Lets give these gifts from God a chance

Last week I actually wrote a new blog post. It was titled, `Autism you can just f*ck off` . I wrote 20 or 30 lines of absolute rage and hatred for this condition that my beautiful boy suffers from. Then I deleted it. I had expressed my heart and sorrow and YES autism , some days you can f*ck off...

However , a leaf has turned.Today is World Autism day. I choose to use today to show that like myself there are thousands of children all born to families who love them and have autism. It does not take away my beautiful gift in my son.

Yes. My beautiful boy IS a gift. My precious gift who the day he was born opened a new chamber in my heart with his big beefy neck , chubby cheeks and his kissable soft smelling skin. He was perfect. The moment he was passed into my arms the love that enveloped me was indescribable.

Precious. My world was amazing, My family was beautiful. For 2 solid years I had the life of a stay at home mum to Giggles and Tickles. Despite the housework ( ! ) , I really LOVED it.

Then from 2 and 1/2 my sweet, content and smiling boy withdrew more. I couldn't get him to look at me properly. He seemed always drifting off. At this point I still didn't think there was anything wrong. It was just who he was.However in September 2010 my mum had one of those horribly terrifying but courageous moments in her life where she had to speak to me and Chris about her suspicions... that Giggles may have AUTISM.

We sat at the coffee table together on a Sunday evening drinking tea going over a list of potential RED flags that describe the behaviour associated with autism. My beautiful baby boy exhibited 90%. My gut told me she was right. Hopefully, please GOD NO, but I think she may be right. Following that evening and the week of crying at every quiet moment, a year of assessments and a diagnosis in 2011, Giggles recieved the diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder. The diagnosis was the easy part. Even when people in our live thought we were ridiculous to pursue this diagnosis and made us feel pathetic. Just a few things Id like to share with you... If you ever come across  someone like our situation I pray you will be compassionate and gentle. Here are my top tips for you to know when talking to parents who have just discovered their child has Autism. (and yes, these all have occurred to me)

1. Do not recommend a course  of vitamins. Just because your aunty`s friend took a batch for her arthritis and healed her, this does not apply to autism. There is NO cure.
2 .Do not ask if we regret vaccinating our child.
3. Do not ask if we are finished with having children now that we have a burden on our hands
4. Do not tell us you think our child seems ordinary, and no, that cant be autism. ( He is like that because of the hours of intervention spent to get this result)
5. Please continue to say hello to our child even if he wont look back at you.
6. Please do not make it your mission to "treat" my child with a short therapy session because you think you have a way of getting him to give up "that" toy. He already has over 5 therapists in his weekly schedule and you are just NOT helping.
7. Please, please just listen, with love, no condemnation . We LOVE questions. Please not unfounded advice.
8. Please refer us to good evidence based research and information. We love to learn.
9. Don`t tell me my child is just grumpy and probably needs stronger boundaries.


Our journey has been mountains and ravines of emotions, sleepless nights of a gaining a Phd in Google, days of information, trial and error and incredible successes. But TODAY is world autism day and there are incredible things happening. Children are finding ways to be unlocked and loved through early intervention and it IS making a difference. With 1 in 100 children diagnosed with autism you will probably cross paths someday , and when you do, remember that this child was someone baby once , so please give them a smile.

 And just for the record he still has beautiful chubby cheeks and kissable skin!!