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Cheryl White
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Cheryl commented on the article |I think another issue that may be relevant is genetically-engineered foods. It hasn't escaped my notice that many of the 'special' diets simply eliminate foods that are commonly now genetically-engineering. Genetically-engineered crops are designed, often, specifically for use with pesticides.
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Cheryl commented on the article |
Sorry, I have to call BS on this study.. “The diets are not easy to follow and can sometimes cause nutritional deficiencies.” While it is true enough that the diets aren't necessarily easy to follow, there is NO evidence that nutritional deficiencies can arise. I wonder how much the milk lobbyists paid for THIS study??
My child CLEARLY had GI issues - the KUB x-ray proved his bowels were impacted. However, this fact was COMPLETELY missed by his pediatrician, it took a 'DAN quack' to order an x-ray to make this diagnosis. Same pediatrician was jaw-hitting-the-floor shocked in the results we got from just a few months of GFCF.
There ISN'T a test to determine whether GFCF will be helpful - and 6 months of avoiding gluten and casein is not inherently dangerous. And, if you actually cook foods instead of buy prepackaged foods, it is not cost prohibitive, either.
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Cheryl commented on the article |I think its fair to say *most* people really have no idea about autism, autism-like symptoms, etc. In general, I think that any time you get people to start thinking and talking, its a good thing.
But, the cancer/autism comparison isn't really fair because by and large, the people who believe vaccines injured their children resulting in autism weren't vaccinating against cancer. The girls injured from gardasil have either died or had severe neurological problems, but in the over 9000 adverse reports on gardasil, no diagnoses of autism that I am aware of.
THere are lots of youtube videos of girls reporting what happened to them after they got the gardasil vaccine - are children's reports themselves reliable data, or is that still anecdotal evidence not to be trusted? Here's one sample.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lkuU0t3rqA&feature=related
Regardless, all the girls wish they would have taken their chances with cancer than the problems they are now having.
As for me, I would have stood my kids in line to catch measles AND chickenpox, gladly, rather than have to go down the road we ended up on.
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Cheryl commented on the article |
You are right - unfortunately, empathy for autistic children is lacking. Particularly in the medical field where there are some doctors who, for example, refuse to treat autistic children's GI issues because "GI problems are part of autism". What????
You must be referring to the book where the author opines that she would rather her child have cancer than autism. I think exercising your empathy for the parent who wrote the book could help the title bug you a little less. I haven't read the book, but I can imagine she is bemoaning the facts that
1) the general public tends to blame the parents of autistic children for the autism. whether it be for bad genetics or bad parenting, somehow the autism is the parents' fault. That isn't the case, of course, with cancer.
2) Autistic children's treatments, by and large, are not covered by insurance. That isn't the case with cancer. Some therapies may be covered in some places, but certainly 'fringe' autism treatments enjoying effacacies at least equivalent to some cancer 'cures' are not covered. It is reasonable to expect the out of pocket expenses with cancer are much less, regardless which autism ideology you find yourself in.
3) Generally speaking, a child with cancer will either get well with a good prognosis to become a self-sufficient adult or they will die. Either way, the parent doesn't have to fear what horrors may await their adult, dependent child after the parent dies.
In my case, I guess I could add that my child might have suffered less time without receiving some type of medical intervention had he cancer instead of an ASD. Four and a half years is a long time for a mom to go to medical professional to medical professional wondering what the problem is. It's far too long for a kid to suffer with impacted bowels, but its what happened to my kid.
All these can be reasons why a parent could wish for cancer rather than autism - and none imply the value of an autistic child is less than any other child to the parent. Rather, they represent parents' frustrations with the status quo.
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Cheryl commented on the article |Yes, I remember well the day my son told me he "didn't NEED trains anymore" - I was struck by his choice of the word "need" - as if, as I mildly suspected, his fascination with the spinning 'wheels' was fulfilling some type of need.
Anyways, it was a happy day for me when we kicked Thomas out of the house.
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Cheryl commented on the article |
Certainly there is some speech that merits stifling - child pornography, hate speech. However, I can't conclude that the expression of parents dealing with autistic children rises (or perhaps, falls) to either of those categories in this situation. I don't think a parent can commit verbal abuse to a child through words written on a blog. I do think preventing parents' speech similar to that written by the mother of the claiming to have a sometimes "control freak" would be a violation of her first amendment right of free speech.
