Autism Awareness Day

Today is Autism Awareness Day and even though I don't really have anything profound to share with you about that, I did share a little about our son on my hubby's Facebook page the other day.  I thought that I would share it here too.  This is what I posted...

Even though we have been through the "ringer" with all that we have had to deal with over the past 10 years, I would not change our son for anything. I love our son so much for who he is and who God made him to be. He is an awesome child and person. God has used him greatly to teach us and others about many things in life, some things that most people never learn or come to appreciate in life. Most of all God has used him to bring our whole family closer to HIM. That is more wonderful than anything! God is Good! "Thank you, God, for what we see as trials, and carrying us through them." 

When it comes to Autism and all the information out there about it and how it has changed our lives, I tend to get a little overwhelmed when it comes to sharing and documenting in a place such as this blog.  There is so much...Where do I begin? I never know. So, for any of you out there that might want to know more or those that have specific questions, please ask here and I can use that as a guide for a future post here.  I would love to share with you becasue I truly believe that the LORD gives us trials and situations in our lives so that we can help others.  Not to say that we have it perfected or our son has been "cured" but rather, we have found things that work and have learned to rely and on each other as a family and have grown deeper in faith becasue of it all.

Jenny McCarthy's New Book

Jenny McCarthy has been in and out of the news media spot light for some time now as she takes a stand on autism and vaccines. She is back in the news with the recent release of her new book: Mother Warriors: A Nation of Parents Healing Autism Against All Odds .

I plan on getting this book and checking it out. I imagine that I will find stories very similar to ours through out this book. Should be good!

With the release of the new book she has been on various talk and news related shows. Here is a clip of her on CNN.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/health/2008/10/01/intv.mccarthy.cnn

Here is another clip of her on Good Morning America.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Books/story?id=5878229&page=1

Autism community outraged at Autism Speaks response to Savage

Here is the response from Autism Speaks in regards to the comments from Savage:

"One important goal of increasing awareness about autism is to foster a greater level of acceptance and understanding of the very real and significant challenges it poses to individuals with the disorder and their families. The good news is that we see more and more expressions of this compassion every day and everywhere, from classrooms and playgrounds to ballparks and supermarkets. Unfortunately, there are those who are apparently incapable of feeling compassion. They deserve our pity, not our scorn."

I, like everyone else in the Autism community, can not believe this response. Uuhhh wrong. Savage doesn't need a pat on the back accompanied with pity. We have to teach our world today, for those that don't "get it" or understand, what is happening to this generation of children. Where, on a daily basis somewhere or another, we are hearing news stories of our autistic children being kicked off planes, banned from churches, voted out of kindergarten classes, and asked to leave restaurants and retail stores. No, it's time the world wakes up and opens their eyes to an overwhelming epidemic.

Michael Savage - ...autistic children..."brats"

For those of you out there that have not heard the news media yet about the rude and insane comments from radio broadcaster, Michael Savage, well...here is the story.

Quoting Savage exactly...

"I'll tell you what autism is. In 99 percent of the cases, it's a brat who hasn't been told to cut the act out. That's what autism is. What do you mean they scream and they're silent? They don't have a father around to tell them, 'Don't act like a moron. You'll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don't sit there crying and screaming, idiot."


So yea. I am sure there was more to his radio broadcast from that day, but this quote is all that is remembered. When I heard about this my first reaction was "holy cow, I can not believe that someone would be so insensitive and say such a thing". But the more I though about it the more I was reminded of the kind of world we live in. The "all about ME" world where the only thing people care about is themselves. That is exactly the reason for Savage's comments. He doesn't want or like being bothered with having to tolerate the "behaviors" of autistic children around him. It is also obvious by his comment that he has no experience or even any idea why autistic children have the behaviors that they do. If he did he would not have even thought what he said, much less say it on national radio.

Anyways...enough of my thoughts and reactions...for now. There have been tons of responses to all of this. Here is one that I want to share...

Dear Mr. Savage,
My name is Shannon Johnson and I am the proud parent of a 13 year old son with autism.

If you met my son, you would probably think that he was very funny, as he would not hesitate to smile and call you weird, which is his best attempt at a compliment. He would find you intriguing because you have facial hair and he would want to touch it with his sticky fingers that usually smell like his last meal. He seems taller than he actually is because he walks on his toes. It makes it hard for him to wear shoes, but he will tolerate flip-flops in the summer and slip on shoes in the winter, as long as he can take them off as soon as he gets in the car or enters the house. Although he eats like a horse and I literally have to keep a lock on my refrigerator door, he is skinny and underweight, probably in part because of his severe digestive issues. Without a special diet of gluten-free and dairy-free foods, and a multitude of supplements, enzymes and medications, he wouldn’t even digest a fraction of the food that passes his lips. For the majority of his life, he has experienced more restrictions, seen more physicians, been poked more with needles and been tested more by psychologists than most adults can ever imagine. Through it all, he has been braver and more courageous than anyone I have ever met.

Naturally, it disappoints me to hear someone of your intelligence and of your influence describe children with autism as “brats”. I can only assume that you are referring to the fact that some children with autism are known to have behavioral meltdowns or tantrums.

