What planet are you living on? Social services is not going to take the kid away unless there is something terrible going on that is much worse than anything that came out in the letter.

And at least if the kid WERE taken away he'd get shots and seen by a doctor. It's not going to make the situation worse. And Anonymous_Too, if CPS were doing its job, it certainly would take interest in a kid who wasn't getting shots, was showing serious emotional and behavioral problems (that could at least potentially indicate abuse, even if there were no autism) without being seen by a doctor, they would certainly make a visit.

After all it is reasonable if unlikely explanation that the mother is actually beating the crap out of the kid and that's why she dismisses autism and won't take him to the doctor. Probably not, but who can say if she refuses to have the kid get a checkup? At that age he should be seeing the doctor once if not twice annually even if he was completely typical!

1. If your pediatrician spends 5 minutes on an annual wellness exam, you need to find another pediatrician.

2. I don't think you're talking about the same CPS I am. In NYC they are pretty adamant about following up on complaints especially after the Nixzmary Brown debacle--and you don't have to be a mandatory reporter to use the same forms and hotlines that mandatory reporters use.

Many times there is more going on than what is visible on the surface, even to close friends, and that could well be the case here. The CPS does not have to have "beyond reasonable doubt" proof of abuse to intervene. They don't even need any evidence of misconduct to make a housecall. The bread and butter of social workers is not going to court and removing kids from an abusive situation that's spiraled out of control, it is making educational and investigatory visits to prevent abuse and neglect and promote good parenting among well-meaning parents, which avoids the legal system entirely.

since so many people are presenting a one-sided, pretty much false view of social services (which DOES have major problems), I would add that as a parent you DO have a "right" to be a bad parent and make stupid choices whether for religious reasons or for no reasons at all, up to the point where you are causing the kid serious harm. But that does not mean that social services or the government has to stand back and treat your parenting style neutrally up to that point.

You have a right to feed your kid McBurgers and soda, not vaccinate and never take him to the doctor up to a point. But you also have a duty to provide adequate care for your kid. So once a kid demonstrates symptoms that reasonably demand medical attention, you have a duty to get him help and can be held criminally liable if he is harmed because you didn't--even if you are a Christian Scientist.

And the government rightly does not have to treat all parenting styles neutrally, and can disseminate information on healthy diet and parenting, need for checkups, warning signs, etc, and to spread this information through social workers even when a parent's bad parenting is "within his/her rights." If a parent refuses to have anything to do with the social worker, then there would obviously need to be proof of abuse or neglect in order to intervene, but a parent won't win any brownie points in their casefile if they refuse to cooperate or provide any information.

Simply, a caseworker probably won't respond just because a parent doesn't vaccinate or take their kid to a doctor, but they might and should if the kid is displaying profound neurological and social problems.

as to "no solid proof they help," why don't you ask a single competent pediatrician for cases of illness found during well-checkup screening? EVERY pediatrician who has been practicing for years can give you dozens off the top of their head. On point, EVERY autism board is filled with stories of autism diagnosed at routine checkups, as this woman's kid might be if she took him for one.

would appreciate your "go to Walmart" advice.

Go ahead and do it if it's the only way to get drugs and food for your kids. But in my experience if you shop around with small pharmacists you can get decent bargains.

But if I had to save that way I'd go with the Canadian internet pharmacists rather than the evil empire.

1. So McKinney's father said some tasteless, hateful things. What? Was he her campaign manager?

2. So McKinney was a marginal Green candidate. She was also a former congresswoman with a national profile. I'm guessing they couldn't get Harry Reid to accompany them on their peace and humanitarian mission.

Don't hate, participate. They were taking basic necessities into a war zone and they brought McKinney along to raise their profile and give their peace mission some more clout. People are dying at this very second. What are you doing, besides whinging on the blogs? You think they should spent a month lobbying in Washington and consulted PR focus groups to choose their guest list?