Weekly Recap: Well, At Least There Were Pictures

So, here you have it, my week in review. Click the titles to go to the posts.

On Monday, I posted "On Being a Stepmom," my stab at describing what it's like to be a stepmom. It's impossible to clearly articulate the complex set of emotions involved, especially on such a touchy subject, but I gave it a shot. 

On Tuesday, in "Snack Time," I lamented the loss of the carefree snack time. It's no fun when your kids can't eat most of what they are offered, no fun at all. To cheer myself up, I posted pics of some of the lunches the kids have been eating. 

My fear of the food-related meltdown was realized the very next day when Sky fell apart about a Fruit Loop necklace. You can see the details in "In the End, It was the Fruit Loops."

On Friday, in "Details, Details, Details" I wrote about absolutely nothing of import, but, hey, at least there are pictures. 

And, finally, a mini-blog for today:

These last couple of weeks, I've been seeing a lot of bickering between people affected by ASD on two difficult topics: the link between vaccines and autism and the effectiveness of biomedical treatments. 

Every parent needs to come to his/her own conclusion on these topics, but please make those conclusions after doing your own research. If anything, our experiences post-diagnosis have shown me that there is a lot of misinformation out there--from the media, from many of our doctors who know very little about autism and current research on it, and even from places like the FDA and the CDC. Instead of reacting in fear or from a sense of inadequacy, take it slow. Take it slow, and figure out what works best for you.

It took more than a year to get Sky in the right therapies and to work things out with his school, and then it took several more months to find a good doctor and to start making changes in his diet to address his various nutrient deficiencies (deficiencies, it turns out, that many other ASD kids also have). Am I doing these things because someone told me to or because I somehow feel guilty? No, I'm doing them because research shows that these things can help. Was I completely overwhelmed at first? Absolutely.  It's expensive, and it's time-consuming. We just do what we can when we can and try not to worry about all these things we can't do right now. 

Like it or not, we're all in this together and our numbers are growing at a frightening rate. If we can share our knowledge and respect each other in the process, we might just be able to make this world a better place for all of our kids, autistic and neuro-typical.