Honestly, my son is one of those kids. If you saw him in public having a meltdown, you would probably deduct that he was screaming because he couldn’t have a new toy or another ice cream cone; that he was using his lungs to manipulate his parents into giving into his selfish requests. However, you would be completely wrong. Instead, he might simply be reacting to the fact that the sights and smells, the sounds and colors in the mall, or at the grocery store, have overwhelmed his already over-stimulated sensory system and he needs to retreat to the safety of the car right away. In this heightened moment, his anxiety would be revved up and he would lose his ability to verbally communicate his needs. He would then rely on his tears to inform me or his father that his system had had all that it could take, no matter what goodie we might offer, no matter what reward lay in our cart….And then, once he was safe away from the sensory assault, he might ask, as he has in the past, “What can we do next time so that it’s not so loud in the store?”……Certainly, we have even sat in the rain to eat a meal outside when the restaurant lights were too bright or the music inside too loud for our very sensitive boy.

If you stood outside my son’s door sometime, Mr. Savage, as I invite you to do if you are ever in my neighborhood, you might hear my son ask God in heaven to “please make me get better soon.” Not really the words of a “brat”, Mr. Savage…Only a very affected child who doesn’t feel good most of the time, and would do just about anything to just be like everyone else.

Sincerely-Shannon Johnson

(Taken from foggyrock.com:
http://www.foggyrock.com/MyPage/wynnsmom/Composition/1830#showcomp )

Here is another response that I found. This was a response to Shannon's post from here: http://adventuresinautism.blogspot.com/2008/07/shannon-responds-to-michael-savage-with.html

"How sad that autism families have to deal with fighting with doctors who have their own agenda, school officials who don't care and are overwhelmed, neighbors who don't get it, government officials who don't want to offer services, unsolicited parenting advice from every granny in the supermarket, idiots on airplanes, in restraunts, and elsewhere...and now, Michael Savage is inspiring a whole new slew of people to make life even harder. (Not to mention the actual struggles of dealing with the autism and therapies, etc.)"

And now from me....not to just Mr. Savage but anyone out there that feels the same..."until you live in the shoes of the parents/caregiver that walk the fragile roads each day of raising a child with autism, you have no place to judge us or our children. You are ignorant and have NO idea what you are talking about. "

You can read more of the news stories on this here:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25804382/#story

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25788692/

World Autism Awareness Day

With today being the 1st annual World Autism Awareness Day there have been many news broadcasts and people "telling" their stories of how autism has affected them in some way or another. Some of the most interesting that I have kept up with today has come from cnn.com. One story that they reported on was the story of Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey's son who was diagnosed with autism when he was 2 years old (he is now 5). They believe that their son was poisoned by vaccinations that he received as a young child.

As most of you already know, we too strongly believe that our son was also poisoned by vaccinations within just the first two years of his life. We did A LOT of our own research on the topic before making the decision to STOP ALL vaccinations for him and his brother (who, by the way, has never received one vaccination to date and is the healthiest one in our family).

The idea of opting out of all vaccinations for your children is one that I would rate as highly controversial. I have always (kind of) kept quiet about it unless someone approached me about it first. It is a very personal decision for parents to make and one that MOST have never considered as an option because they never new that it was. In fact most people today do not realize that vaccinations are OPTIONAL. Our schools and government make you think that they are something that is mandatory. They are not.

Today's Larry King Live show was with guest, Jenny McCarthy and her debate on how vaccinations are way out of control, not just with the controversial ingredient of thimerosal but also with the number of vaccinations that children receive by age 5. In 1983 a child received 10 vaccinations by age 5. Today that has more than doubled with a child now receiving 36 by age 5. Wow! Being that we do not vaccinate I had no idea that children are receiving that many shots in just 5 years. Jenny was questioning not only the vaccine ingredients but also the increase in the number of "recommended" shots that the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) and AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) are recommending now. I ask...Why? Why the increase in the number of shots?...has there been huge enough outbreaks of disease that warrants more vaccinations for our children today? I don't see it. As stated in a cnn article that came out today..."With billions of pharmaceutical dollars, could it be possible that the vaccine program is becoming more of a profit engine then a means of prevention?" That is what I think!!

Anyways... For anyone wanting more information about Autism, vaccinations or some of the stories from today's Autism Awareness Day news here are some links for you to check out.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/02/mccarthy.autsimtreatment/index.html

http://generationrescue.org/

http://www.putchildrenfirst.org/

http://www.autismspeaks.org/

http://www.autism.com/


Feel free to comment and contact me too if you would like. I would love to share our story with you. ....And for many of you out there that are pregnant now, I urge you to look into the vaccinations that you sign off on for your child once they are born (and through their childhood). Do your own research. Be smart about it. Ask yourself..."Does my child really need this?" You have to personally weigh the risks of vaccinating to not vaccinating. If you decide to vaccinate then ask your doctor for the vaccinations that are "thimerosal free" They are out there and there is a pharmaceutical company that does manufactures them. Don't let your doctor tell you otherwise. I don't have enough time and energy to sit and write about all our experiences with doctors and how many we have been to because they don't want to be inconvenienced with doing what we request. (So frustrating!)

Be smart. Think for yourself. Think outside the box.
Don't be a Lemming!