Valley doctor says moms can help prevent autism before and during pregnancy

Valley doctor says moms can help prevent autism before and during pregnancy

In an interview on ABC 15 News,Dr. Cindy Schneider, mother of two autistic children, stated what she believes to be the reasons for autism and how to decrease the chances of your child being diagnosed ASD.

You can watch the interview below. I agree that some of what she says mya sound logical, but it's also misleading. She states that she believes that genetics and envvironmental factors cause autism. She goes on to suggest that moms take cerain precautions before and during pregnancy. I think some of what she says is frustratingly erroneous.

I have one autistic child and one that isn't. I did the same things with both pregnancies. Granted, I was under less stress with my second, but that is the only difference. I was around the same weight at the beginning of both pregnancies. I may have actually weighed a little less prior to my first pregnancy, which was my autistic son.

Now, with this doctor going on air with a respected news station, I'm afraid people may start blaming moms for their child being autistic. We walk a delicate tightrope and we need everyone to be careful what they sat to the media. The media also needs to start giving a more balanced account of all interviews. I would have felt better if the reporter had stressed that what was said was the doctor's opinin and not proven medical fact.

Proud Parent Of A Person With Autism Part II

The second part of my interview with Karen Nichols.

Wow! Thank you for sharing. I have a couple of questions, if you don't mind.

1. What kinds of therapies have tried? Which ones do you feel have been successful and which ones haven't? At school, my son uses visual aids to keep him focused. Each year, at his IEP, we make sure to let the teachers and ALL STAFF, from the lunch ladies, to the secretaries, to the custodians know that Matthew is Autistic, and he's ok with it. He doesn't like hugs, he doesn't enjoy jokes, and if he is solitary, let him have his moment. Earlier in his education, he had "sensory diet", which helped alot. We now have him enrolled in Band and Art, and this has very nicely taken place of his sensory diet. We give Matthew explicit instructions as to what to do if his day isn't working out, and work very closely with his team to ensure that school is a positive environment for him.

Matthew loves to be scratched. We allowed his para-pro to scratch him during sensory diet on his arms, legs, and back. It soothes him and relaxes him. We still do this to this day. It eases him to sleep every night.

We talk to Matthew constantly about drug and alcohol use, since he is becoming closer to the age where peer pressure may involve such things. Autistic children are very "black and white" about rules, and, hopefully, we can keep him from substance abuse. I fear that if he were to use drugs or alcohol, we may lose him and his brilliant mind. We tried a gluten-free diet, and, because Matthew is such a picky eater, it failed miserably. He also has Sensory Integration Disorder, and eating foods that he doesn't LOVE simply is torture to him.

2. (Hard one here) What is your opinion of vaccines? In Matthew's case, I don't believe that vaccinations had any role in his Autism. He was a different child from the start. I believe that Matthew's Autism is genetic. However, I did not and will not have my children vaccinated against the H1N1 virus, I don't trust it. I think that there truly may be a connection between vaccinations and Autism, and I believe that we should all have a choice in this matter.

3. Are there any therapies that you absolutely would not try with your son and why? I will not medicate my son. He is Autistic, and that's never going to change. Matthew is a Human Being with Autism, and we are not raising a child. We are raising an Adult Human Being with Autism. He may do things differently, he may act differently, but, truly, what is "normal"? My husband and I are delighted with our Autistic Son, and wouldn't want him any other way. Matthew tells people, "I have Awesome-Tism. It makes me really great at math" Medicating him and taking away his Autism would be a handicap. When he becomes an adult, he will need to understand and live with his Autism.

4. What kind of support system do you have?(Once or twice a year, my parents will take my kids for the weekend and my husband is great for taking the kids and giving me time to myself) Matthew spends part of his summer break with his Nana and Papa in Arkansas, and he looks forward to this every year. His biological father has him every other weekend, and they have big adventures together. I have surrounded my family with a team of professionals who adore and understand my son, as well as my friends and family. I can pick up a phone and have someone to talk to at any time. Truly, I have silently cried an ocean of tears over my Matthew. At first, they were sorrow, frustration, exhaustion, anger. Now they are joy, pride, adoration, understanding, and gratitude.

