Behind the dangerous 'miracle' bleach concoction one mom made to 'cure' her daughter’s autism

Myths abound in the autism world — and, thanks to the internet, those myths travel.

Whether it’s a company touting concentrated oxygen chambers as a cure or a doctor erroneously claiming the condition is caused by vaccines, the many misconceptions about autism cater to parents who are desperate for answers. At best, they muddy the truth about the developmental disorder that affects one in 68 kids nationwide. At worst, they put those kids in danger.

That’s what happened most recently in Indiana, when a mom allegedly gave her daughter drops of a “bleach-like” concoction that she read online was a “cure” for autism. According to local Fox news, the unnamed mother told her husband she got the idea from “a Facebook group” that referred to the liquid as the “miracle mineral solution” or MMS.

To make the mixture, the mother combined hydrochloric acid and a chlorine-based water purifying solution, which she then dropped in her daughter’s drinks. After the girl’s father reported the incident to police, the Department of Child Services took the child out of the home and — as of Wednesday — was investigating the incident.

This “miracle mineral solution” is a myth that has existed for some time; it pops up regularly in online antivaccination discussions. For instance, MMS interpreted as “master mineral solution” is favored by a woman named Kerri Rivera, a controversial Chicago native who now runs a nonprofit clinic in Latin America that purports to “cure” autism. In 2012 at a yearly conference called Autism One, Rivera announced MMS as the “missing piece to the autism puzzle,” one that she claims allowed “38 children to recover in 20 months.” Her website now claims that MMS has cured 235 children, as of October 2016.

On her website, Rivera (who didn’t respond to Yahoo Lifestyle’s request for an interview) says her clinic is “biomed based” — meaning biomedical interventions. That term is far-reaching and can mean anything from a dangerous concoction like MMS to a gluten free diet. The term does not imply any scientifically backed data. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does mention biomedical interventions as a means of coping with autism, but the only biomedical interventions it mentions are dietary ones.

“Some dietary treatments have been developed by reliable therapists. But many of these treatments do not have the scientific support needed for widespread recommendation,” the CDC says on its autism treatment page. “An unproven treatment might help one child, but may not help another.”

SOURCE :- yahoo