Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by Fnord666 on Sunday November 03 2019, @01:49PM   Printer-friendly
from the You-light-up-my-life dept.

Down in Timaru, New Zealand, a new LED street light outside a family home had some really bad effects on a resident. His father, an astronomer, did lighting tests over the next two years and made some interesting discoveries about blue light. https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/116865102/effects-of-led-streetlights-on-autistic-son-led-damien-mcnamara-on-dark-sky-campaign


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by RandomFactor on Sunday November 03 2019, @02:17PM (10 children)

    by RandomFactor (3682) Subscriber Badge on Sunday November 03 2019, @02:17PM (#915322) Journal

    he didn't try other things [blinds.com] prior to moving to evaluate effect.
     
    His father was an astronomer. It is a noteworthy that his child was purportedly tortured by the very thing that make astronomical observations more difficult. Do autistic kids pick up on things up like their parent's obsession with the evils of night-time light pollution?  

    --
    В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +3  
       Insightful=3, Total=3
    Extra 'Insightful' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   4  
  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by IndigoFreak on Sunday November 03 2019, @02:28PM (6 children)

    by IndigoFreak (3415) on Sunday November 03 2019, @02:28PM (#915324)

    Even the article says there is no link to lights and autism. We don't know what was going on in the home prior to the move either. The article doesn't even specifically say they moved for this reason. Just that when the light was installed his behavior changed. There could be many factors that could play into his sons behavior, and we only insight into a few things.

    I am also dubious.

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Sunday November 03 2019, @02:48PM (5 children)

      by JoeMerchant (3937) on Sunday November 03 2019, @02:48PM (#915334)

      Melatonin isn't a "cure" for Autism, but proper modulation of melatonin levels can have a strong effect on some of the more challenging symptoms. We have seen a very similar situation with the gluten free diet - no kind of cure at all, but exposure to gluten (in some kids with Autism, not all) can ramp up the challenging behaviors to unmanageable levels.

      Offtopic-ish, shameless? plug for a new/old drug with similar applications: Nuedexta (available for ~$20/pill or $1200 per month from Avanir Pharma - similar compounds available by prescription of your M.D. to a compounding pharmacy for ~$0.50/pill or $30 per month) has been trialed and found safe and effective for PBA, a behavior outbursting condition. If you have a special person in your life with severe behavior outbursts, it is worth looking into - purported mechanism of action and side effects are less scary (to me) than most behavior modifying drugs.

      --
      🌻🌻 [google.com]
      • (Score: 5, Informative) by Gaaark on Sunday November 03 2019, @07:53PM (4 children)

        by Gaaark (41) on Sunday November 03 2019, @07:53PM (#915423) Journal

        The gluten free diet changed our lives: it took a full year of being intensively gluten free before we saw the changes in our son, but he did a FULL 180°...

        ...he went from acting high and giggling at nothing (it turns out his gut bugs were turning gluten into an opioid) and regurgitating his food (he smelled like vomit ALL the time and the bile was destroying his throat and teeth) and he had no fear, climbing a bookcase and stairs railing etc.

        His behaviors were all over the place and there were times he would go for a month or two with only getting 3 hours sleep a night.
        He was killing us slowly.

        We tried the diet for a couple months and saw no changes. Figured we'd do it for 6 months. Saw no changes.
        Figured we might as well give it the year: then we could say we gave it a good try (my wife also saw video of mice that were 'made autistic' and fed gluten. They became typical autistics. When the gluten was removed, they became more 'normal'.

        After 11 months we thought we saw some changes, after the full year it was WOW! (Seems his gut needed to heal and took that long).

        So if you know anybody with an autistic kid who they want to try the diet with, tell them it may take a year for their gut to heal.

        --
        --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
        • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday November 04 2019, @12:16AM (3 children)

          by JoeMerchant (3937) on Monday November 04 2019, @12:16AM (#915490)

          it took a full year of being intensively gluten free

          We were a bit more fortunate, we saw some good signs within ~36 hours (we went 99.9999% gluten and casein free in about 2004) and they continued to improve for 2 months. On the other hand, when he would get a cookie at school (it was "just one" Teddy Graham in the first telling, then it was just a head, then it was "oh that crumb? how could that do anything? Morons. Of course we'll never know if "that crumb" included half a box before the teacher started paying attention), we'd be back in gluten hell for 6 weeks or more.

          it may take a year for their gut to heal.

          Yeah, we seemed to build up a bit of gluten tolerance after a year or more on the diet, less dramatic responses to accidental infractions, but not enough tolerance to make it worth allowing gluten.

          We also saw some genuinely freaky things during the early (probably not 100% gut healed) stages, when traveling, in rural Alabama, in 2005, we really really really couldn't find much gluten free that our picky 4 year old would eat, so we made some conventional pancakes, which he ate happily, and for about 2 hours afterward we had this brief "eye of the storm" period of clarity from him, improved eye contact, improved responsiveness especially to verbal input, etc. We had seen similar things when he would get a fever with a cold: a few hours of clarity, then the storm hit, and stayed with us for weeks - definitely not worth doing on purpose.