5. What is one thing that you would like to say to anyone not familiar with autism to know? Before my son was diagnosed with Autism, I knew nothing. Now, I am an advocate. Relax and enjoy your child. When you see a child misbehaving at the grocery store, rather than making comments about how "naughty" the child is, give a warm smile to the mother who is at the verge of tears. I have ended up on the floor of many, many grocery stores, rocking my son back to reality, with strangers just telling me he needs a spanking. To them I say: "I'm sorry that you are unfamiliar, but my son is Autistic."

An Asperger Adult Mom With An Autistic Child Interview

My latest interview is with Carol Greenburg. She has the unique perspective of both an indiviual with autism and a mother of an autistic child. Here are the questions and answers from the interview. I enjoyed getting to know Carol and her child so much, that I also conducted a second interview with her on the subject of vaccines and therapies. That will be posted tomorrow.

1. As an adult with Asperge's Syndrome and a mom of an autistic child, you have a unique perspective. Do you think you understand your child better than most autism parents?

I feel I do understand my son pretty well, though I have no basis of comparison to the level of understanding between other mothers and sons. I can say that I think my own Asperger's gives me a bit of an edge in what I decide to worry about and not worry about. I often observe self-stimulatory behavior in my son that exactly mirrors the stims I used for self-calming at that age, and am therefore less likely to overreact and automatically block "odd" behaviors. I believe that moment of thought before saying "Stop it" makes for a more relaxed environment in our home. If he starts singing the same song over and over to himself, which is one of the stims I had at his age, but no longer do, I try to engage him rather than just telling him to stop, which leaves me at least feeling good that I just had a nice interaction with my son rather than frustrated that I can't make him behave in a more typical way.

2. Getting services for your child can be extremely difficult for most autism parents. What do you recommend is the first step in attaining services for your child?

As a special education lay advocate, I feel duty-bound to answer that by simply advising everyone to hire me Here's a more serious answer, though: Think rights Talk Responsibilities. The law is on your side a lot of the time, so there's a great temptation to run into every IEP meeting waving statutes and yelling about how your kid's and your rights are being violated. Maybe they are, but the point is not to express your anger, however entitled you are to it, the point is to solve the problem. That means that no matter what the school has said or done, you need to excercise enough self-control to say "I recognize that my child's education is ultimately MY responsibility, and that you have the training and expertise to help me fullfil that responsibility. You [the district, the principal, the teacher] are a valuable resource. What can I as a parent do to partner with you to get access to the wisdom that your training and experience can yeild?"

3. What kind of services/therapies do you think are an absolute necessity for an autistic child?

I'll say the same thing the law says: The child gets what the child needs. Children and their needs are completely individual and they change over time. My son and I are both on the autism spectrum: I had no speech delay. He has a severe speech delay. He needs as much speech therapy as we can get him. Speech therapy would have been a complete waste of time for me at his age; all I did was talk. But I was constantly saying the wrong things to the wrong people. What I needed was the kind of social skills intervention, he's already gotten. At only seven he's immensely popular, never been bullied, and thanks to all of the OT he's gotten, he's actually more of a jock than anyone in our family going back generations.

4. Who pays for these services? The parents, insurance, school? When should parents draw the line at paying for therapies? Do you believe that it is fair on them and the child to be bankrupt and to lose their homes in order to support therapy for their child? (I've heard from parents that think it is and those who think it isn't.)

I don't feel I could function as an advocate and say I believe parents should foot the bill for everything. First of all, that's simply impossible in most cases. I don't personally know anyone rich enough to pay for the level of service my son gets without reimbursement. However, there are times when parents, who are fighting the good fight as they should, do need to pause and ask if they're looking for money from the best possible sources. True, your child has the legal right to a free appropriate public education, which encompasses much more than most people realize. That does NOT, however, mean that your automatic response to any need should be to hold out your hand to the local school board. Medicaid and medicaid waivers are overcomplicated to get, which is probably why they're underused, but if you can get your kid into that system, it opens up a world of resources. In the end, schools are more open to the requests of parents who also look elsewhere for funding. As far as insurance is concerned, you can't count on it, but you should be able to. The total lack of coverage for autistic children is a national disgrace, so if you have any energy left over from fighting for your child's individual needs, I can't think of a better cause than autism-specific insurance reform in which to pour that energy.


