My thoughts on the new CDC statistic...

I've been debating back and forth about this post...

1) I know it will stir up controversy and feelings from people on both ends of the many debates it encompasses.

2) I'm not a medical professional...I just know what I know from my own personal experience...

After a lengthy debate with myself, and finally realizing how ANNOYED I am (thanks, pregnancy hormones!) I decided I'd just put it out there. Haters can hate, people can agree, disagree...I don't care...here is my two cents...

The CDC released a new study today that they now find that 1 out of every 68 kids is Autistic. I found this new study via my Facebook newsfeed from a page I follow.  I clicked to read the article (because obviously, it applies to my life and I'm interested in hearing new developments) and then, I couldn't help myself, I read a few of the comments posted by other fellow page followers that had done the same...the rage started to bubble...

HELLO CONSPIRACY THEORISTS! So nice to see you're still out and about stirring up the pot...

I read several comments from people saying that its all a big pharmaceutical conspiracy to make money and that more kids are being diagnosed so that pharmaceutical companies can sell more drugs...

I also read comments about how doctors were diagnosis happy and that more kids are being diagnosed because doctors and parents don't want to accept that all kids are different and that we're placing too many standards on our children...

and of course...my FAVORITE people...the anti-vacc/chemicals in vaccines group spoke up. I'm sure you all know their arguments, but in a nut shell, they believe (in spite of MANY, MANY studies proving the opposite) that vaccines cause Autism.

I feel very strongly that I need to address these theories and impart a little bit of what I know and have learned over the last 11 months as we've struggled to find a diagnosis for my daughter and to find out what was causing her delays.

As far as the pharmaceutical conspiracy is concerned: IF you know anything about Autism, you would know that the treatments available depend largely upon Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Speech Therapy, and Modified ABA/ABA therapy depending on the individual child's delays, and some parents have found success with dietary changes such as switching to gluten and dairy free diets.  SOME kids with Autism also struggle with ADHD (some but not all) and doctors, after exhausting all other options, will prescribe meds for ADHD (they don't work for all kids and can sometimes make the Autism symptoms worse, which is why they are very careful about the when, what and how of prescriptions.) The only other prescription medicine that you may find an Autistic kid taking is a prescription sleep aid, and these are generally a last resort after herbs, supplements, diet changes, and additions of aids such as weighted blankets don't help the problem.  As far as it being a conspiracy created by pharmaceutical companies is concerned, after reading this, I hope you would see that they clearly won't be making much money off of a kid with Autism. Autism is caused by problems in the brain. Giving meds that can change the brain chemistry is tricky and risky business and I can reassure you that parents and doctors alike don't throw caution to the wind and try every prescription drug they can. They haven't found ANY prescription drugs that will alleviate or eliminate Autism symptoms. There is no magic pill. It takes a dedicated therapy team, hard working parents, and a hard working child to overcome any of the symptoms they may be dealing with.

Next, I'd like to speak to the people who feel we're putting too many expectations on our children. Doctors have come up with a list of projected skills that, in general, kids should be able to perform by certain ages. Most doctors won't go "diagnosis happy" over a small delay in one area and will chalk it up to the child just being a little slower in that area. Autism is not just one delay, its several. The most common delay with Autism, is speech, so, of course, if doctors see a huge speech delay they become concerned, its their job to be concerned, you pay them to be concerned... there are also delays in areas you may not even think about- does your child point at objects that interest them? Does your child follow simple instructions? Does you child point at a picture in a book after you point to it?... Bottom line: These lists of developmental milestones are a crucial part of being sure that your child is safe. Whether you choose to be concerned or not by the delays is up to you,but if a doctor is mentioning that you should be concerned, it doesn't hurt anything to examine things a bit further. The earlier they catch severe delays and start interventions, the better the outcome will be for your child. Most kids will grow out of delays, and some delays are so severe that they will require years of therapy, but don't get all huffy with doctors who are just doing their jobs and are pointing it out in order to offer you help if you want it. These developmental milestones are recognized worldwide by doctors. How lucky are we here in the United States to have quick access to a medical professional who can either alleviate our concerns or confirm them and give us the help we need?  Yes, every child is different,but if I had listened to people that said that I was overreacting when Faith wasn't talking AT ALL by the time she was a year old (no mamma, no dadda, not even yes or no), we wouldn't have made the progress we've made so far. It took 10 months to get a diagnosis. 10 MONTHS! 10 Months, 5 doctors, tons of tests,and a team of therapists to come up with the diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder.  Believe me, if doctors were diagnosis happy when it comes to Autism, if they were giving out the diagnosis just to shut up overly concerned parents, it wouldn't take 10 months to get the diagnosis...

