What Made You Seek an Autism Evaluation for Your Child?
A couple of people kept saying they thought Ben may have a hearing problem. We just thought he had selective hearing but he did have a prior bout with some fevers, one of which was over 106 so I looked on the internet Googling "fever" "hearing" "child" and I ran across autism. It became obvious once I read about the Autism Spectrum symptoms, painfully obvious. Everything from tippy-toes, to spinning objects, to loss of words, loss of eye contact and stimming. How could my one year old perfectly developing child have become autistic so quickly? Two years have past, he has come a long way. http://bensmyson.wordpress.com
How Did the Diagnostic Process Work?
Emailed every name I could find on the internet related to autism. Received many responses. Found an Early Detection government agency that worked with us and helped us get some needed therapy and support. We did not initially accept the diagnosis, certainly weren't admitting it to friends, kept it from his health records because the insurance company did not cover autism and we feared he would be labeled as having a lifelong disability.
Advice
- Search for a DAN doctor that thinks outside the box, work at it like it is a brain injury and rewire the damaged area by repeating over and over and over the same exercises. Positive reinforcement, go overboard. Get on the floor with him, mimic his play, slowly and gently work your way into his world, when you find a hook use it for all it's worth. Ben started coming around very slowly at first. Most important though, get the immune system right first, this part was extremely hard, we had to stay disciplined and careful not to get carried away. We took very deliberate baby steps with a biomed approach.
What Our Diagnostician Recommended
Sadly it was "get used to it" we were told it was a lifelong disability.
How We Found the Resources We Needed
Initially it was the internet, then we found other parents and networked with them. All of us had different issues, but just having someone who is plugged in was a lifesaver. This work to recover your child is extremely difficult and should not be attempted without proper support.
What We Would Do Differently
We strongly believe this was caused by a vaccine injury, the coincidences are too great. It would have been better to spread out the vaccines, Ben received 8 in one day on a compromised immune system, had fevers, developed a body rash, screamed the entire night and ended up pretty sick for a year.
