no Federal safety standards which are applicable to drinking water additives, including those intended for use in fluoridating water.”

5. Letter, March 14, 1994, from Cosme Water Treatment Plant, City of St. Petersburg PDF (65K)
St. Petersburg, Florida, contracts with Lucier Chemical Industries for its fluosilicic acid. Lucier purchases the chemicals from Cargill Fertilizer, Inc.

6. The 1998 AWWA Standards Committee on Fluorides PDF (65K)
Listed are the 17 members of the “volunteer standards committee” which review and approve the fluoride standard. The Chair, Vice-Chair and Secretary are from the CDC, Lucier Chemical Industries, and Kaiser Aluminum & Chem. Corp., respectively. Cargill Fertilizer Inc. and Chemtech are producer members.

7. Photo of Cargill Fertilizer Inc. with 1979 Fluorine Recovery excerpt PDF (165K)
Required to suppress environmental emissions of fluorine-containing vapours, industry must now find a use or market for the recovered fluorine.

8. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 1999, response to questions posed by subcommittee of the House Committee on Science PDF (63K)
In collecting data for a fact sheet, EPA was not able to identify any chronic studies for the two chemicals used in 90% of U.S. fluoridation programs.

9. Letter, Nov. 2000, from US EPA National Risk Mgmt. Research Laboratory PDF (65K )
National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory was unable to find any information on the chronic effects of silicofluorides on health and behavior.

10. Letter, March 2001, from US EPA National Risk Mgmt. Research Laboratory PDF (65K)
In response to Dr. Roger Masters’ request for specific data, the EPA’s National Risk Assessment Laboratory indicates that they are not able to provide reliable data on the complete dissociation of fluosilicates; or, any data on interaction of fluosilicates with other metals, such as aluminum and iron, expected to be found in drinking water.

11. Request for Assistance (RFA) – Measurement of Fluorosilicates in Drinking Water, April 25, 2002 PDF (1000K)
The U.S. EPA National Risk Management Research Laboratory is now soliciting competent researchers to investigate the reactions that take place when fluorosilicates are added to drinking water supplies.

12. National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) 2000, response to questions posed by subcommittee of the House Committee on Science PDF (42K).
For a manufacturer to receive certification for their fluoridation product, NSF requires submission of toxicological information, if available. No studies on the silicofluorides have ever been submitted to NSF.

13. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) 2000, response to questions posed by subcommittee of the House Committee on Science PDF (38K)
90% of tooth decay occurs in pits and fissures of chewing surfaces of teeth; surfaces not as affected by fluoride.

14. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 2000, response to questions posed by subcommittee of the House Committee on Science PDF (44K)
Subsets of the population that are unusually sensitive to the toxic effects of fluoride are identified as well as demographic data for each of the identified populations.

15. Letter, June 1993, from John V. Kelly, Assemblyman, State of New Jersey PDF (65K)
The FDA has confirmed that there are no studies demonstrating either the safety or effectiveness of fluoride supplements for children, therefore, he requests the FDA to remove the products from the market immediately.

16. Fluoride warning on toothpaste label, required by FDA since 1997 PDF (129K)
“Warning: As with all fluoride toothpastes, keep out of the reach of children under 6 years of age. If you accidentally swallow more than used for brushing, seek professional assistance or contact a poison control center immediately.”

17. Content specifications of hydrofluosilicic acid as referenced by retailer Lucier Chemical Industry, Ltd., 1990 PDF (35K)
A typical batch of commercial grade fluoridation product is 24% hydrofluosilicic acid and 76% waste water which contains varying amounts of heavy metals.

18. The California Code of Regulations list hazardous waste fluorides PDF (65K)
All three fluoridation substances are included in the list of 39 fluoride compounds classified under California law as hazardous wastes.

19. Toxic waste becomes ‘product’ for two bits PDF (65K)
According to federal regulations, if a fluoridation substance is given away, it is classified as hazardous waste. If it is sold for transportation costs or a token fee, it is a product.

20. The city of Escondido, CA, calculated the amount of product actually used PDF (3K)
The amount intended for the targeted children is only 16 pounds out of 33 tons of product used per year in Escondido.

21. Photograph of a sack of sodium fluorosilicate (picture) PDF (164K)
Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp. is a Producer Member of the voluntary product standards committee for the American Water Works Association.

22. Hydrofluosilicic acid product warning and directions for use PDF (21K)
Product warnings and safety instructions for water department personnel.

23. Opflow Magazine/American Water Works Association, Oct. 2000, Treatment Chemicals Contribute to Arsenic Levels PDF (56K)
About 90 percent of the arsenic that would be contributed by treatment chemicals is attributable to fluoride addition.

