Once you've met one mom with Autism......

There is a saying "Once you've met one child with Autism, you've met one child with Autism" meaning they all are so different that there is no way to paint every child with a broad brush. Some are sensitive to touch, some crave touch, some are overly friendly, others avoid contact with other people, you get the idea. And so goes the statement about our families as well. Except....knowing quite a few Autism moms as I do, our stories are more similar than they are different with respect to toxicity. Hmmmm....very weird for a "genetic" disorder, don't you think? Tongue in cheek of course because I have been able to change my son's Autism in a way that I would not have been able to with a strictly "genetic" disorder. My son's progress has stunned many, including our family and friends. Where he was is a very different place than where he is and I know our road is still long.

But I did not start out a health nut. I ate a SAD (standard American diet), I believed in vaccinations, I gave Tylenol with those vaccinations and also for other ailments, I myself got the MMR 3 months before conceiving my son, I ate microwaved foods, I ate fast foods filled with GMO's, MSG, soy, etc, and boy did I love my bleach and other toxic "cleaners". It took this journey to realize how toxic this path was.

I feel like my son bore that brunt. He was my wakeup call, I just wish his little body had not had to be the one impacted. I wish I could have woken up about these issues before he was injured (especially at those 4 month shots). I wish I had done research on THAT aspect of his life, like I tried to do with everything else being the Type-A overachiever and all. I went along with things because the doctors told me they were safe. I never looked at the fact that vaccines have not been studied together (which is how they are administered) nor looked up vaccine ingredients, or the fact that many safety studies are funded by the people who have the most to gain from their continued usage. I would have looked at someone like they were crazy to suggest I delay or not vaccinate. Now, I am that crazy person suggesting that. But, it took MY child being harmed. I wish it had not. And yet my old mainstream pediatrician could not help me when he was diagnosed. "Find a speech therapist" was what I was told. What about the fact that he would not sleep more than 4 hours a night or he screamed most of the day or he sat and would spin Tupperware lids all day? Crickets chirping. It took finding an alternative doctor to address things like yeast and bacterial imbalances in the gut, dietary changes, methyl B-12, and for a while melatonin to get my son's body to heal and regulate enough to sleep a full night and look at me or even notice I was in the same room.

So when I read yet another Autism mom's blog (like the one below, copied from her blog) and hear those familiar stories, I find another in my new "tribe". Someone who understands just how I have been changed. And some of these changes have created rifts in my life, in my friendships, even in my family. But it is who I am now. I cannot sit passively as someone touts the flu vaccine, talks about how great soy is or wants to microwave my child's food. Yes, I will be that bitch because I have been forced to be. The old saying "all in moderation" is one I believe in, unless you are talking poison, then not even a little bit thank you very much because we have been slowly poisoning ourselves for decades and I think it is finally catching up to us. It is not my desire to offend but I have spent the last 6 years reading about all of the ways we seem destined to kill ourselves and it is starting with this current generation. Our kids are sicker than EVER. And no one in mainstream medicine seems to care (but they will prescribe you an antibiotic, steroid cream or allergy pill!). So I guess it is up to us to care and to change the world, one child at a time. So read this mom's story and know, we didn't start out like this, but learning and understanding what is harming our children has changed us into this. It is not blind faith or ignorance. This comes from years of research and watching the positive changes that have come from removing and avoiding further toxicity. We're screaming mad and we're not going to take it anymore. So there you go, angry tirade of the day complete, now carry on.

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GAPS 365 – One Family’s Journey Repair the gut, repair the mind

Tuesday, February 15, 2011, Day 33
Posted on February 16, 2011 by admin

It is difficult to share these events but I do anyway. We need to wake up to the fact that autism is not a neurological disorder but a disease that affects the whole body, not just the brain. Yes, there are trained professionals to help with autism. None of them are mainstream. Mainstream medicine is there to hand you the bad news topped with the attitude that there’s not a damn thing you can do other than behavior modification.

