I joined a couple months ago, but have been shy of posting. I'm the mother of a 6 year old autistic boy. My husband had the same behaviors at his age, that he "snapped out" of at age 14. I developed on schedule but was "socially awkward" after age 7. We have sensory issues that are annoying but not dysfunctional.
I joined here because as an undiagnosed adult with an autistic child, I'm kind of stuck between "camps". My parent peers are in the "autism" camp where they soak their kids in mineral baths, are into the latest scare article and diets, etc. They are guilt-ridden and believe I should be too about vaccines.
BTW, my stance on vaccines and mercury-poisoning; I agree that autistics might be sensitive to mercury and thus be poisoned by otherwise "safe" amounts. However, I don't think thimerosol-laced vaccines cause autism. We were behind in immunizations and my son exhibited autistic behavior before the MMR shot. My husband was born before the big immunization craze. The main problem with the focus on thimerosol is that it takes away attention/focus on the important things, like education practices and social interaction. From what I have read about "regression", it's more like an obvious milestone that is missed by the toddler and the parents are alarmed. My son had other missed milestones and autistic behaviors that my husband and I ignored or accepted because we shared those traits. We saw them as traits, not "symptoms".
The push to start interacting here is that I'm back in Tucson, AZ and it appears the only support groups here are Autism Society based. blech!
I'm torn between joining and infiltrating to see if there are other like-minded parents and just ignoring them and starting my own group like I had in Northern CA. Any suggestions?
10 Aug 2006, 5:58 pm