24. Two charts comparing toxicity and MCL of lead, fluoride and arsenic
Graph #1 gives the relative toxicity between lead, sodium fluoride and arsenic. Graph #2 shows the maximum contaminant levels for the same three substances.

25. Comparative Toxicity of Inorganic Fluorides PDF (387K)
The products used for fluoridation are many times more toxic than naturally occurring calcium fluoride.

26. Dartmouth news release, Aug. 1999: Silicofluorides are associated with increased lead levels PDF (26K)
Analyzing a survey of over 280,000 Massachusetts children, investigators found a significant association between water fluoridated with silicofluorides and children suffering from blood lead poisoning.

27. NeuroToxicology 21(6):2000:, Abstract: Silicofluorides are associated with increased lead levels PDF (387K)
Analyzing a survey of over 151,000 New York children, investigators found a significant association between water fluoridated with silicofluorides and children suffering from blood lead poisoning. Click here for the full study.

28. Chemical and Engineering News abstract of 1998 Brain Research study PDF (65K)
Test animals treated with the same concentration of fluoride used in fluoridated tap water suffered neural injury and increased deposits of B-amyloid protein in the brain, similar to those seen in humans with Alzheimer’s disease.

29. The California Safe Drinking Water Act of 1996 requires the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment to adopt Public Health Goals (129K)
Because of the alleged benefit of fluoridated water, several of the most important criteria for Public Health Goals are circumvented.

Send questions/suggestions concerning this site to the webmaster at: toxicfree@qwest.net

When parents of young children have a concern about their child’s development they often go first to their pediatrician.

Parent concerns might include: “Our child does not turn his head when I call him.” or “ Our child does not make much eye contact or smile.” “He does not play with toys like other children.”

If the pediatrician thinks that more assessment is needed, when MD’s refer out they often refer to to other physicians at large hospitals — such as Stanford Hospital (LPCH), Children’s Health Council and U.C. San Francisco. Physicians know other physicians and often do not know local resources, e.g., licensed psychologists trained in psychological assessment.

When parents are referred to large hospital complexes such as Stanford Hospital, Kaiser Permanente and U.C. San Francisco, parents can help get the best possible assessment by finding out ahead of time:

Will their child’s pediatrician MD automatically send along the child’s medical records as part of the referral process? If not, then the parent needs to request a complete set of medical records and bring the medical records to the appointment.

Who knows the child best besides the parent? Does the child go to a nursery school or day care? Is the child taken care of by a grandparent or neighbor?

Write down the name, address, telephone number and e-mail address for all persons who know your child best. Let those people know that the child will be assessed and that someone from that institution may call to gather information. Bring the list of people who know your child best to the appointment.

Can the parent take a video of the behaviors that concern them? For example, does the child insist on lining up all his toys? Does the child have a melt-down whenever the normal routine changes? If possible, get out your ‘smart phone’ or camera and take a video of those behaviors. Bring the video with you to show whoever does the assessment.

Call ahead of time to the institution where the assessment will be done and find out (and write it down) exactly who will do the assessment? Will it be a team assessment of various areas of functioning or will the assessment be done by only one specialist?

Know that it is Best Practice in the assessment of young children to examine several areas of functioning (e.g., speech, non-verbal communication, gross and fine motor) and that the assessment be done by appropriate specialists.

Depending on the concerns, some times one person doing the assessment is sufficient and sometimes not.

Know that it is Best Practice that records and information be obtained from various sources (MD, school, day care provider, parent, grandparent) over a period of time.

It is often the case that young children do not perform as they typically do when driven several hours to an appointment and then required to do certain activities with persons they do not know.

Summary: Parents can greatly assist in the accurate assessment of young children with possible developmental delays by 1) gathering all medical records and bringing them to the appointment; 2)making a list of all persons who know your child best including email and telephone numbers; 3)inquiring ahead as to exactly who will do the assessment and what areas will be assessed.

And do not be afraid to press the professionals for understandable answers. If they cannot say it so you can understand,they are useless to you and your child.

Any questions or comments? Contact Dr. Cameron Jackson DrCameronJackson@gmail.com 831-216-6002

DrCameronJackson@gmail.com

How parents can help ADHD & Autistic children be happier & achieve goals

Of course a child is not a car but think of the following analogy:

Every car to get to a destination needs a driver. Parents can assist children to get into the driver’s seat and drive their ‘car’ to appropriate ‘destinations’.

Here’s how to assist children who have difficulties with focus, attention, concentration, ‘executive functioning’ or ‘working memory’ difficulties. Executive functioning and working memory are words used by school psychologists. What the parent sees is a child who can’t seem to figure out what comes first and appear disorganized.

