Anyone Out There in the Same Boat as Me?

hi my name is C. and my daughter is non verbal as well she doesnt have autism but she has autism tendencies.my daughter has mitochondrial disease
she is 4 years old as well. she gets so frustrated and bites herself and pulles her hair out i would give anything to understand what she wants or needs and most of all i would give anything to hear her say i love you mommy!!!! i wish she could tell me whats wrong or how i can help most of all i want to know if she knows just how much i love her. her father has a hard time and doesnt want anything really to do with her and he threw us out when faith was 2 because it was to much stress to have a handicap child. if you would like to talk let me know

My sister has a "broad spectrum" autistic son who is about 3 years old. we all have read jenny mccarthys book about her son i HIGHLY recommend you read it...it gave her comfort support and strength! There are also wonderful guides and solutions in her book. god bless and good luck!

Hi S.,

I am not exactly in the same boat but sort of.

I have earned my stripes with a daughter - now 22 - with Williams Syndrome whose population hassome of the same sensory issues, lower IQ's and may be more verbal.

I'd be glad to share some of our challenges and how we dealt with life with a special needs child. We've make it through school and all the work I put in for all those years has paid off.

The stress is incredible and I endourage you to take time for yourself and not allow yourself to be overwhelmed.

I'd be glad to chat more if you email me back.

C. Russ

my kids aren't autistic but one of my good friends across the street from me has an autistic daughter that just turned 4 so I see what she has to deal with day to day. if you'd like I can forward this post to her for you. *hug*

My sister went to the Option Institute--the best thing she did for her and her son(who is autistic). Along with the gluten/casein free diet and cranial-sacral therapy and lots of physical therapy , he is now doing great!

I have a younger son that is physically 19 yrs old that has Autisum, but he talks now, he didnt when he was younger. I'm listening to you, and understanding your heart-felt message and how it breaks our hearts as a mother when our children dont talk, or cant look at us or anyone for a long periond of time because of the Austism. I can relate.

Check in your area for a Austism society for parents and children support groups for people that are going through the same as yourself in your local area.
you can also check:http://www.autismspeaks.org/

What I found, was that when they draw, color, that can very much express how they feel too as in art threapy for that worked for me and my son was able to communicate better thru his drawings, and pictures, making collages from old magazines tearing them out and pasting them on a board. call the board, how i feel today. :)

Wow, very similar to me. I have a 4yr old son who has autism. He doesn't speak but is very smart. I know how you feel about the stress. Him not being able to speak kills me. Especially when he is sick or hurt and cannot communicate what is wrong. He has become very independent though. He had 1st steps and now he is in snap (comes after 1st steps) provided by the school system. He is at Nuner and they are absolutely great there! Get ahold of me and we can chat more about and compare stories...

Hi S.,

Although I do not have an autistic child, I do have two daughters that I would do anything for. I have been drinking Mona Vie for a few months now, and researching everything about this wonderful juice. One of my fellow drinkers emailed this to me and when I read your post I thought of you. Please read it and if you have any more questions you can email me at ____@____.com

http://www.trytheberries.com/docs/testimonialsMonaVie.pdf

Good luck,

D.

S.-
My son is also autistic, but with no verbal delay. In all my research I've been doing to find the best path to help my son, I have heard and read a lot about the Gluten-Free Casein-Free (GFCF) diet. Basically, not wheat or dairy. I recently read Jenny McCarthy's book "Louder Than Words." In it, she describes her exprience with the diet and how it dramatically helped her son, Evan. He was 4 years old and not talking. She put him (gradually) on the diet, and within 2 or 3 weeks, he was speaking in complete sentences. I believe Ohio's own Jennifer Hanselman (mother of Ohio's first sextuplets) had the same experience with one of her children. I would definitely file it under the "There's No Harm In Trying" category. When I discussed it with my son's neurologist, she said the same thing, and recommended that it be done under the watch of a nutritionist.
Good luck to you!

Hi S.,

I am a 34 year old mom of a 4 year old little girl. I can not help you with an autistic child. That has to be hard to deal with. My heart goes out to you! But if you ever need to get togethere with another mother..I am here. I move around a lot with my husband with his job here in Maysville and working at the powerplants. So I make friends and then I am gone...that is very hard. I am always open to lending a ear to listen. Just let me know.
Sincerely,
K.

S.,

I have two on the spectrum, my youngest was nonverbal until she was 3. It is very hard, isn't it? I struggle with it sometimes, and other times I feel very strong. I wish I knew how I would feel about it from day to day. When I am down, I think that it is my fault, and I give in to the idea that the people who stare are right, that if I had "just spanked that little girl" she would be better. Other times I feel fiesty about it and don't care what anybody thinks because I know that it is nothing I did.

I know what you mean though, I often wonder what is under the autism, becasue there is somthing beneath the surface. My kids both talk now, and we struggle with word order, and often they both say things that I cannot even begin to understand, and I have to remind myself that it is a blessing that they talk at all. When my youngest gets up this morning, we will once agian have that discussion that it is not "what today is it?" it is "what day is today" everyday, we have it, and today will be no different, but we have to have this before she can go on and eat her identical breakfast to yesterday, and go about the difficult task of getting her clothes to feel right and negotiate about the taste of the toothpaste.

I hope that you have found a good school. Where are you? We have been lucky enough to find Oakstone Academy in Columbus for our oldest (asperger) she is doing so well there, and they do wonders with kids all along the spectrum. What kind of school have you found?