Got Autism? - PETA's Latest Debate Causes Controvery Among Parents and Medical Providers

They've made headlines lately with their controversial claim that Ben and Jerry should dump their cow-made ice cream ways and convert to using breast milk in our ice cream. PETA claimed that cow's milk is only produced during and after pregnancy and that dairy farmers are 'forcefully impregnating cows' every nine months. Vice President of PETA, Tracy Reiman also claims that, "human adults consume huge quantities of dairy products made from milk that was meant for a baby cow just doesn't make sense. Everyone knows that 'the breast is best,' so Ben & Jerry's could do consumers and cows a big favor by making the switch to breast milk."

And it doesn't stop there. PETA has now hit select markets with their latest advertisement set to spark much controversy and debate with parents and medical providers. Adorning electronic billboards in Salt Lake City is a picture of a milk and cereal bowl with the words, "Got Autism? Studies Have Shown A Link Between Cow's Milk and Autism." PETA has hit Salt Lake as it's first major stopping point, due in large part to it's high rate of autism in the state and large metropolitian population. Approximately 7.5 out of every 1,000 8 year old children suffer from autism. In September, PETA launched it's attack on Newark, New Jersey. In the last week, PETA decided to hit a larger market by advertising in Salt Lake City.

PETA, or People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, now has over two million members and has grown to become the largest animal rights organization in the world. PETA has become famous for it's closing of the largest horse slaughter operation in the United States, exposed the cruelty performed to animals that will be later turned into fur coats, and launched one of the largest mobile spay and neuter clinics. Famous actors and actresses like Martin Sheen, Pamela Anderson, and Alec Baldwin are all supporters of the PETA organization.

But recently, many have begun to wonder about some of PETA's practices. Most recently in regards to cows. PETA's marketing campaign has made major headlines with it's bizarre request to switch the use of cow milk in ice cream to breast milk, and it's recent launch of it's autism and milk awareness campaign.

PETA backs up it's link to autism and milk with studies performed in Norway and at the University of Rome that performed studies of autistic children who were taken off dairy products containing casein (a component of cow's milk) and the marked improvement of these children. Researchers claimed that there were drastic improvements in autistic behavior once a child was taken off dairy products. And PETA has many parents now backing them up in this claim. One mother claimed that "there was nothing to lose, so I decided to eliminate all the dairy products from his diet. What happened next was nothing short of miraculous. Miles stopped screaming, and he didn't spend as much time repeating actions."

But medical providers are quick to point out that PETA's ads are grossly misleading. Kristina Chew, a PhD, stated on her Autism page that "I have to say "yes" about PETA's ad campaign providing misinformation about autism and oversimplifying what autism is, and what can be done to help a child." Researchers and clinicians state that there are no large scale single, or double-blind experiments that have been done to test this theory. Lance Madigan of the Utah Health Department also states there have been no good, quality studies done on the link between autism and milk.

Dr. Petersen, medical director for the Carmen B. Pingree Center for Children with Autism also worries that the misleading ads will cause undo alarm and states that while PETA sites research done linking the two, that there has been no hard core evidence as of yet, and that the research done was on a small scale and cannot be taken as firm fact.

However, many parents writing in on autistic parents blog and discussion groups sites who have taken their children off of milk have shown a marketable difference in their child's behavior. And most parents who wrote in tended to agree that the biggest difference in their child's behavior was that tantrums were lessened considerably once their child was taken off of milk products.

The conclusion? Work with your doctor to see if it might be the right thing to take your child off dairy products for a time to see if you notice a noticeable difference in your child's behavior. And don't consider milk products to be the cause of autism, like PETA's misleading claim. Most reports from parents and the researchers PETA used who took autistic children off of dairy products stated that it lessened the temper tantrums and showed marked improvement in an autistic child's behavior, not that it was the cause of autism and cured all autistic behavior in the child.

For the relief of many parents looking for a cure for autism recently there has been a large scale, massive National Children's Study that will soon be launched. The study should help break down what might be fact and fiction in regards to many claims to what might cause autism, or trigger it. Researchers will follow children from birth to adulthood, and some even into their later adult years and possibly into their senior years to find out what environmental triggers may cause some of these childhood illnesses. In the meantime, look out for more interesting PETA campaign ads to spark controversy.