Archive | July, 2010

Caused By Autism or A Normal Childhood Quirk?

By on July 10, 2010 in Autism

One of the issues with recognizing Autism in your child, and with having your child diagnosed, is knowing what are true symptoms and what are just things that some kids do… for example, walking and talking late. Some kids just do that. Flipping over their cars and spinning the wheels, some kids just do that. Not wanting to eat most foods… most parents will tell you that it’s a chore to get their kids to eat a lot of the time.

So then you get the diagnosis and you start getting the education, doing the research, going to the appointments… and as the years roll on, you still find that you are constantly asking yourself: Is this due to the Autism or is this just something he is doing?

My latest example of this is Cameron’s constant repeating of everything his little brother says. He sometimes even repeats my wife and I. It’s something that seems like it could be something that he picked up at school, it seems like he could be doing it simply because he thinks it’s funny. And I do remember the repeating game, where you repeat everything that someone says until they just get so furious that they storm off.

I decided to ask around and was told about Echolalia. And there it was, an in your face answer and yet, still no real answer at all…. is he doing this Echolalia or is it just something he’s doing to bug us.

Given that it has a name and is specifically attributed to certain individuals, including Autistics, I can’t help but think that I was right to ask around and try to find out.

Even those who’ve been dealing with it for years, even the experts are sometimes presented with a symptom of Autism that they might simply mistake as a child or person being quirky.

The safest thing you can do is, if you question it, then ask questions about it. If something persists longer than a day or two, or a week… if something seems like it’s come on pretty strong quite rapidly… if it seems like it could be a quirk but might is possible that it could be due to the Autism, ask!! Whether it be on a forum, a social networking site, the therapists you work with, even just your doctor… ask around.

If it is something relating to their Autism, chances are they’ve heard of it, dealt with it and may even have some solutions to help you through it. But if you just sit and wonder… you’ll never know.

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New Autism Treatment Drug, KM-391 is in Development

By on July 8, 2010 in Autism News

Read the original article here: http://www.huliq.com/10017/new-autism-treatment-drug-km-391-development

Now, I’m not a doctor nor a scientist, so obviously I can’t speak about exactly how effective this would be, but I have 2 concerns about it.

1. Serotonin levels are usually associated with depression, paxil and prozac and other depression medications usually work to elevate or level out your Serotonin levels in an effort to make you more ‘chemically balanced’ and thus, happier. Now, I know that Autism and Depression often go hand in hand but I seriously doubt that they’re linked medically/chemically. If a low Serotonin level can make you depressed, how can it also make you Autistic just some of the time?

2. If they do not have any clue what it is that causes Autism, how can they make a drug that treats it? The answer is, you can’t, well, unless you got real lucky! But ultimately you can’t hope to change the chemical balance of a human being to cure a disorder without knowing what, if any, chemical imbalance is causing it!

Now, it sounds to me that they could simply be developing a new anti-depressant which will ultimately make an Autistic person happier, and I do believe a happy Autistic is less likely to exhibit ‘Autistic like’ symptoms… it only stands to reason that being happier would mean less tantrums, violence and so forth.

But isn’t that really just a ploy then?? I mean, could we just be pumping our kids full of Prozac just as easily and calling that a treatment? If this new drug does the same thing as an anti-depressant… why not just use an anti-depressant?

I guess what I’m saying is, if you take a bottle of Evian water, and take off the label and stick on a “Premium, no fat, no calorie, no sugar, no salt weight loss beverage”… does that make it any more a diet aid?? Or is it still a bottle of water?

Again, I’m no doctor, not a scientist, just a guy at home reading up on this stuff, so if you know more than I do, or have your own opinions, please feel free to comment or go with what you believe.

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Turning 5 Means New Big Boy Responsibilities

By on July 7, 2010 in Autism

I am in no way eager for my boys to grow up but a strange thing happens to you when your child falls behind in development, whether it’s due to Autism or anything else… you want them to not just catch up, you want them to surpass everyone…  but still not grow up too fast!

Cameron will be turning 5 at the end of July, it’s coming up fast… and so I’ve started to talk to him about things I’ll expect once he’s a bigger boy. It’s kind of funny because I picture these conversations happening again when he hits his teens and he’ll be dreading every minute of it, but for right now, he’s so eager to be a big boy that he can’t wait for me to add more weight onto his shoulders!