We pay dearly for our all mighty insurance and it doesn’t cover squat diddly do. So us moms scour the internet searching for answers while our husbands (for those of us that are fortunate enough to still be married) make money to pay for it. And we still go in debt.

My understanding is that recovery is about finding what works. These kids are an ever changing mystery. What’s more mysterious is the fact that Western Medicine has nothing to offer. The doctors are waiting for Big Pharma to discover some magic pill.

I have researched two years now about autism. I have watched autism come and go in our own household. At first I thought autism was genetics. Played the blame game, then blamed myself. Then I thought food allergies caused autism. But why would we be so allergic to everything. Then I thought it was vaccines, not just mercury, but the whole overload of toxins into a young child.

After two years of constant reading, Dr. McBride’s theory makes the most sense to me personally. I wasn’t breast fed (yeah, I’m a 60’s child) therefore I had my own gut flora problems from stupid formula. Then I was vaccinated with toxins that created more problems. Followed by a diet that wasn’t horrible. My mom made many things from scratch but honestly ate way too much sugar and grains even back then.

I took birth control pills for five years which further messed up my gut flora. At this point I’m eating crappy foods because the yeast monsters growing in me are controlling me. Had a tetanus shot a few months before I got pregnant exposing me to more toxins and viruses.

Ate the Standard American Diet (SAD) during pregnancy. The SAD diet contains GMO’s (Pesticide written into the plant’s DNA), irradiated veggies and meats, Big Farm inhumanely raised animal meat that is inferior and shouldn’t be consumed, pasteurized A1 milk, (Please look up “The Devil in Milk”), processed foods, microwaved foods, sugar, sugar and more sugar.

Delivered my baby naturally. The birthing canal is a baby’s first exposure to gut flora since all babies are born with sterile guts. My boy gets my horrible gut flora followed with the Hep B vaccine his first 24 hours. Followed by what ever stuff the doctors give your baby boy during circumcision.

I breast feed but even my breast milk wasn’t great. I have six amalgam fillings (That’s 50% mercury per filling) and every time I eat, drink hot liquids or chew gum, I release mercury vapors in my body and subsequently release the mercury in my breast milk. Amalgams are not safe and they are not stable contrary to what the ADA claims. Mercury is the second most toxic element on earth. An ignorant dentist shoves the second most toxic element on earth in your teeth when you’re a kid and everyone pretends that it’s ok to walk around with a head full of toxins.

We continue with Western Medicine’s protocol of vaccination which causes infections and a whole host of problems followed by the doctor recommendation of alternating Tylenol and Advil to bring down the fever. You guessed it. Those medicines cause further damage to gut flora.

We drank the fluoridated city water. Fluoride is a neurotoxin, always has been and always will be. We brushed our teeth with more fluoride. Ever wonder why you’re supposed to drink fluoridated water but spit out toothpaste? There’s enough fluoride in a tube of toothpaste to kill a toddler. Read the danger warning on the tube. Fluoride is not FDA approved for consumption. Fluoride is used as an herbicide. Does this make any sense?

Personally, had a few things going for us. I have been horribly sensitive to chemicals my entire life because of my own gut dysbiosis. I’ve only used body care products and household cleaners that were unscented, no dyes, and free from toxins. Second, I knew the harmful effects of antibiotics even back then. Antibiotics strip away all of your good gut flora. Had I been the typical American mother and exposed my son to fragrance and other chemicals, he would be far worse off than he is. Had I given him antibiotics and stripped away his gut flora, well, I can’t even imagine.

Dr. McBride writes that every child with autism that she has treated came from a mother with gut dysbiosis followed by exposing each of those children to the modern world. Yep, in a nutshell, this is what causes autism. It’s not one thing gone wrong. It’s a whole host of things gone wrong.

It’s not just autism that is an epidemic because of our modern world. We also have Asperger, depression, dyslexia, schizophrenia, AD/HD, bipolar disorder, anxiety, PDD:NOS, sensory processing disorder, and failure to thrive.

Wonder what the next generation of kids will be like.