

To think Katie Hopkins has officially lost the plot and special needs children do have genuine medical disorders

(367 Posts)

MNHQ have commented on this thread. Read here.

Arnie123 Tue 20-Aug-13 15:08:12

I know she is just a gobby professional troll but this time she has gone way too far. So special needs don't exist and it is just crap parenting? Unbelievable

mrsjay Tue 20-Aug-13 19:36:26

*laGuardia she says what she is paid to say nothing more she isnt admirable she is mean and nasty and tbh a joke and she needs to get a proper job if she wants to work in media, the snooty bitch routine is wearing thin

AmberLeaf Tue 20-Aug-13 19:42:21

^Can't believe so many people get outraged and start threads on her witterings.
She comes out with the most provocative and emotional things she can to get a reaction - and guess what - everyone bites!
Ignore it, it might go away^

I get your point, but it reminds me a bit of 'sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me' except actually, they do hurt.

Why do people get outraged? because she is talking about our children and us.

ADHD type behaviors certainly weren't prevalent when I was growing up, I certainly knew children with autistic trates so it's possible that was less diagnosed, but there is definitely an increase in these conditions, and if there's a cause for that then it dooes need too be looked and we doo need to start asking the questions not just blindilyaccepting that more children now have sen, we need too start looking at how we can prevent this happening in future generations

Im nearly 40, there certainly were children who had ADHD when I was growing up, but they didn't tend to go to mainstream schools or last very long in them if they did, they were sent away to schools for 'maladjusted boys' and that sort of place.

That is actually one of the biggest cliches about you know! usually followed by 'we would have got a slap if we'd behaved like that'

My rule is: ignore everything that ignorant prat says.

I am doing a pretty good job currently.

Everyone else, please help me along the way?

Sparklysilversequins Tue 20-Aug-13 19:44:28

Not sure how you'd "prevent" it tbh. With more knowledge on spectrum disorders/conditions has come more diagnosis, personally I can only see that increasing.

What preventative measures do you suggest?

mignonette Tue 20-Aug-13 19:45:45

Have That is why i wanted to rechristen her 'Thrush'. It'd mess up the goggle profile and is a childishly amusing name for an irritating c**t.

Misspixietrix Tue 20-Aug-13 19:47:43

Doesn't Mumsnet/Mumsnetters have a ban against directing Internet Trafic towards à certain Daily Fail site? I propose doing the same to Hopkins Twitter Website Blog or whatever else she has decided to put her bollocks on that day.

Peachy Tue 20-Aug-13 20:00:15

Of course there will be a rise; there will be in many disabilities as less babies die at or before birth, and children and adults survive illnesses and injuries later in life.

Well the exception statistically seems to be Downs Syndrome. I am sure most people know why that is.

I have huge issues with Katie Hopkins as she gives fuel to the arguments of idiots like my BIL who argue that ASD and ADHD diagnoses and statements are obtained with a simple form from the council; why those same people won't listen to me when I have studied ASD at post grad level for five years now (part time) I am not sure.

ASD is largely an illness of physiological or genetic origin; we have a chromosome with a snapped and reattached short arm. Many children who have ADHD have visible brain differences after a high res MRI is performed, to the corpus callosum. ADHD and ASD seem to share a potential genetic origin in some people with allergies, immune deficiencies and SPLDs.

To obtain three diagnoses in our family, it took 2 years with eldest age 6; 3 years with next child aged 6 (both ages at diagnosis). DS4 has been watched and monitored for 3 years so far with a statement already in place and pretty obvious ASD yet still no diagnoses as they don't like to rush it in siblings.

I meet many, many children who need a diagnoses but do not have one. I have as yet only ever met one child whose diagnosis I doubt, and neither her education nor diagnosis was obtained within the state system. I meet even more children who need educational support but have been refused- and none within the state system given support that didn't need it.

I meet as many well behaved children with ASD as children with behavioural issues. Amongst my diagnosed duo I have one of each- a child who exists in his words to be kind, and one who describes himself as training to be evil (he's failing badly but certainly trying!).

And I completely abhor the idea of Ms Hopkins trying to tell me about ASD and diagnosis. As a mother, professional, researcher and someone in the diagnostic system herself. if she considers herself a specialist she can jolly well cough up ££££££££ and years studying like the rest of us mere mortals. The other route to truly understanding the system is to foster or adopt a child with SN, but I would hope Social Services would never permit that.