What to do: Get a pad of 8 by 12 inch lined paper.

On one per sheet of paper —
1) Write at the top, a Goal that parents/teachers want the child to achieve.
2) Write out all the Steps required to accomplish the Goal.
3) Order the steps from first to last using KISS (Keep It Simple, Simple)
4) Figure out an appropriate Reward for child accomplishing the steps.
Set it up so child can get partial reward for partial completion.
5) Decide the number of Days child needs to complete the Goal.
6) Draw up a Graph with Days across Top of Page and Goals listed on left.

Here’s an example of a Behavior Plan for a child who shows symptoms of both ADHD and ASD:

Gina is 8 years old and was exposed in utero to illegal drugs and alcohol. Her biological mother lost parental rights and Gina has been in foster care since age two. Since age four, Gina has received County Mental Health therapy and medication to assist with focus, attention and concentration. The therapy provided by County Mental Health focuses only on helping Gina to label emotions and better express her emotions appropriately.

Gina’s foster mother and her teacher agree that Gina’s adaptive functioning abilities are considerably below what they expect for her age. Her foster mother wants Gina to 1) wash her face & brush her teeth; 2) make her bed; 3) put toys in basket in her room; 4) set the table with utensils and plates before dinner.

Goals:

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Wash face & clean teeth
Make bed
Put toys in basket
Set table with utensils & plates

Spiritual/ religious beliefs need to be integral to a successful Behavioral Plan.
For example, Gina’s foster mother goes to church and rests on Sunday. Therefore the behavior plan is for six days a week and no work on Sunday, their day of rest. Six days a week time four goals = 24 Goals for Gina to achieve. For each Goal achieved she earns one (1) dime. During the week she puts stickers on the sheet and gets her motivators (dimes) which she puts into a plastic, clear jar. That way she can see exactly what she has earned towards a new toy on the weekend. Her foster mother believes Gina can find age appropriate toys for around $2.50 to $3.00 a toy.

What makes a Behavioral Plan successful?
The answer is simple: practice and more practice so the Steps are as simple as possible and the child gets rewarded for partial and then complete finishing the Goal.

For example, Gina when we started could not make her bed said her foster mom. Well, the cover was too big and too heavy for a thin, small 8 year old to move around. Thus, by simplifying and making a bed simply tossing a light duvet (down comforter) on a twin bed and putting the pillow in place — then making a bed by an 8 year old is simple and possible.

A second example:
Gina has never set the table for dinner. Part of the reason is that the plates are too high for her to reach and they are china easily breakable. Also, the utensils are not easy to get to. This is easily solved by moving plastic plates and smaller folks and spoons to one drawer that the child can reach. The point is to set it up so the child can successfully achieve the Goals.

Overall point: Parents can set simple ‘destinations’ for their child to drive their ‘car’ towards and by keeping the steps simple and practising the steps again and again their child can achieve those destinations to goals that parents set.

Very important: the hugs and ‘You did great!’ and ‘Keep trying!’ are as important and at times more important than any reward system. Parents – whether biological parents or foster parents – are the fire to ignite important, life long change in children.
Send comments to DrCameronJackson@gmail.com

If possible I will put a copy up on the Autism page for Monterey Bay Forum. Go to http://www.nationalautismcenter.org to download a copy.

More information below:

National Autism Center
_____________

” Parents and caregivers everywhere are eager for credible, research-based information on the most effective treatments for Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).

To address this need, the National Autism Center has released its newest manual, “A Parent’s Guide to Evidence-Based Practice and Autism.” The Center is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting effective, evidence-based treatment approaches for individuals with ASD.

The 134-page manual focuses on helping parents as they make decisions about how to best help children with ASD reach their full potential. It begins with a review of the autism spectrum, symptoms, and co-occurring conditions, and identifies and describes effective treatments. Other topics include the importance of professional judgment, the role of family preferences and values in the decision-making process, and factors to consider when choosing a team of professionals to help their child.

“Finding information about autism is easy. It is much more difficult to find reliable information that has withstood the rigors of science, is comprehensive in scope, and is accessible and easy to read,” says Hanna C. Rue, Ph.D., BCBA-D, Director of Evidence-based Practice for the National Autism Center and one of the manual’s authors. “Even for a trained professional, sorting through the clutter to find information that is most relevant to a child’s needs is a complicated and challenging process.”