Finally, the anti-vacc/chemicals in vaccines group...this will probably be my most controversial statement...so, as Samuel L.Jackson says in Jurassic Park: Hold on to your butts...

VACCINES DON'T FREAKING CAUSE AUTISM! ENOUGH ALREADY!  I could take time to dig up all the studies that disprove the studies you use to make your claims, I could take time to find all the failed studies that have tried to prove it, but I won't bother...I will just tell you what I know from my experience.

My daughter was 10 months old when her regression started...She didn't have any of the "evil vaccines" that scientists have tried to link as the cause of Autism yet...In fact, she didn't get them until 2 months AFTER her symptoms started to appear.  If vaccines caused her Autism, she must have magically had them without me knowing...

I will also say this: My mom got behind on my vaccines (she couldn't find my card to prove which ones I needed and had and so she was turned away until she could find it) and at 6 years old, I ended up sick with the Mumps.  I will tell you- these childhood diseases are not just a mild inconvenience like the Chicken Pox (which now has a vaccine...), they are BAD JUJU! I almost died. My mom almost lost her baby and there was nothing she could do but watch as her baby girl suffered for a month and a half.  I remember the first week or so after my diagnosis...I remember the horrible headaches, being unable to eat, and being so weak that I couldn't even walk to the bathroom to relieve myself, my mom had to hold me up on the toilet...after that everything is a blank. I don't remember a whole month of my life at the age of 6. My mom has filled in the blanks, and it isn't pretty... my entire school had to go be tested for the Mumps, my parents were given the choice to admit me to the hospital or let me die at home, they were looking at caskets and pricing grave plots...you think these diseases are no big deal, but they really are!

The generation born after herd immunity started to take effect is lucky enough to have never seen a huge outbreak of these disease. We haven't seen hospital wards filled with sick and dying children. We haven't seen parents having to bury their babies and we haven't seen kids that are deformed or become mentally deficient because of these diseases (yes, Measles, Mumps and Rubella come with fevers that are high enough that they can cause brain damage to the point that your child can become retarded mentally...).

The biggest problem is that you think that your choice not to vaccinate over the fear of something like Autism only affects YOUR child, YOUR family, but it doesn't.  Herd immunity only works to protect kids from these diseases when 85% of the population is vaccinated...we are now below 50% vaccination rates...this puts not only YOUR kids at risk, but kids that haven't received their full course of vaccinations, and infants, little babies, that are still too small to receive the vaccine.

I'm sure many of you who feel this way already know all of this and I'm talking to brick walls at this point, but WHATEVER...I needed to say it...and I need to say this: You are a menace to public health- to MY KIDS' health (because neither of them are old enough to have received a full course of vaccinations.

I 100% DO NOT EVEN GIVE ONE MILLISECOND OF MERIT TO THE THOUGHT THAT VACCINES MADE MY DAUGHTER AUTISTIC...I AM AN AUTISM MOM...I AM LIVING THIS AND I CAN TELL YOU THAT IT WAS NOT THE VACCINES!!!! AGAIN, SHE WASN'T EVEN OLD ENOUGH FOR THEM WHEN WE STARTED TO NOTICE HER REGRESSIONS!

Now...having said all of that, I'd like to share a very interesting study that was just released this week. A study that has some pretty amazing evidence that demonstrates that Autism is caused by a combination of genetic predisposition and something that occurs during the 2nd or 3rd trimester of pregnancy. You can read the study HERE.

