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Autism and the Nursery Witch October 19, 2009

Posted by hopeauthority in Autism, Children, Family, Health, special needs.
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No sooner did I wrap my mind around the first article with the big jump in autism stats…1 in 100 instead of 1 in 150…but right on it’s heels comes the latest figures. 1 in 91.

1 in 91.

Anyone else feeling sick?

It brings a recurrent and ridiculous vision to my mind.  I am standing outside the glass of an insanely large maternity ward, looking in at rows and rows of newborns… with their cute smooshed faces and their arms tightly tucked into their cocoon-like wraps. Soft little beanies of pink and blue atop misshapen little heads. There’s about 100 of them all lined up. Or should I say 91 of them.

And like some sick, twisted fairy tale, there’s a witch hovering over one of those beanies…a blue one… casting a frightening spell that will manifest itself in about 18-22 months, upon the happening of a certain event.

I want to shoo the witch away, but I am too late. I want to hear what she is chanting, but the glass is too thick. I need to know what will trigger the spell to come to pass.  Some environmental toxin? Some vaccine? Some seemingly safe food that wreaks havoc on the digestive and immune systems…not too far off from the poison apple?

There are still days that I can’t believe that my blue beanie was the one.

I remember shortly after Fabio was diagnosed 5 1/2 years ago…before I told anyone but the closest  family and friends… I was at a carnival and spotted a woman with a boy about 5 years old. She wore a tee shirt with all the stats about autism on its back dating  from the time it was 1 in 10,000 until the present. At that time, the most recent stats were 1 in 250.  It cryptically stated: “Your child could be next”.  I could not take my eyes off her, her child, or her shirt.

Back then, I was haunted by that shirt and so worried about my son’s future. I still worry about his future…every day as a matter of fact. But the idea that the numbers of children being diagnosed with ASD are rising too quickly to even make up such a tee shirt…now that’s a scary thing. 

At this rate, it’ll be 1 in 75 by Christmas.

Someone really needs to kill that nursery witch. Fast. The survival of all our beanies depends on it.

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Autism Statistics Now 1:100! October 5, 2009

Posted by hopeauthority in Autism, Children, Family, Health, Parenting, special education, special needs.
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There’s many stereotypes and generalizations about autistic kids. Like they don’t handle change well…they like routine…they hate transitions. Well, maybe the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree in this house.

I was on a roll with this blog when my aunt passed away in May. For three and a half months, I found it hard to carve out the time for blogging. It’s not about just posting comments, but also about reading those of others. It’s about sharing and connecting.

My aunt died. My routine was broken. I was unhappy about both. Then a new routine of not blogging set in without me really realizing it. And then that became a hard routine to break.

And so much has happened that was newsworthy in the public eye… as well as in our private life… that caused me to at least think “I gotta get back to my blog!” Yet I didn’t.

I let horror stories go. I didn’t pay proper respects at the loss of Ethel Kennedy Shriver, or of local autism heroes. I’ve been lax in reporting Fabio’s HBOT progress or any of his milestones and challenges. There’s a 100 posts in my head that never made it to the screen.

But today, in Newsday, my local newspaper, an article by Carla K. Johnson, entitled, New study  reveals worrisome autism numbers, jogged me out of my fog and sent me running to the computer:

Two new government studies indicate about 1 in 100 children have autism disorders–higher than a previous U.S. estimate of 1 in 150.

Suddenly, I am moved to write again. But I am speechless. 

Perhaps a moment of silence would be best…