Peachy Tue 20-Aug-13 20:01:21

(I should add live with ASD but of course my point is in part that you cannot just acquire it, IYSWIM). Those living with it are also qualifiedm, naturally.

Peachy Tue 20-Aug-13 20:03:45

As for the devastatng diagnosis- it's so individual.

I knew that they were coming, and smiled when I received them as I felt it was the start of solutions- then went home and howled in pain.

You just feel how you do, there are no right or wrong ways.

jumpingpillows Tue 20-Aug-13 20:09:19

bloody hell

pigletmania Tue 20-Aug-13 20:10:40

What crap has come out of her mouth now

wannaBe Tue 20-Aug-13 20:10:51

hings like environmental factors, diet, the prevalence of additives/preservatives/colourants (sp?) in foods which must almost certainly have an impact on our health and potentially, if ingested early enough/in enough quantity, on the development of a young child.

Examining the causes of disabilities and assessing whether the number of cases has increased over the years (and diagnoses have increased over the years) does not equal criticism of people's parenting skills - we need to separate the two.

Because if there are factors which are contributing to an increased number of children being born with certain disabilities then we need to examine this and examine whether there are steps which can be taken (within a wider society) to reduce the chances of this happening.

e.g. it has recently been claimed that the reason for the increase in nut allergies is linked to advice to not feed peanuts to babies too early or for women to have them during pregnancy, because babies who might be predisposed do not have the chance to be exposed early enough to develop a tolerance. The advice has now been reversed and the advice to pregnant women has been withdrawn. This does not mean that the women who avoided nuts during pregnancy and whose babies subsequently turned out to have peanut allergies are bad parents - it simply means that there are so many factors in our society these days that we simply cannot take account of them all at all times.

Why is it so wrong to suggest that these things need to be examined?

Caff2 Tue 20-Aug-13 20:15:26

Ahem. Those who have talked about "naughty" ... My DS1, diagnosis of ADHD, medicated when appropriate, has never had a detention (going into year 9 next month in a strict school), never been in trouble, is never rude, oppositional or defiant.

ADHD doesn't equal naughty. There's no "N" in there.

AmberLeaf Tue 20-Aug-13 20:18:00

Good posts Peachy.

So diet causes these things Wannabe? not heard that one before <sarcasm>

My son was born autistic.

JulieMumsnet (MNHQ) Tue 20-Aug-13 20:21:48


We can see that there's a fair few myths on here so we'd like to point you in the right direction of our This Is My Child campaign. We're working hard to try and dispel some of the common myths that people have towards children with special needs.


AmberLeaf Tue 20-Aug-13 20:21:52


There has been and is still much ongoing research into what causes these things.

Eating smarties etc is not a cause of autism/adhd.

A poor diet isn't good for anyone, but it isn't the cause of autism/adhd.

insanityscratching Tue 20-Aug-13 20:22:33

My two were born with autism and funnily enough the three who weren't born with it, well I feed them too hmm

thornrose Tue 20-Aug-13 20:24:07

WannaBe your post automatically suggests that as a parent I've done something "wrong". Potentially while pregnant I caused my child to have autism?

I feel like defending my diet and telling you how healthy I ate and how I ate very few foods with additives etc etc, but I'm not going to.

candycoatedwaterdrops Tue 20-Aug-13 20:30:19

I don't buy the "it's their diet" crap. I volunteered in a day centre for adults with severe LD, the manager and I discussed the apparent 'rise' in the dx of autism. The awareness we have today is contributing as is newly found medical knowledge. Many of the other clients at the day centre were being diagnosed in their 40-50s.

JakeBullet Tue 20-Aug-13 20:31:08

when I was a child I played with the little boy over the road on many an occasion. He and I got on well and had many interests in common BUT...he also had terrifying meltdowns and was a difficult child. He was in a special school where he was sent to board and only came home for holidays when I played in the garden with him.....I was 7-9 years old when I knew him. With hindsight he probably had ASD or Aspergers and possibly ADHD and yet at the same age as me he had been screened out and was in a special school....of course those schools have been shut down now so of course people see more of autism and ADHD when they didn't before.

insanityscratching Tue 20-Aug-13 20:44:21

I'm forty five and can think of four children who I went to school with who were most likely on the autism spectrum or who had ADHD as well. One went to the special school (that was always spoken of in hushed tones) in the first year at infants, two went to the naughty boys school which was a school those with behavioural difficulties towards the middle of junior school and the fourth I remember him being hit, punched and kicked by teachers and regularly caned by the HT.
It wasn't that these disorders didn't exist it was that they were hidden away as a source of shame or children were beaten regularly to "knock it out of them"
Nowadays our children aren't hidden away but attitudes still exist that these disorders are shameful or could be got rid of with more discipline.