One of the features that make this manual different from most others is that it was co-authored by professionals and parents of children with autism. “As professionals, we think about treatment from an entirely different perspective than a parent,” Dr. Rue continues. “We felt it was critical that the parent experience be reflected in every aspect of the manual.”
“To have a trusted resource that you can go to for reliable information, or to check your own gut instinct, is essential for any parent of a child with autism,” explains Janet Amorello, one of the manual’s parent experts. “My hope is that this manual will help families assess the options and obtain services that ultimately result in a better outcome for their child.”

The manual is the latest in a series of publications by the National Autism Center. Visit the Center’s website to download a free copy, watch a video, or learn more.

About the National Autism Center

The National Autism Center is May Institute’s Center for the Promotion of Evidence-based Practice. It is dedicated to serving children and adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) by providing reliable information, promoting best practices, and offering comprehensive resources for families, practitioners, and communities.

The Center works to shape public policy concerning ASD and its treatment through the development and dissemination of national standards of practice.

For more information, please call 877.313.3833 or visit www.nationalautismcenter.org

Contact: Susan G. Lauermann, APR(781) 437-1257slauermann@nationalautismcenter.org

SOURCE National Autism Center

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/12/12/4116440/national-autism-center-publishes.html#ixzz1gM2uAq6m

How “helpful” are the respite services provided to families with a disabled child?

In California, children with autism are assisted by the regional centers. There are non-profits and operate individually though connected loosely together. A child made eligible by one regional center is usually accepted by other regional centers though the case may be reviewed.

Due to CA budget issues typically families are offered 24 hours of respite a month though the number may be considerably increased depending on the individual’s particular circumstances. “Respite” is supposed to be time away from the disabled child and someone else takes care of the child so that parents get a real break.

In the Santa Cruz, Monterey, San Benito and Santa Clara Counties parents can receive respite hours away from their diabled child through varous agencies. The agencies take care of the paper work issues which negatively impact the overall helpfulness.

Below is from the parent of an autistic child that finds government “help” not helpful. And why not helpful.

We’re From the Government, and We’re Here to Help
Presient Obama’s recent budget speech

Reader Gordon Calkins writes in with his perspective on President Obama’s ghastly budget speech:

“I am the primary care-giver to my autistic and developmentally delayed son. I must admit that we accept from our state Division of Services for People with Disabilities some monitory support. The state gives us a small grant with federal matching money that allows us to hire extra support workers and care givers which gives us a few hours a month to run errands and have a little time out of the house.

“The program has been a benefit to us. But to put this into perspective, in order to be eligible for the support, we work with a state-contracted support coordinator, a state-approved fiscal agent that handles the payroll, and we have to keep logs of what we are doing to meet the state-approved training goals. We have several hours of doing paperwork each time we hire a new person. Our current employees are the adult kids of some of our friends, but they are still required to get background checks, fingerprinting and annual reviews.

“I’ve known people who have opted out of this system because the hassle of dealing with the state is too much.

“Although, as I said, I believe that this support is a net positive for us, the benefit we receive is much less than I pay in federal taxes each year.

“I would be even better off if the federal government would cancel programs like this and just let me keep more of my money, and there wouldn’t be nearly so many people making money off the support we get.

So, the purpose of government is to take my money, filter it through a bunch of agencies and contractors, each taking their cut, and then give a small fraction of it back to me to spend on “approved” services. Gives new meaning to the phrase “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” I wish they would stop helping

Some children strongly avoid social interactions (they arch their back & look away) as infants. Other children develop normally only to suddenly lose all language and social interests typically around the age of 18-24 months. Fascinating, about one quarter of U.S. children who meet criteria for a diagnosis of autism at age 3 will “shed” that diagnosis before they reach adulthood.

So, one wonders whether a single gene is responsible for such wide variations in how autistic behaviors are expressed during a child’s development. See below what scientists say about the shank3 gene.

MONDAY, March 21 (HealthDay News) — Scientists report that mutating a single gene produced mice with two of the most common autism traits, a finding they say could one day lead to the development of drugs to treat autism.

Currently, there are no effective drugs to treat the disorder.

Mutating the shank3 gene led to compulsive repetitive behavior and avoidance of social interaction in the mice, apparently caused by impaired communication between brain cells, said the researchers at Duke University and the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The shank3 gene has been implicated in human autism.
The study was published online March 20 in Nature.

“We now have a very robust model with a known cause for autistic-like behaviors,” senior author Guoping Feng, a professor of brain and cognitive sciences at MIT, said in a McGovern Institute news release. “We can figure out the neural circuits responsible for these behaviors, which could lead to novel targets for treatment.”The genetically altered mice also provide a way to assess experimental autism drugs before they’re tested in humans.

Scientists acknowledge that research involving animals often fails to result in beneficial treatments for humans.

The U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke has more about autism