Whether Constitutionally-protected speech is bad speech is, therefore, merely a matter of opinion. Regardless, the remedy for bad speech is always more speech.
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Cheryl commented on the article |
Melody, I am not understanding your point. Is your point that no negative aspects of ASD are ever mentionable? I didn't read the post as her saying ASD turned him into a control freak. But for sake of argument, lets say she did - and if she lives with the 'defiant little control freak" - shouldn't she be allowed to bemoan it every once in so often, regardless why he is the way he is? Even living with someone who is bright and cheerful all the time might be irritating from time to time, but would it be ok to complain about that? When a daughter starts to get raging hormones and be moody and bitchy, if a mother complains about it does that mean she is saying the child's gender "turned her into a bitchy little thing" since the hormones caused it and the hormones were due to her being female? Finally - if the mother who wrote about the 'defiant little control freak' believed the child was born ASD or if the mother believed it was caused environmentally, would it matter to you? Because, if she thought it was environmental, then she would be blaming the environment which caused the asperger's which caused the anxiety which caused the defiant control freakdom.
I'm not trying to make light, or ridicule, or twist what you posted. I am just trying to understand it. It seems to me a parent would have to be Mother Theresa or Christ himself to be just thrilled ALL THE TIME about having a child requiring extensive 24/7 care and with whom communication is a severe struggle. There are parents scrubbing feces off walls every day... and bless their hearts. I for one forgive them for not being tickled pink about it.
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Cheryl commented on the article |
Feelings just are. They are not static, so you might feel like your challenge as a parent is a nightmare for any length of time without inferring that your child is a monster.
I bet that mother will be thrilled if her child ever has the ability to convey and/or feel hurt by her mothers' expressing her feelings. And then they can talk about it. Work it out. Hug. Share a bonding moment getting mani pedis or ice cream cones or taking a hike or whatever that family does together as a family.
It is healthy to express your feelings. Parents can be distraught about various aspects of child rearing (any child - not specifically ASD children) - but that doesn't necessarily mean that the parents cast blame on the child. Sheesh, I didn't know when I signed on to be a parent I had to be thrilled about every aspect of it every second, and anything that I write down has to be nothing but love and sunshine. What prescription do I need to take to act like THAT? Happy all the time?? Even when I'm mainly upset about my own shortcomings? My own huge mistakes? Personally, I could relate to this recent post. http://www.ageofautism.com/2009/07/autism-perception-a-bump-in-the-road.html
I'm glad parents write how they feel. The parenting experience is isolating, particularly when you have to dedicate your whole life to tending to the highly exacerbated needs of a child with special needs. Parents get their kudos for doing what needs to be done for their kids - and a pox on anyone (including the kids themselves) who fault the parents for not being thrilled about it all the time. Healing my son has changed every aspect of our lives - I'm glad because now we live more consciously and we are aware of environmental dangers. But that doesn't mean it was all flowers and sunshine. No, I wouldn't have wanted to miss it because I wouldn't have wanted to miss out on having my son. But, we all wish we could have missed out on the poisoning.
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Cheryl commented on the article |At the time, my kiddo was language-delayed, and I'm glad his doctor noted the communications my son was giving us even if they were mis-interpreted at that time. I don't think the doctor used a checklist or something. He just noted my son's aversion to the school (which we later figured out was because the school's demands of him were not developmentally appropriate -he had very little core strength and it wasn't developmentally appropriate to expect him to sit at a desk and write for extended periods) as well as behaviors my son exhibited in relation to his solid waste elimination (which were related to his GI distress, etc.)
The good thing about the books I noted were they are primarily about ABUSERS. Abusers DO have definitive behavioral signs and a parent who learns them is better suited to identify potential abusers, thus circumventing the abuse in the first place. The books describe how molesters groom children and their parents. It's helpful to know how the twisted minds of molesters work.
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Cheryl commented on the article |
Luckily, as it turned out, my son was not molested at school or anywhere else, he just had GI problems. Nonetheless, I was glad to be alerted to this issue and I hope these books also help other parents.
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