          --
          🌻🌻 [google.com]
          • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Monday November 04 2019, @01:57AM (2 children)

            by Gaaark (41) on Monday November 04 2019, @01:57AM (#915526) Journal

            My sons public school bought into the diet 100%: when he hit high school... Yeah...e wasn't watched well enough and would help himself to his classmates lunches, etc. "But we don't think it was very much" became a common thing until that teacher was transferred because of parent complaints.
            His last 2 years of high school have been great: sad it took this long.

            --
            --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
            • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday November 04 2019, @02:32AM (1 child)

              by JoeMerchant (3937) on Monday November 04 2019, @02:32AM (#915538)

              It's unfortunate, but it's also part of life - dealing with morons and learning for yourself what it means to break diet, why you might not want to do that, etc. Our GF kiddo turns 18 this year and he pretty well understands his diet and doesn't try to break it very often, which is pretty remarkable on a functional vocabulary of 100 words or less.

              --
              🌻🌻 [google.com]
              • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 04 2019, @07:36AM

                by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 04 2019, @07:36AM (#915648)

                As my child psychologist friend says all the time, "just because someone can't communicate an idea with the words you want, doesn't mean they don't understand it." It gets her goat to no end when people who should know better say thing like, "Why is Johnny in GATE when his 504 says I can't give him time-limited essay questions?" Or people will expect kids that can add to know the word "addition" or expect kids to write multi-page essays just because they can talk about everything they know about a particular topic for an hour. Or treat kids like they are just shorter-than-average adults. Heck, she had to explain to a court that just because a ward told the judge "no" as a default answer when he asked if she wanted "abdominal lipectomy," and could barely explain what the procedure was (beyond there being "less" of her) didn't mean that the ward was incapable of wanting the procedure.

                Related story. Once an attorney tried to prove neglect and abuse by grilling and bamboozling a mentally-handicapped kid of both parents with large words and confusing phrases until he, over her, GAL's, and the other attorney's objections to the child's increasingly agitated state, overloaded the kid to the point of screaming out "WHY WON'T YOU SPEAK ENGLISH!?" and starting self-harm. After my psychologist friend, the mother (what? Dad too busy high-fiving his attorney for scarring his kid), and paraprofessional took half-an-hour to recollect the kid to the point where he would leave under his own power back to the group home, she brilliantly put that attorney in his place. She frustrated the shit out of him by answering his questions on direct in $1000 clinical jargon and repeatedly ignoring his prompts to simplify her language. She then switches back to normal language for GAL's direct and the mom's attorney's cross. Court took a 10 minute break and then her first answer on his redirect was an answer so verbose, so convoluted, so sesquipedalian (yes, I looked that word up for emphasis) that it had to be repeated 3 times to the stenographer and had to have been planned in advance to the question he asked. He finally says, "Look. Is there some reason that you refuse to use language we can all understand?" Neither her face nor tone changed when she said, "I'm sure $KIDS_INITIALS was thinking the same thing two hours ago." She then went on to explain that just like the complex language she used, just because you don't know the word for a thing or idea, doesn't mean a person doesn't know the idea or what the thing is. Thankfully dad ended up losing his neglect claim because Mom proved that the kid was getting the education and whatnot he needed.

                Sorry, I had to share that when it came to mind when I was thinking of things she said. And yes, both the attorney and the judge were disciplined for that one.

  • (Score: 5, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Sunday November 03 2019, @02:35PM

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Sunday November 03 2019, @02:35PM (#915328)

    Do autistic kids pick up on things

    Absolutely. Put one in a room full of people who are on-edge, anxious, nervous, uncomfortable, and (many, not all) Autistic individuals will echo and amplify that emotion, which can lead to a positive feedback loop ultimately resulting in the classic meltdown.

    Even (and I think, especially) among the non-verbal, the "Children Learn What They Live" poem is very applicable:

    http://marigold.chicousd.org/subsites/Laura-Holman/Children-Learn-What-They-Live---A-Poem/index.html [chicousd.org]

    --
    🌻🌻 [google.com]
  • (Score: 2) by Nuke on Sunday November 03 2019, @06:58PM (1 child)

    by Nuke (3162) on Sunday November 03 2019, @06:58PM (#915400)

    His father was an astronomer. .... Do autistic kids pick up on things up like their parent's obsession with the evils of night-time light pollution?

    A much simpler explanation is that his father, in campaigning for less light pollution, is pushing the "think of the children" angle.

    • (Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Sunday November 03 2019, @07:20PM

      by RandomFactor (3682) Subscriber Badge on Sunday November 03 2019, @07:20PM (#915415) Journal

      Yes, but I've been called charitable today and don't want to ruin it.

      --
      В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды