(ANTIMEDIA) — Desperate parents are turning to a potentially life-threatening remedy to cure their children of autism, a recent investigation has found.
A report published last week by Britain’s The Sunday People revealed that at least six police forces across the U.K. have questioned families over allegations that children as young as two are being forced to drink what is essentially homemade bleach.
This “cure” has been branded Miracle Mineral Solution (MMS) and is a mixture of sodium chlorite and an acid such as fruit juice. These ingredients combine to create chlorine dioxide, a solution used industrially for things like water treatment.
MMS is being promoted by the Genesis II Church, a self-described non-religious organization focused on health and healing. The church was founded by former Scientologist Jim Humble and has nearly 30 chapters worldwide.
The remedy — which is unlicensed, has no proven medical benefits, and has been denounced by the governments of the U.K., Canada, and the U.S. — is nonetheless available for purchase online.
Proponents of MMS, which can also be taken in the form of an enema, claim that autism — as well just about every other affliction, including cancer — is caused by parasites in the body that can be killed by the treatment.
The Sunday People investigators, who infiltrated a closed Facebook group dedicated to peddling MMS to the parents of autistic children, found that many have turned to the so-called remedy out of desperation.
Emma Dalmayne, an anti-MMS campaigner who aided the investigative team, says it’s shocking to see the lengths parents will go to in the name of healing their children.
“Women are posting about how their children are vomiting and [in] pain but take it as a sign the parasites are being purged,” she said. “They call it the herxheimer reaction.”
Dalmayne says children may sometimes appear well following the treatment but that this is merely the child wanting to please the parent:
“The children stop a lot of the behaviours associated with autism, rocking or screaming, and these parents think they have been cured. But they are simply too scared to do it anymore.”
One mother, for instance, noted in the Facebook group that her two-year-old “cried really hard” when first given MMS enemas but that now things are getting “better and better” for the child.
“Some mean people said it’s bleach and harmful for kids,” wrote the woman, according to The Sunday People. “But it’s helped so many!”
Dr. Jeff Foster, who runs a private practice in West Midlands, England, staunchly disagrees.
“Autism is a neuro-developmental condition which is not amenable to any form of tablet treatment,” he told The Sunday People. “It’s developed in the womb or in the early stages of life. You just can’t reverse it and anyone claiming that does not understand the condition.”
Noting that “chlorine dioxide causes abdominal cramps, vomiting and diarrhoea,” Foster says continued ingestion of MMS can be fatal:
“If you drink it on a long-term basis it causes inflammation of your gut lining, stomach, oesophagus and intestines. At some stage something pops and then you can bleed to death.”
Foster goes on to say that however desperate these parents may be, putting faith in remedies like MMS is a “roulette game” in which it’s “only a matter of time” before “someone will die.”
Anti-MMS campaigners say the treatment, when forcefully given to kids, amounts to child abuse. Currently, police forces in the U.K. are probing cases in East Yorkshire, Cheshire, Luton, Dover, North London, and Northern Ireland.
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