Now, these sorts of things will be different for everyone but for my boy and me, these are his new duties:

1. I expect that he will take his own bites of his food and do it without the need to be reminded.

It sounds pretty simple, it also sounds pretty hopeless by most children’s standards really… but he is really quite responsible, just in a different way, so I know he can do this. As it is now, because he needs to be doing something at all times, he comes in for me to give him a bite when I call him, and then disappears again to play until I call him again. This system does work well but often times it leaves him lagging while his 2 year old little brother finishes his own plate on his own and gets a yummy dessert sooner. This frustrates Cameron and a meltdown ensues.

He can see that his 2 year old brother that can’t count, or put on his own shoes or get the colours quite right yet is able to eat entirely on his own and get dessert faster… so he knows full well that he can do it too. He’s knows that mom and dad take their own bites and finish sooner as well.

So he now knows that when he’s 5, I expect that he’ll be able to do it as well, and he has no objections… so far. We’ll see.

2. If you put something down, and later can’t remember where you put it down, it stays lost until you find it yourself.

This is a pretty common thing for all children, you offer them something and they just drop what’s in their hands and let it fall where it may. Last night, I gave him his cup of chocolate soy milk before bed and said goodnight. A little while later, because it was so hot, he moved to a cooler room to sleep and asked for another cup. I asked him where his cup was and he said he didn’t know… implying I should just go find it.

I sat down with him on the bed and gave him his big boy responsibility number two… mommy and daddy can’t be expected to just find things for him. He’s lost some toys that he wishes he hasn’t, they’re no longer coming back. And he’s old enough to understand that… he knows that they’re not in the house, there’s no finding them. And he knows that they’re gone because he put them down and couldn’t remember later where that was.

Obviously, I don’t expect perfection, everybody has put something down at some point in their life and forgotten where it was. Keys? cell phone? sunglasses? Anyway, I don’t expect he’ll always know but I want him to work on it, things that are more routine like that night time cup should be put in a place where later, when I ask, he can easily get it or tell me where it is because he’ll remember.

As a parent, it’s hard… you don’t want your kids to go growing up too fast, but it’s also frustrating having to always find their stuff, always having to feed them forever.

I think it’s because I know that for some parents of more severe Autistic children, they’ll never get to a point where they can stop feeding their child, their child will never ever remember where they just dropped something… it’s because those parents would love for nothing more than to have even the simplest responsibilities demonstrated by their children that I have to work at making sure my child does.

For example, Cameron is doing very well despite having Autism, but when I see another parent who doesn’t even bother to teach their child anything because they figure the school will do that for them… it makes me furious. How dare you take advantage of that, how dare you take something simple like taking a few minutes to educate your child for granted when it’s so much harder for us to do and we still do it anyway!

Anyway, you get my point… I push for big boy responsibilities in my child because I want to see him progress, to catch up, to exceed and I do it because I know he can, I know I can and I will not ever take it for granted, nor let him take it for granted when so many are unable.

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The “Which Would You Rather” Game Is a Very Dangerous Game Indeed

By on July 6, 2010 in Autism vs Vaccines

Probably the most prominent example, and the one to start it all off, is Jenny McCarthy’s interview where she says (and I paraphrase as best I can) “Would I rather my son have measles instead of Autism? yes, in a heart beat”.

Granted, measles doesn’t sound so bad so I’d have to agree with her, I think I’d rather my boy be sick for a while, help him get through it for a little while and then go on with his life, instead of having Autism for life.

However, that’s just one of many diseases and viruses that are held back by vaccines…  mumps and rubella aren’t really all that bad either, can be fatal but very rarely. Chances are my boy would just be sick for a while.

What gets me though, is that, in the interview, no one asks her if she’d rather have her child be disfigured or paralysed from polio, no one ever asks her if she’d rather kill someone else’s baby with whooping cough than risk her child having Autism.

Sounds a little harsh, but if you look to California, it’s happening! An outbreak of pertussis (whooping cough) is happening right now, today, and it’s killing babies. Why?

Here’s the thing, some parents are convinced, absolutely and completely, that vaccines are causing Autism in children, and therefore are not taking the risk.

Let’s take a look at that risk for a moment, because I think this is where the system breaks down.

If a parent does not vaccinate their child, that child can contract a preventable illness such as whooping cough, and then come into contact with a baby sibling or some other baby, pass along the illness before that baby even has a chance at getting their vaccination and that child could die.

Meanwhile, there’s no guarantee that their child won’t already have Autism despite not being vaccinated! Recently a woman commented on another of my posts about how one mother did not vaccinate, another did, both of their children are Autistic.

This isn’t a debate about whether or not vaccines do cause Autism, it’s about the risk. Taking a risk, avoiding a risk, choosing which risk to take.