About Carol Greenburg

I am an adult with Asperger's Syndrome, the mother of a seven-year-old severely language-delayed autistic child, and executive director of a consulting company that helps parents of children with disabilities in get services for their kids. As part of a partnership with the Brooklyn Parent Center of BCID, I speak frequently at parent support groups, community-based organizations, and at universities all over Brooklyn. The motto in our home, and office is "Not sick. Not Broken. Just Neurologically Outnumbered. To find out more about me, my family and my work, please visit my company website www.bklynsnc.com, my company's Facebook page at Brooklyn Special Needs Consulting, or follow me on Twitter under the username "Aspieadvocate."

Interview With A Wonderful Nonverbal Autistic Adult

I had the opportunity to interview Jenna Lumbard by email. Jenna is 21 years old, autistic and nonverbal. As a mom on an autistic, nonverbal child, I was honored for this opportunity. Here are the questions and answers for the interview. It's short, but revealing. Thank you, Jenna.


1. Hi Jenna. Can you introduce yourself to my readers and tell us a little about yourself?

I would be happy to introduce myself to your readers. My name is Jenna Lumbard. I’m 21 years old and I live in Camas, Washington with my mom and dad. I have lived in Camas my whole life. I went to school here and I graduated from Camas High School in June of 2006. I enjoy watching videos and spending time in the water. I also like to surf the internet whenever possible.

I am nonverbal and I have autism, but that didn’t stop me from following my dreams of being a writer. I have written one book and have had it published. It is called “Worried Wendy Goes to School” and I have a second book in the process of being published right now and it should come out in June of this year. I have always enjoyed writing and I find I have an abundance of words and pictures in my head that I want to share with the world. I’m happy, funny and at peace with who I am.

I hope this has given you a little insight into who I am.



2. As a mom of an extremely intelligent, nonverbal child, I am always irritated (to put it nicely) by people that assume that a child that doesn't talk is intellectually low functioning. What I don't know, (because my son has difficulties expressing his feelings) is how it affects him. Did you face this growing up, and if so, how did it affect you?

I’m glad you asked this question, because that has always been a concern of mine. I have a wonderful friend and mentor that has been my aide for the last seventeen years and whenever I met someone that I didn’t know I always ask Janet to be sure that they knew that I was not retarded and I was not deaf. For some reason people always assumed that just because I couldn’t talk it meant that I also couldn’t hear so they would yell at me and then they would talk about me like I wasn’t in the room or they talked down to me like I was a small child. I found that to be very frustrating and demeaning. If I was able to talk to them for a while they learned very quickly that I was smart and able to communicate via my computer, but if I was not around my computer I was always irritated by their behavior. It’s important that people don’t make assumptions about someone’s intelligence by their appearance or by the label of a handicap placed on them by the medical community.

3. Do you have any advice for other non-verbal children and their parents that you wish someone had told you growing up or told your parents?

There is one thing that I think is of the utmost importance and a piece of advice that would have served me well growing up. The advice is, it’s okay to be autistic. You don’t have to strive to be something else or wait for a miracle cure to go on living your life. As I mentioned before I had a wonderful aide who always told me the only thing she expected of me was the best I had to offer. She didn’t care if I was autistic or not she expected me to always try my hardest and never give up just because I had some obstacles to overcome. My family is very supportive and they have loved me through a lot of challenges, but they never expected less from me just because I have autism. I love them for that.

Tiger Woods Exclusive Interview

I know, I said that I wasn't going to do any more posts about Tiger Woods. I changed my mind. I am going to do one final post. There has been some speculation about Tiger doing an exclusive interview with Brian Gumbel or Oprah Winfrey. I would watch either one interview Tiger.

I have an alternative for Tiger. Instead of being interviewed by a big wig, how about taking it to the people? Set up an interview with an unknown. In fact, set one up with me. What do you think, readers? Wouldn't that be great?

I like to think that I am a fair and open minded person. I look at things logically and from all angles. I don't assume that everything that I have read or heard is true. I also know when someone is answering a question without actually answering it.

I'm also sympathetic to his family's situation. I'm also a stranger. I don't know him personally, so there is know personal relationship to cloud the interview.

