APRIL IS AUTISM AWARENESS MONTH................

So I will do my civic duty as a mother of a child with autism and give you a taste of what my world is like.
My son was born normal, nothing tramatic, normal pregnancy.....EVERYTHING. He developed normally for the first year of his life. And then something went horribly wrong.
He stopped playing with toys, stopped seeking out other kids to play with, would hysterically melt down if I went over to some one's house and he stopped talking. I knew something was wrong, I just didn't know what. The peditrician didn't know jack shit, I was in an HMO at the time and they suck wind. Everyone had the "let's wait and see" approach, well, 2nd birthday is coming around and things are not getting better. Guess what! Your son may have Autism! I go see a neurologist and he confirms our worst fears. It is like the old Irish tale of "make sure you get your baby bapitized a.s.a.p before the Fey come and change it out with one of thier sick babies". I lost the child I once knew and I was now going to have to learn everything all over again.
For those of you who are parents, remember those sleepless nights before your child would sleep through the night? Well try seven years of that shit. Seven years of waking up every few hours and some times pudd'n would STAY UP. It would not phase him to function on 3 hours sleep. Then there was the feces smearing. Yep, put pudd'n to bed and soon he'd have a nice big load in his pants and he'd smear it ever where! We bought a video servalence camera and set it up in his room to catch him before he could get the diaper off. Then there is the behavioral vomiting. Never knew when that little gem was going to hit. Don't want to go some where or do something? PUKE! Eat too much and try to make it out of the food court......PUKE. Get an air bubble from your soda? PUKE. And yes, I had everything checked out. We did an upper g.i. and there is nothing wrong. We tried the 3 day intensive potty traing 4 years ago, they GARUNTEED us he'd be potty trained. I followed it to the letter........to this day, pudd'n still shits in a diaper. While some parents complain that thier kids talk too much, I say be fucking thankful. I'd KILL for my son to tell me what he wants to eat, where it hurts if he's fallen. P.E.C.S. does NOT lead to language like Miss Perky told me all those years ago. Oh yes, we've also tried the casin free & glutin free diet. Eliminate that from your child's food and he will emerge from his prison of autism! Yeah right, did that for 1 1/2 years with no results. What is glutin you may ask.....any thing with wheat, rye, barely or oats in it. I dare you to find something in your cubbords or freezer that does NOT have that shit in it. Now adays you can find a nice selection in your health food stores of glutin free foods. When I was doing it, I had to mail order because I had no selection in the stores. Most autistic kids have no concept of fear or danger. It is coming upon the anniversary of one of Pudd'ns class mates that had died. Mia was a beautiful little girl with blue eyes that would straight into your soul. One day out of the blue she crawled through the dog door, climbed over the 3ft fence, went down an embankment of ice plant and walked straight in to the path of an SUV. While the nanny was franticially searching the house, she heard the commotion out on the street below. Imagine her horror when she saw little Mia's body out there on the street. It was a horrible accident.
So, needless to say, you always have to be on guard. Then there are the kids that have dents in their forheads from banging them, the kids that hit, bite and kick. Luckily, Pudd'n does none of these things. I won't go into how scary the future is. No one can tell you how your child will turn out. Will he beable to live on his own or in a group home? Who will love him when you are dead?
There is a peek in to my world for the past 8 years. Progress has been slow for my Pudd'n, but he's made it. He is slowly coming back into our world. We had an excellent day at speech therepy today, pudd'n actually blew into the little flute and we cheered him on. The pride in his face was evident. Pudd'n cannot blow bubbles, blow his nose nor does he know how to spit out toothpaste when brushing his teeth.
I love my son with all my heart and soul. I have learned more from him in the short 9 years that he has been alive than the 30 that I have lived before his birth.
Welcome to my world. For those who have judged me, I dare you to live in my world for a week, think you can handle it? Actually, you'd have to live the first few years of the hell known as autism. Pudd'n is MUCH easier now.
1 in 166 children are being diagnosed with Autism ever day. Go check out my links for autism. I dare you.