While this is just another theory, from what I've noticed and know about my daughter, much of their science really seems to make sense.

In a nutshell, the study suggests, after studying brain tissue samples of kids with Autism that died young, that kids with Autism actually have MORE brain cells...unfortunately, these brain cells aren't programmed to do anything.

Studies have already proven that Autistic kids have larger brains than normal, and now it makes sense why- they have more brain cells. Scientists that worked on this study suggest that somewhere during the 2nd or 3rd trimester of pregnancy something happens environmentally in the womb to a baby that is already predispositioned genetically for Autism that causes the "pruning" process the brain goes through to not happen correctly. Extra brain cells aren't eliminated, and some brain cells never become the type of cells they were meant to be, creating breaks in the channels that cause proper brain function and therefore leading to the symptoms of Autism.

Because some kids improve and some don't, they are now looking into WHY some brains can recover from this to some degree and others can't.

Then there is THIS study that links traumatic birth to Autism....

Either would make sense to me. Faith's birth was LONG and traumatic. She was born with respiratory issues... there are so many factors that could be the cause and that is why we need to have faith in continued research.  The first study I talked about, I feel could be a huge stride! If they could try to find a link between things that happened to pregnant mothers during the 2nd or 3rd trimester that could have changed the womb environment, it can give us hope that we can prevent the environmental change from happening and lower the occurrence of Autism.

In the end, I know conspiracy theorists are always going to be there. People are always going to have their opinions, and that is okay (okay, its okay when I'm not surging with pregnancy hormones and easily annoyed...) All I can say is this: ASK! Ask an Autism mom or dad. Many of us work to keep up with current research and therapies and we can tell you what we know. We will very happily explain what we know and what we don't know. It is encouraging to us when people want to know because it allows us to be better advocates for our kids...and don't be afraid to RESEARCH to answer questions that can't be answered by an Autism parent off their cuff. Don't be afraid to read studies that challenge your point of view. I am open to reading any and all current research regarding Autism. I still haven't read things that change my mind about certain topics (as I'm sure you couldn't have already surmised from the rant above), but if someone can give me evidence as compelling as the evidence found in some of the studies cited above, I would be willing to look at it. Keep an open mind...but PLEASE, PLEASE don't just go spouting conspiracy theories without asking...it is very frustrating for  those of us in the Autism community because it leaves us having to clean up huge messes because of what someone heard from their cousin's brother's sister's aunt's best friend...

We still don't have the answers. Autism is a complex disease with as many different symptoms, treatments, and possible causes as there are children that suffer from it. We may NEVER have all the answers, but if you are concerned about your child, don't be afraid to ask questions.

Lastly, why do I think the CDC is finding higher prevalence of Autism? I think its because we are getting closer to understanding it better. I think that early detection is getting much better and this is increasing the numbers. The increase in numbers shouldn't be discouraging, as far as I'm concerned, I take it as a good sign. I take it as a sign that kids are being diagnosed earlier and are being given a bigger, better chance to have the therapies they need earlier which has been proven to cause better outcomes. I have several friends with kids ages 4-6 that are JUST now going through the diagnosis process. They are frustrated by slow therapy and kids that they struggle to parent as they are learning how their brains work and in some ways, I think of how lucky I am that we caught it early...that I didn't listen to friends and family who thought I was being overly cautious over what initially appeared to be only a severe speech delay... after testing, therapy, and time with specialists we found the other delays she struggled with, and we've been able to get her help.

Yes, its HARD. Nobody wants to hear the word Autism linked with their child's name...but all I can say is, its better to be safe than sorry. I would go through the process we've been through over and over again if it meant finding better and more therapies to help Faith in her struggles.

Autism is NOT a dirty word.

1 in 68 is just a statistic taken from a cross section of just under 6000 kids...

Trust your gut. You're the parent. Don't buy into the conspiracy theories unless you have done your research. Ask questions. Be proactive! You never know whose child you may help by trying to understand instead of just buying into the hype.

Hugs and Loves until next time, darlings!