Of course, he would never agree. A big celebrity is only going to allow another big celebrity interview him. Oh well, I think it would have been a great interview.

More About My Mark-Paul Gosselaar Interview

Did you read my interview with Mark-Paul Gosselaar? It was a great experience to do a phone conference interview with him. We were allowed one question each and I wish we were allowed two. My questions were asked and answered during the call, so I asked one of my son’s questions. The question I didn’t ask, that I wish I had been able to, was also one of my son’s questions. He wanted me to ask “Do you speak nicely of Autism.”

My son was referring to the fact that there are some celebrities that have said cruel things about children with Autism. He wanted to know if Mark-Paul would ever do that. I don’t think he would. Mark-Paul picked his words carefully during the phone conference. He seemed to be very aware of the fact that what is said in a public forum can be misconstrued and he was careful to answer questions in a way that left no room for misinterpretation. I also believe, given what he said during the interview, that he would not be one of those celebrities that would say something, for shock value, that was negative in regards to children with Autism.

I wish more celebrities were as careful with their words as Mark-Paul is. Words are such a strong weapon. They can do life long damage to a child. My son is very sensitive. He takes everything personally. There are many people that look at an autistic child and think that he/she does not feel or think. It is easy for them to draw that conclusion because they do not know the child. A lot of autistic children have difficulties showing their emotions and communicating them to others. This does not mean that they don’t feel. My son does not show a lot of emotion outwardly, but he feels it internally.

I do wish that I had been able to ask Mark-Paul the question, though. I also wish that I had been able to get his reaction to celebrities that degrade autistic children for the sake of shock value and publicity. It would have been nice for my son to read his answers to these questions and know that there are celebrities that would accept him for who he is. That is, of course, assuming I am correct in my assessment of Mark-Paul’s character.

Mark-Paul Gosselaar Interview

Even if you don’t remember the name, you will remember the face. He has done several television movies. He starred in Commander in Chief, Saved By The Bell and NYPD Blue. Mark-Paul Gosselaar was a cutie as a child actor and is a hottie all grown up. We are about the same age. I am a couple of years older, but I have followed him since his time on Saved By The Bell.

I posted earlier in the week about the upcoming TNT’s Raising The Bar’s episode “No Child’s Left Behind” that airs Monday, June 29 at 10:00PM ET/PT. I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to interview him on a conference call with eleven other bloggers.

I found Mark-Paul to be very friendly and straight forward in response to some difficult questions. He is a very private person and doesn’t like to share his private life with the public. I can respect that. Being a celebrity makes you an easy target for the press and paparazzi. I applaud him for keeping his wife and children out of the public arena.

When asked by another blogger “What kind of limits would you suggest for parents?” (referring to posting pictures of their children on public social networking sites and blogs) he replied “I’d rather not judge other parenting” and “I don’t like to share the inner happenings of my household. I don’t know what’s wrong or right. We have to be aware.”

Another question he was asked was “What other episodes impacted you in a personal way?’ He replied by referring to an upcoming episode about a seven months pregnant woman that is arrested in a drug raid. The courts want to keep her in jail until the baby is born and take the baby away from her. In reality, it is her "human right" to do what she wants. Mark said that this episode affected him deeply. He also praised the show for the way it shows the “grayness of the criminal system.”

When I had a chance to ask Mark-Paul Gosselaar a question, most of my questions had already been asked. My son had given me a question to ask him, so I did. His question was “Do you know anyone with Autism and do you do anything to support Autism?”

Mark-Paul answered that “I think chances are pretty good that you know someone with Autism. We do.” He started to say more, but caught himself. I could tell he didn’t want to publicize the person he was referring to. I was fine with that. He also explained that he does a lot to support pediatric organizations and would “like to donate my time and resources to the cause.” Well, he stated this knowing it would be put on my blog. So, Autism Speaks or National Autism Society of America, here you go. If you don’t ask, I’m sure someone else will.

Thank you Mark-Paul and TNT for this opportunity. I really enjoyed the phone conference interview. I am sure I will being following Raising The Bar for many seasons to come.

Here are the posts by a couple of the other moms on the call:
http://sweeps4bloggers.blogspot.com/2009/06/tnt-raising-bar-mark-paul-gosselaar.html