Autism - Medicine vs. Nutrition and Affordability - Why my son is getting better!

Little Ayn Poem

2011-07-20T12:29:00.003-04:00

Little Ayn

Ayn is just a little girl, taken from her only world.

   Little Ayn is only nine, but yet they have her doing time.

In a world she does not know, they still refuse to let Ayn go.

   If we could only make them see, the best thing is to let Ayn be.

Her family loves her very much, now not even a loving touch.

   Little Ayn needs their hugs, not those so called calming drugs.

She needs her family more than ever, this family tie they shouldn't sever.

   Little Ayn must be so scared, there was no way to be prepared.

Little Ayn needs to know, her family will not let this go!

   So PLEASE help undo this wrong ,for little Ayn it has been way too long....

Please Help: http://www.mindfreedom.org/kb/youth-mental-health/ayn-van-dyk-alert?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=facebook

Join the cause here: http://www.facebook.com/groups/152278868178942

>> Finally, if you've signed the petition and are wondering what kind of difference your one click will make, consider extending your influence by writing to those who have the power to reverse this decision:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A2
Canada
Fax: (613) 941-6900
E-mail: pm@pm.gc.ca

Premier Christy Clark
Premier of British Columbia
Parliament Buildings
Victoria, BC, V8V 1X4
Canada
Fax: (250) 387-0087
E-mail: Christy@christyclark.ca

and

Mary McNeil
Minister of Children and Family Development
Room 306 Parliament Buildings
Victoria, BC V8V 1X4
Canada
Fax: (250) 387-9722
E-mail: mary.mcneil.mla@leg.bc.ca

"A Mothers Sorrow"

2011-06-27T11:09:00.002-04:00

"A Mothers Sorrow"

     I remember it like it was yesterday "Your Son Has Autism". That day was a little over three years ago. My heart broke, I tried to talk and all I could do was cry. What, why, would, is he going to be able to have a normal, what?!! I couldn't even form a full sentence, through my heartbroken tears caused by those four words. My tears flowed for two hours after and just when I thought I had got myself together, I would look at my son and the tears would start flowing again. I hated the fact that I was now looking at my son differently. I felt guilty for looking at my son like he was broken or defective some how. Why did that woman have to say those four words? Now what I thought was cute or funny was "Autism". This wasn't cute or funny anymore, this was a sign that my son was never going to have a full life. He was never going to experience all the things in life I thought he would.. He was never going to have friends, girlfriends, marriage, children, a career, driving a car, a life. My son , my beautiful boy was never going to get to live a normal life!
     A few day's after my son's diagnosis I quickly went into denial, she's wrong ,that lady , that so called doctor, doesn't know what she's talking about. Brandon doesn't do that so he doesn't have "Autism" and look he isn't doing that either so he couldn't have "Autism". I was ignoring everything that he clearly did do that was "Autism".
     The doctor said he needed to get into therapy, okay fine , it's not like it's going to hurt him, even though I thought I had convinced myself, he didn't have "Autism". We made the appointment for his therapy evaluation. Today was the day ,off we go to this unnecessary therapy appointment. We got there and I met some parents as their children played and Brandon stayed by my side or crawled under the chair. I started watching these children playing and some even talking, some of them could even read at the age of three, they seemed even more normal than my son. So now that sinking feeling was coming back, that same feeling I had that day when that doctor diagnosed my son, except it was me that was saying it this time "My Son Has Autism". I cried again in the car on the way home, but I knew it was time to brush myself off and do everything I could for my son. My son was going to be the best he could be, whatever that may be. I was going to research and study like I had never done in my whole life. I was his mother and I was supposed to help to guide him and teach him and be there for him whether it was till he was an adult or longer! I couldn't do that if I was to drown in my own sorrows and denial. So I went on my mission and my promise to my son was to "Never Give Up" and "Never Give In" and I will keep that promise to him and do everything I can do, to help him be the best he is possible to be, whatever that is. "I Love You, Brandon"

My son is much better now, but my promise is still there for however long he needs it.

