Given the dearth of drugs available for children with autism, it's no surprise that many parents turn to complementary and alternative medicine, such as restrictive diets or vitamins.A new survey finds that, in fact, more than one in every five children with autism uses unconventional treatments. That figure is considerably higher than 12 percent, the estimated proportion of all children in the U.S. who use alternative medicine.At the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting in Vancouver on 2 May, researchers from the Autism Treatment Network said that of 1,212 children with autism they surveyed, 21 percent take at least one type of alternative medicine, and 17 percent eat special diets, usually those without gluten and casein.Read more at...SFARI, May 2010.