The result is that I don’t read much fiction anymore, and my list of recommended books is very long. But for some good reading, check out the reviews from Dr. Novella’s other group blog:
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/category/book-review/

I’ve just finished reading is “The impossible cure” by Dr. Amy Lansky, PHD (Doctorate in computer science).

Some important information about Dr. Lansky (you at least know she has no medical training): Her son was never formally diagnosed.

There are many kids with speech and language disorder that are not autism. That includes my younger son who was actually taken to a speech language pathologist and diagnosed with dysphasia. After speech therapy from students at the university’s training clinic his vocabulary went from very below his age (three then), to appropriate for a four year old in one year. He is a normal college student.

For more information on autism, from parents and those with autism see:
http://www.thinkingautismguide.com/

And if you really want to use homeopathy, try saving money and making your own:
http://skepticfamily.com/2010/11/18/make-your-own-homeopathic-remedies-and-play-dough/

And on a more serious note, here is some additional reading from parents of autistic children, and one with cerebral palsy:

Unstrange Minds by R.R. Grinker
Not Even Wrong: A Father’s Journey into the Lost History of Autism by Paul Collins
No Time for Jello by Berneen Bratt

I have a longer list, because I have spent many many many hours in medical room waiting rooms because my oldest son is disabled. That includes ten years of speech therapy (he did not recover like his younger brother). With him it started with neonatal seizures that did not stop until he was given phenobarbital. I defy you to treat seizures with homeopathy.

1 – It is not just that we cannot prove how homeopathy works. Our current science indicates that homeopathy cannot possibly work, and in fact it does not work. It’s been studied – it doesn’t work.

2 – Clinical trials involve people who have taken homeopathic products. They count. Anecdotal information from individual patients, however, are not very helpful. They tend to be overwhelmed with bias and illusion. What we can say from such experiences, however, is that there is no “home run” from homeopathy – no big cures, only vague symptom relief easily explainable as placebo.

3 – The concerned mom gambit – irrelevant to the evidence.

4 – You assume homeopathy was practiced successfully in the past. There is no good evidence for this – no compelling evidence that homeopathy ever worked for anything.

5 – Homeopathy was not displaced by the pharmaceutical industry. It was displaced by modern science.

6 – Homeopathy is a multi-billion dollar industry with its own “big pharma” companies like Boiron. They are just not required to study homeopathic products the same way pharmaceuticals are. But – homeopathy has been widely studied, and again – they don’t work.

7 – Finally, the “open mind” gambit. This is not about having an open mind. It’s about understanding science and how to evaluate evidence properly. The better the quality of the evidence, the more likely it is to show that homeopathy does not work, and the best evidence all shows that it doesn’t.