One last thought: If you don't let go of your sorrow, you can't help your children live their best tomorrow.

Balancing Autism and Finances

2011-05-10T11:42:00.000-04:00

    Things in my world lately have been a little overwhelming, so I thought I would share a little bit of this with you in hopes also that you would share with me your thoughts on this subject.
     In my family right now we are really fighting to keep our head above water, the economy is really starting to kick our butts. The business we are in is a luxury, we both are hairstylists so when it comes to cutbacks in a family's budget we are one of the first ones people cut back on., so I figured since I am on the internet so much any how, I would try to supplement our income at the same time, not going so well. I refuse to give up because my son needs this, if our ship sinks so does his. Doing hair for a living was perfect before because I could schedule my customers around my son's therapies and school. I have applied for jobs but I can't seem to get one that I can work around my son, I don't want to get a job where his schedule is all out of wack and stressful for him, he his doing so well I just can't take the chance of him regressing, this is not an option.We are also down to being a one car family which makes things even more complicated.
     I am feeling very overwhelmed right now, so I guess what I am asking for is help. I really need some advice from all of you, my head is spinning on what I can do, but I still am without an answer , could you help me figure this out? Any advice is so welcomed, maybe if I see it written in words it will all make sense.
Thank you, Teena and Brandon

2011-04-28T21:50:00.002-04:00

ATTENTION EVERYONE!!!

Now you can contribute and post on this blog!!!

If you would like to post on the blog please send us a message with your email address and we will invite you from the blog.

We need all your valuable input and comments.

Please support Improve Autism!!!

2011-04-03T11:07:00.002-04:00

Autism can feel overwhelming and hopeless sometimes, but all it
takes is one smile and all hope is renewed.
giving up is never an option.

Encouraging Research Results For Parents Of Toddlers With Autism

2011-04-03T11:05:00.000-04:00

Encouraging Research Results For Parents Of Toddlers With Autism

Autism bill: Humane, smart, fair - Editorials - The Charleston Gazette - West Virginia News and Sports -

2011-03-29T19:12:00.000-04:00

Autism bill: Humane, smart, fair - Editorials - The Charleston Gazette - West Virginia News and Sports -

2011-03-07T22:13:00.004-05:00

2011-03-07T22:01:00.001-05:00

Teena Young via A Dog 4 Deeds
The Animated Woman: A Boy, a Blog and a DOG.
http://www.theanimatedwoman.com/

Please go and check this site out it is for a worthy cause,

an adorable little boy with autism on a Quest for a dog.

(a service dog)

#Dollar4Dover Twitter and Facebook Campaign: #Dollar4Dover Twitter and Facebook Campaign

2011-02-12T23:08:00.000-05:00

#Dollar4Dover Twitter and Facebook Campaign: #Dollar4Dover Twitter and Facebook Campaign: "#Dollar4Dover Twitter and Facebook Campaign Please go to http://www.thejessicadoverfoundation.org/ to donate a dollar..."

2011-02-12T22:18:00.002-05:00

AUTISM ISN’T A DEAD END STREET –

YOU JUST NEED TO FIND A BETTER ROAD MAP!

The Jessica Dover Foundation website

2011-02-12T22:16:00.000-05:00

http://www.thejessicadoverfoundation.org/

2010-12-13T14:27:00.003-05:00

A DIFFERENT ARTIST – Victor Francesco Cham is the first person with autism to have a one-man exhibit.

MANILA, Philippines — In 1999, then eight-year-old Victor Francesco “Vico” Cham was playing in the office of his parents who are both architects.

The office was filled with art materials that Vico could play with. He grabbed a blueprint, some poster paints and a brush, sat on the floor and started to paint his favorite cartoon show on the back of the blueprint.

“I was in the shower and I did not know that he was in the office. When I asked what he was painting, he replied ‘Blues Clues, mommy.’ So if you observe the painting, there’s a house, there’s the garden. Immediately, after he finished his painting, I had it framed. That’s the time I realized that my son could be an artist,” recalls mommy Cathy Cham.