FanjoForTheMammaries Tue 20-Aug-13 20:46:47

My friend's son doesn't eat.

At ALL (he is very healthy though)

He also has autism.

Blows the diet thing out of the water.

wannaBe Tue 20-Aug-13 20:49:32

"My son was born autistic." I was born blind. But that doesn't mean something didn't cause it, it's just that often we are unable to know what that is or to have prevented it even if we were able to know (e.g. in the case of genetic conditions).

nobody has said that smarties cause ADHD don't be so ridiculous. But it is a fact that our environment, and also our diets have changed dramatically over the years, and also that we are gradually beginning to understand the impact on the developing baby. e.g. it wasn't so long ago that women were told to eat lots of liver during pregnancy because it contains lots of iron, however liver also contains vitamin A which in large quantities can cause birth defects, therefore women are now told not to eat liver at all. We are told to take folic acid during pregnancy to prevent nural tube defects such as spina bifida. Why therefore is it so incomprehensible to suggest that other dietary changes could cause other conditions in an unborn baby? conditions which would not become apparent until that baby was older? IMO it has something to doo with the fact there still appears to be a gap between understanding and acceptance of physical disabilities vs learning disabilities (many of which are essentially invisible).

I wonder also whether there is an element of guilt involved - no-one wants to know that an environmental factor may have led to a child of theirs being born, or predisposed to a disability, when in actual fact it's not about blame - it's merely about future prevention - if possible - or at the very least about understanding.

Three years ago I discovered that my visual impairment was in fact misdiagnosed. As a baby I was diagnosed with cortical blindness, meaning that it was believed (because there was no evidence) that for some reason the messages were not being interpreted from my eyes to my brain, so the problem being with my brain not my eyes themselves. After developing glaucoma and discovering I had cateracts five years ago I went through the process of self referral to moorfields where I was told that actually it was my eyes that were damaged and that it was believed I had juvenile glaucomabut that it didn't present in the normal way.

To this day my mother refuses to believe this diagnosis, on the basis that if it had been discovered when I was a baby perhsaps something could have been done. I am certain that if a definitive diagnosis could be found (and even this one is not definitive, the actual reason for my blindness will never be known), it would lead to untold guilt and recrimination.

AugustMoon Tue 20-Aug-13 20:56:28

Children with ADHD have hyperactivity, impulsivity and inattention in all settings (school, home). They have poor working memory but often high iq, and struggle to 'switch off' resulting in sleeping problems. They take criticism badly, and are dissatisfied with their efforts. They are unable to filter out distractions and can have tactile sensitivity. Restless legs; hypermobile joints; general fidgeting (and fiddling with anything and everything) are more physiological symptoms.
It is a very real disorder. My DS1 has mild to moderate ADHD and it is common in my husbands family. My husband probably has it but is not diagnosed.
It took us over 3 years, several referrals to camhs, two educational psychologists and a fantastic SENCO before he was diagnosed.
My son is amazing by the way. He is not badly behaved, he is caring and polite, loves his family and is popular at school.
Just saying.

AmberLeaf Tue 20-Aug-13 21:07:44

No, nothing to do with guilt. I now I could have done anything different, other than not procreate.

I believe my sons autism to be genetic, My dad probably has it, I probably have it. Can think of many more much older relatives who also would probably have got an austism diagnosis had they been of school age now. All of us grew up in very different times, with very different diets/evironmental factors etc. Common denominator was genetics.

nobody has said that smarties cause ADHD don't be so ridiculous

No, I know you didn't say smarties specifically, it was your comment about colouring and additives I was responding to. as I said, nothing I havent heard before.

Your previous post implied that things like ADHD are a new thing possibly caused by modern diet, I very much disagree with that as have several other posters. The only thing new about it is the terminology.

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