"This doctor has ludicrous ideas about why kids are autistic. He seems to think that if everyone was on a particular diet that our world would be autistic free. Gee.....if only it was that simple. I know many doctors and have consulted with many doctors, who all disagree with just trying to get people to purchase a book if he makes you think that changing a simple diet is all that it takes. Do not go to this doctor for advice. I looked him up and the medical board took away his license in 2014. Public court record!" (Looks like he has recently gotten it back. Checked the CA board and his probation for the new issue ended in the spring)

I just googled him. That above is just from Yelp. This next one sounds a bit like what you have mentioned above.

"Dr. Goldberg was recommended to me by a friend in San Diego. We were indeed excited to have someone offer us hope back in 2001 for our son who was diagnosed with autism. There were red flags (like " tie my son to the bed if he kept waking up in the middle of the night" ) but I was so grateful to find someone who seemed to care so much. Then our son started gaining weight - like 10 pounds a month - on his regiment of pills. We tried the diet for several months but there was no noticeable change in our child. Unfortunately his protocol seemed to adversely change our son's metabolism and our previously tall and thin child continued to gain excessive weight each month and is now severely overweight. One of my biggest regrets is sending my son to Dr. Goldberg."

Celexa is a bit much for a kid. It's just an SSRI which can cause weight gain or lose. Valtrex is mostly used to treat herpes zoster virus - cold sores, shingles, chicken pox.

I personally, am gonna call BS on this Doc. Yea, sometimes diet changes can help and there is often an anxiety/depression component to ASD, SSRIs are generally not recommended for kids. ASD is not only real but can be seen on brain scans and if his virus theory were correct he would have more consistent results. This dude may believe the BS he's shoveling but I think he is bad news.
Research has shown that the most effective treatment is education - OT, speech and ABA.

Hello. I've worked with people with disabilities for 25 years. When I was student teaching...20 years ago, a few of my students went to Dr. Goldberg. I am being honest when I say that these children who were only 5 and 6 at the time, did get prescribed Valtrex for their autistic like behaviors and physical flags and the results were astounding. I still keep in touch with some of the mothers and these children, that seemed so severe are now living completely normal healthy with zero symptoms of autism. I watched first hand the progress that this treatment made, how it gave these kids their lives back... and I may not have believed it, had I not seen it for myself. Consider sticking with him, please.... I've seen incredible things happen. If my own child had autism, I would take him to Dr.Goldberg and not stop.

I do know of one child that Dr. Goldberg unfortunately couldn't help and he was honest with the parents about it. Their child didn't have any viral markers, therefore his treatments would not benefit that person. I think he'd be honest if he could not help. Again, I've literally seen it first hand.

Side note, personally I have chronic shingles. I'm prescribed a daily dose of Valtrex and have been for about 10 years. It has not caused weight gain in me... but every body is different.

I am pretty sure tying a kid to a bed is considered abuse.... That right there tells me he doesn't actually care about the child's well being.

I just want to say one last thing... someone called him a "quack" on this. He's genuinely a man that has dedicated his life's work to helping children, and regardless of whether anyone believes in his treatments... that is to be admired. He does care, I've met him. His ideas aren't widely accepted by the insurance and medical communities because Autism is a multi billion dollar industry. Imagine the loss of money if autism could in fact be treated medically... what that would do to treatment providers, behavioral therapy providers, the money going into OT and PT and speech therapy, and so on. It's sad, but it's true.

I doubt that whoever said that statement is a medical professional, or a parent who's child is or has received his treatment, or that they have researched the very principle of his work, or that their life's work is dedicated to such an important cause.

@A MyAutismTeam Member, well this doctor sounds like a quack. One thing I will say, early intervention works wonders, so do probiotics and Vitamin B (all). Just do what you can, Youtube is a great source for ideas for helping with autism behavior therapy, there's also a site: https://www.superduperinc.com/ where you can purchase learning materials to do at home. If your niece needs help with speech, use PECS (picture exchange communication system), and of course Social stories are awesome. Some of these things are free, others aren't.

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