It would have been a mother’s ordinary discovery. Only, Vico has autism and the fact that he could produce beautiful artworks brought immeasurable joy, and hope, to his mom.

Now at 19 years old, Vico is the pride of his parents, and the Autism Society Philippines (ASP). He is now known for his artworks, which were even featured in a television show. Earlier this year, he had even held his first one-man exhibit at SM Marikina, featuring more than 50 of his digital and hand-drawn artworks.

Acceptance
Vico was diagnosed with autism at the age of two. He had all the symptoms of the autism spectrum disorder. He did not communicate, he flapped his arms around, and had no eye contact.

“He was diagnosed when he was two years, eight months. When the doctor said that your son has ASD, sabi ko, ‘Ano po iyon?’ At that time kasi wala pang masyadong information about autism, awareness-wise, it’s very low,” Cathy recalls.

Upon reading all the books about autism, Cathy realized that her boy was indeed very much different. It took her about a week to finally accept her son’s condition. Back then, it was extra difficult for her because she was alone, raising two young boys while her husband was working abroad.

“I had to research and face my problem. I just told myself to accept that my son has this condition and I must do something about it. When I accepted, it was not heavy. It was a lot easier for me because I know what I was supposed to do,” she says.

She started to work on her son, following what the doctor recommended. She immediately started Vico’s intervention such as speech and occupational therapies. And in just three months, Vico said his first word — “Mama”.

“We were very emotional when we finally heard him talk. It was the first time I heard my son talk in three years! Every progress we saw in him we’re just very thankful for,” she says.

Developing an artist
When Vico was eight years old, he transferred to Shine SPED Center in Pasig City from another school in Greenhills, San Juan. Cathy admits it was one of the most challenging phases in Vico’s education.
“It was really more on the change of venue. In his first two months, it was very difficult to explain to him that he just transferred from a small school to a big school. He still had tantrums. The adjustment was the hard part, the change,” she shares.

But slowly, Vico started to open up and really show his talents. Specifically, he started to excel in the arts, which his school also supported.

“May skill na siya talaga. In our art and crafts activities dun lumabas ‘yung skills niya, ‘yung talent niya na ‘yun. His mom honed his skills further,” Shine SPED Center case manager Debbie Enriquez says.
People with autism tend to have compulsive and ritualistic behaviors, which involve the same pattern of daily activities. While children with autism are usually given structured teaching to matche their repetitive behaviors, Vico was given more leeway by the school.

“What we did was just gave him the materials and we just let him do whatever. So what he did were all his ideas, no patterns. Ideally, activities would be structured, there must be a creative routine, following a pattern. But with Vico, we just let him develop it,” Enriquez explains.

From Vico’s parents was full support all the way. His dad, Victor, even gave up his work in Hong Kong just to be with his son and help him through his development.

“On our side as parents, we focused on his artistic side. So everything that he would create, we would support. We buy him different materials he could try. And almost everything he does looks very nice, it’s natural for him to create something,” Cathy says.

Vico’s artistic development was natural, especially coming from a family of architects. His older brother, Carlos is also taking up Architecture in college. Vico was also trained by Gabby Atienza, a professor at the University of the Philippines who has Asperger syndrome, which is part of ASD. Atienza taught Vico how to draw human figures.

Eye for detail
“I like drawing a lot. I enjoy my drawing. I like to draw the garden, the butterfly,” Vico says, oftentimes just answering with a simple “yes” or “no’’. But his mom and teacher guide him to answer the questions properly.
Vico also likes to draw celebrities. He usually copies from a photograph of the person. He has already drawn celebrities he really admires like Iya Villania, Tweetie de Leon-Gonzales, Myx VJ Robi Domingo, and American Idol runner-up David Archuleta. He has also drawn people close to his heart like his mom, his teachers, and other relatives, and of course, his self-portrait.