Let me put it this way, if you “don’t take the chance” by not vaccinating your child, and he/she turns out to be Autistic anyway AND comes home to infect your newborn baby and that baby dies… not only did you not avoid the risk, you took the ultimate risk and lost both times!

Some of you die hards will say that would never happen but, it can happen. We are seeing it right now. Unvaccinated children are Autistic. Unvaccinated children are dying from preventable diseases!!

The “Which Would You Rather” game is not a game, it’s very…. VERY dangerous.

I understand how watching your child be ‘vaccine injured’ can set you on a path, set you on a mission… however, I can also see how a much bigger tragedy can come of it if not careful. If your child regressing into Autism affected you this much, how much would it affect you if your child got Autism and a baby died at the same time, all because you didn’t vaccinate.

Would you still feel the same? Would your mission be different?

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Toilet Training a Child With Autism

By on July 5, 2010 in Autism

I’m sorry, but the title just seems funny to me. The reason I used it is that I’ve seen many other articles on this subject and really, most aren’t all bad but some just make me cringe. Here’s why…

I’ve written many times already in the short life of this blog, that no two Autistic people are the same… that you have to handle every single person with Autism differently because their symptoms and issues are usually very different. Then you come across these articles which tell you what you “need to do” to toilet train your child.

With that out of the way, I will share with you what worked for my wife and I, it was really quite funny.

My son had just turned 3 was starting to get his words together, to actually be able to communicate, thus, able to understand a little better, I think. We felt that this was a perfect time to put in an honest effort, not just due to his level of understanding but because he was larger than a 6 year old and we were running out of diapers sizes in his size.

Cameron was obsessed with the Cars movie, with Lightning McQueen and Mator… he could watch that movie 3 times a day, more if we let him. So, while visiting my mom in the US (I am Canadian), we visited several stores and found that there are a LOT more toys available in the US than there is here.

So we bought every one we could find and filled up 3 bags worth, as well as a couple of bigger toys including Mac the truck and a parking garage.

We showed my son all these toys which, I’m sure you can imagine, excited him a lot! So we placed the bags on the back of the bathroom door and placed the bigger toys on the floor in front of the toilet.

We sat him down, on the toilet and while he was trying to catch a glimpse of every single car in each of the bags, we explained to him “Cameron, every time you go pee into the toilet, you get a car from the bags… every time you do a poop in the toilet, you get a big toy like Mac.”

Apparently his level of understanding was much higher than I had thought at the time, for wouldn’t you believe, he would rush off to the toilet every 3 minutes! I kid you not, he must have been in and out of that bathroom 45 times that day. He went to bed defeated but didn’t make a fuss about it, but it certainly was in his mind because when he woke up, he was eager to run to the toilet again. A couple dozen times more that day and then it happened… a trickle! It took a while, but finally a trickle hit the water in the bowl and so, for that tiny little piddle in the puddle, he got a brand new car out of the bag.

The next day he got several cars, the next day more cars, the next day…. only 3 days in, he got Mac the truck.

By the time the week was over, he had every single car from all 4 bags and never once wore a diaper again. And he wasn’t sad in the slightest that he didn’t get a reward after they were gone either… yes, I feared that the day would come when he’d be expecting the rewards to keep coming forever. But that didn’t happen because he sat there and watched the bags empty, he knew when it was done.

On our drive back to Canada the following week (that makes 2 weeks later now), he had an accident in the car and broke down crying… he felt so devastated, so bad… that he didn’t pee in the toilet.

It was truly remarkable at how quickly he took to it, even more remarkable at how important it became to him that he never pee anywhere but a toilet ever again… in fact, he won’t even pee outside on the side of the road or anything.

Now, I know and understand that I’m a lucky one, that toilet training simply is not that easy for everyone, I also understand that for Autism, you’re not supposed to feed an obsession like that, I also understand that you’re not supposed to bribe your child to accomplish these things…. man, I sure am breaking a lot of rules/trends, aren’t I?

That’s the thing, there are no rules, there are no right and wrong’s… you know your child better than all the article writers and professionals in the world. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t go out there and look for advice and new ways to do it when all the things you’ve tried won’t work… what I’m saying is, don’t shy away from trying something just because someone somewhere said it was some big no no, that they’ll look down on you for it.

I knew my son would love those cars, I knew that he’d be willing to pee in a toilet for them and I was right…. more so, he surprised me at it!

Was I a lucky one? Or did I not listen to the nay-sayers and just did what I knew would work for my situation? Hmm….

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