Our 4 year old son was diagnosed with autism when he was 3 years old. In the beginning, it seemed like he was meeting his milestones, such as crawling and walking, but by 15 months old he wasn't talking and it was recommended for him to be evaluated. He was given a label of pervasive developmental delay and was referred for speech and occupational therapy. Our son seemed to enjoy these therapies but they were of minimal help. My husband and I and the rest of our family were just waiting for him to catch up and hopefully start talking. Then, in 2007, he had an evaluation with a developmental pediatrician who fairly quickly diagnosed him with autism. I'm sure it was more obvious to a professional and to others who are not so closely connected to our son. To us, he was just our sweet boy who had some delays.

So, we were not totally surprised by this but to actually hear someone tell us our son has autism was really difficult. The next thought I had and have had ever since was, "how I am going to help him?"  So, that sent me on a journey of finding more therapies and more treatments. First, I started with finding a great ABA (applied behavior analysis) therapist. This therapy has helped many children with autism and my son has learned alot from it, but he is still far behind as he is not talking at this point.

So, then I started to look into other things that I could do for him besides the standard therapies that are recommended for children with autism. I came across many biomedical treatments. These are not mainstream treatments that are used for children with autism, but I found out about DAN (defeat autism now) doctors and found one for our son. They are not inexpensive by any means, but in my mind, very worth it. Our DAN doctor has done alot to help our son. He did many different tests for our son, which showed some of the physical/medical problems that could be contributing to our son's autism. So, now I believe we are on the right track, and with the combination of standard therapies and biomedical treatments, I believe that we can help our son to be his best.

I know that if you are reading this, that you are probably somehow involved with autism, whether you have a child with autism or you have a friend whose child has autism. I believe by raising more awareness about autism and by more research being done about the possible causes, that we can figure out what needs to be done to help.  With 1 in 150 children and 1 in 90 boys being diagnosed with autism, it has become a major epidemic and something needs to be done soon.

Thank you for reading my story. If I can help you in any way, please let me know. I am happy to give support or advice if I can. I know how tough this journey can be.