“I like Enchong Dee, the Gigger Boys, A-Pop, Diva Girls. I like watching television, ‘Shoutout’. I have a lot of drawings,” says Vico who also likes to sing and dance. ‘’I like Owl City’s ‘Fireflies’ and I like Justin Bieber and David Archuleta. I like to sing ‘How Great is Our God’.”

His eye for detail is what makes his drawings really stand out. “Every little detail he sees on that particular person he draws,” Debbie Enriquez shares.

Today, most of Vico’s drawings are done on the computer using the Paint application, which he learned to operate back in 2007. He has a huge collection of artworks that his mom has already lost count of. After holding his successful one-man exhibit, selling 18 of his artworks, Vico won the Couples for Christ Got Talent last December 5, besting normal contestants.

For Cathy, what’s more important is the level of awareness people get every time they see Vico and his drawings, that even if he has autism, he can do whatever ordinary people can. “That exhibit was very overwhelming, people appreciated the set-up. They were able to appreciate a special person doing an on-the-spot drawing,” Cathy shares.

Vico is considered as one of the school’s most independent students. In fact, because of his effortless skills using the computer, the school has designed a module on computer graphics. It is now part of the school’s curriculum and they are trying to have it accredited by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).

Vico does not only seem to alter what other people know about autism but he defies all the misconceptions about people with autism. He proves that anyone, whether abled or not, can do things exceptionally through practice and the right developmental process.

Like what he writes below his signature in every artwork, Vico Cham is proudly autistic.

2010-11-29T15:18:00.002-05:00

ATTENTION EVERYONE!!!

Now you can contribute and post on this blog!!!

If you would like to post on the blog please send us a message with your email address and we will invite you from the blog.

We need all your valuable input and comments.

Please support Improve Autism!!!

2010-11-29T14:30:00.000-05:00

Autism can feel overwhelming and hopeless sometimes, but all it
takes is one smile and all hope is renewed.
giving up is never an option.

Autism From a Flu Shot? The Ominous Clue From Kanner's Autism Case #7

2010-11-29T13:47:00.002-05:00

By Dan Olmsted and Mark Blaxill

Seventy-three years ago, Elizabeth Peabody Trevett, a pediatrician and pioneer in promoting mass vaccination for infants, gave birth to a boy named John who became the seventh child ever diagnosed with autism. She presumably vaccinated her baby, and perhaps herself while pregnant, with the same shots she administered to her own patients. One of those shots, the newly developed diphtheria toxoid, was the first to contain the ethyl mercury preservative, thimerosal.

Today, pediatricians and public health officials scoff at concerns that thimerosal, still used today in most flu shots recommended for all pregnant women and infants older than 6 months, could cause autism. But after researching our new book, "The Age of Autism: Mercury, Medicine, and a Man-Made Epidemic," we are much less sanguine about such an outcome.

Our conclusion: The facts of Case 7 fit with a common familial background exposure in the first cases to newly commercialized ethyl mercury compounds in agriculture and vaccines. They suggest children, then as now, are at risk from the dangerous and indefensible practice of injecting them with mercury for the stated purpose of protecting their health.
--

Elizabeth Peabody Trevett graduated from Johns Hopkins Medical School and won a fellowship to Harvard where she was one of seven pediatricians who pioneered the well-baby visit – at which vaccines are routinely administered. Her son John was born in November 1937. She subsequently divorced her husband, psychiatrist Laurence Trevett, and resumed using her maiden name, Peabody.

A few years later, back in Maryland, she was quoted about the importance of vaccination in an Annapolis newspaper article: “Too many parents, said Dr. Peabody, have the proper shots given and then relax, forgetting that booster shots are needed and that immunization does wear off. Speaking specifically of some of the most prevalent ailments, she stated that a child cannot be vaccinated against smallpox too often and it should be done for the first time when a baby is between three months and one year of age. In the case of diphtheria, booster shots are extremely important.”

Diphtheria was the first mass vaccine to contain thimerosal, starting in the 1930s just as the first autism cases were identified. It would have been widely available at a teaching hospital like Harvard at the time John was born.

Following her passion for public health, Elizabeth Peabody later set up a well-baby clinic in Iraq, again emphasizing the importance of vaccinating thousands of babies, and then joined the Public Health Service in Atlanta as a regional administrator for children’s health programs.

As flu season kicks into high gear this year in the United States, infants, pregnant women and nursing mothers are among the millions of Americans whom public health officials are urging with unprecedented fervor to get a flu shot. Because most flu shots contain mercury, and because the CDC has declined to express a preference for giving these groups a mercury-free version, this means millions of the most vulnerable among us are getting a significant dose of the dangerous neurotoxin – some at grocery stores and airports and retailers, some without even having to get out of their car. Tracking short-term, localized and mild adverse reactions would seem difficult, and following up on any associations with the onset of chronic or delayed outcomes like autism all but impossible.

--

This situation is plagued with illogic and bad judgment. The very same Public Health Service Peabody worked for -- which now includes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – along with the American Academy of Pediatrics has urged manufacturers not to put mercury in childhood vaccines. This was in July 1999, and over the next several years mercury was phased out of those vaccines – except, inexplicably, for flu shots. The government in fact greatly expanded flu shot coverage recommendations so that now all pregnant women, nursing mothers and infants over six months old are targeted for the shots. This earlier exposure to mercury has the effect of offsetting the removal from other vaccines; in fact, it moves the timing of the shots forward to a much more vulnerable point in the development of the infant brain and the immune system. Adjusted for weight, fetuses and infants are still getting a substantial portion of the mercury dose that first caused concern.

The government originally acted to remove mercury because a Congressionally ordered review found that as more and more shots were added to the infant vaccine schedule during the 1990s, the amount of mercury to which a child could be exposed exceeded the EPA guideline for maximum safe mercury exposure. And because mercury is so dangerous to humans and especially infants – it is the second-deadliest element on Earth – and has caused terrible poisonings all around the world, the idea was a sound one based on the precautionary principle and the well-known medical admonition to "First, do no harm."

Precaution has not exactly been in the watchword in the medical industry’s use of mercury. Our book traces its reckless use in medicine and manufacturing for half-a-millennium; doctors treated the skin ravages of syphilis with mercury ointment and vapors after Columbus brought the disease back from the New World in 1494; eventually a much more toxic mercury compound, mercuric chloride, was ingested and injected to try to “cure” syphilis (only the advent of penicillin the 1940s did that). We found a strong pattern of evidence that suggests mercuric chloride interacted with the disease to create the deadliest form of syphilis, called general paralysis of the insane. Doctors never noticed.

So it has gone for centuries. Our research strongly suggests that the first cases of autism among children born in the 1930s were connected with exposure to three newly commercialized ethyl mercury compounds: a seed disinfectant, a lumber treatment, and the vaccine preservative thimerosal. (All three were invented and patented by one man, University of Chicago chemist Morris Kharasch, one of the leaders in the development of organic chemistry.)

What leads us to this conclusion? We were able to identify seven of the 11 children described in Johns Hopkins psychiatrist Leo Kanner’s landmark 1943 report (John Trevett was Case 7 in this series); Kanner, the dean of child psychiatrists who wrote the first child psychiatry textbook eight years earlier with no mention of autism, said these children’s behavior differed “markedly and uniquely from anything reported so far.” In his report, he used first names and last initials to mask the children’s identities, but we used clues in the detailed family descriptions to find them. The results clearly point to an environmental trigger in these first cases – specifically, ethyl mercury.

-- Case 2 was the son of a plant pathologist working with fungicides at the federal government’s Beltsville Agriculture Research Center in Maryland, just outside the nation’s capital. His extensive archive shows him working with mercury compounds from the beginning of his career, and contains a pamphlet for the ethyl mercury seed disinfectant Ceresan, a dust that could easily have gotten on his clothes and exposed his pregnant wife or newborn infant. (She had kidney trouble during pregnancy, which can be a sign of mercury poisoning.) The father’s resume shows him working with Ceresan when his son was born.

-- Case 3 was the son of a forestry professor whose research places him in a laboratory where early tests on wood preservation were being conducted with Lignasan, also an ethyl mercury compound.

-- And Case 7, as we have described, was the pediatrician and vaccine advocate for the Public Health Service. Several others in the first 11 had medical backgrounds that could put them at risk of medicinal mercury exposure.

Today John Trevett lives in a group home in Maryland, where we visited him as we prepared our book. He does not speak, but he appears to understand what is said. He is no trouble and seems well-cared for, but it a sad and eerie end for someone whose parents were both doctors and whose mother was a medical pioneer.

In our book, we describe this ongoing tragedy of overlooked mercury poisoning in depth and detail. Here, it is important to say that the Public Health Service may be just the latest in a parade of distinguished “experts” and esteemed organizations to miss the clues – even a clue that comes at a terrible price from one of their own pioneering pediatricians.

--
Dan Olmsted and Mark Blaxill are co-authors of “The Age of Autism: Mercury, Medicine, and a Man-Made Epidemic,” published in September by Thomas Dunne Books.

2010-11-27T14:13:00.001-05:00

AUTISM ISN’T A DEAD END STREET –

YOU JUST NEED TO FIND A BETTER ROAD MAP!

About This Book

2010-11-18T23:36:00.000-05:00

This is a book about my son after I did a lot of research into autistic children and how they improved and were even being re-diagnosed out of the autism spectrum, with diet changes, supplements, detoxing and behavioral therapies.

My son has recently been re-diagnosed after scoring between “autism not likely” and “normal” at his last evaluation. He is still in the autism spectrum, but is no longer considered to have a diagnosis of moderate autism. The route we chose for him was one of diet changes, supplements, detoxing and behavioral therapies.

I have put this book in a workbook format to make it easier for parents like myself, who feel very overwhelmed when their child is first diagnosed with autism. At some point they find out “yes” there is something that can be done, but then comes – “Where do I start? How do I find the time? Can I afford this?

I have answered all of these questions in this book. I have made this simple – giving you food lists (brand names included), a week of detailed menus, shopping lists, supplement charts and behavior charts to keep track of your child’s improvements.

Please take the time to look over this website and remember:

AUTISM ISN’T A DEAD END STREET –
YOU JUST NEED TO FIND A BETTER ROAD MAP!

Autism Research Reaches the Classroom

2010-11-17T22:28:00.000-05:00

Autism Research Reaches the Classroom

IQ scores fail to predict academic performance in children with autism

2010-11-17T14:58:00.000-05:00

IQ scores fail to predict academic performance in children with autism

2010-11-13T16:57:00.002-05:00

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Teena Young is the mother of a 5 year old son who has autism. She decided to write a book about everything she has done with her son after seeing profound improvement with diet supplements and therapies.

She started this journey when her son was 3 years old and between she and her son’s father they were making barely $20,000 a year. But that was not going to stop her and her husband Bryan from doing everything possible to heal their son and give him the best future possible.

That is where this book comes into play. She wanted to make sure that parents knew it was possible to do, even with a lack of money. Much can be done and the reward is worth more than anyone could ever imagine.

Poem by Teena Young

2010-11-13T14:32:00.001-05:00

What is this?

Poem by Teena Young

What is this?

I can’t be clear

Why you feel

So much fear.

What is this?

What can it be?

It’s almost like,

You cannot see.

What is this?

Why do you shrug?

When I want

To give a hug.

What is this?

Why are you mad?

All of this

Feels so sad.

What is this?

Why did you go?

I don’t think

I’ll ever know.

What is this?

Why can’t you say?

You could talk

Yesterday.

What is this?

Could it be me?

Who brings you back

Where you can see.

What is this?

It’s like a prism -

The many colors

Of autism……