AutismMomRising's blog

Alex has Landau Kleffner Variant. You won't find Landau Kleffner Variant in the medical diagnostic manuals though. What you will see is Landau Kleffner Syndrome.

With LKS overnight seizures in the temporal lobes rob children of their speech. It also blindsides them with Autistic-like symptoms and severe aggression. Though Landau Kleffner Variant is triggered by abnormal electrical activity in those same areas of the brain and not full blown seizure spikes, it inflicts similar patterns of devastating regressions in children.

At first glance of Elizabeth Strickland's "Eating For Autism" I had no intention of picking it up. Years of wading through nutritionally scant gluten/casein free foods in stores had me jaded. Potato starch and white rice flour laden products abound: store after store, layer upon layer, year after year. Seriously. If these foods could be made to taste fantastic and still be nutritious, surely someone would have done that already.

Elizabeth Strickland has. I just wish I found her book five years ago, before my family swore off all gluten free breads.

Recently I read a blog post on Wellsphere entitled, "I am not an Autism Mom". Michelle, the article's author, takes issue with parents referring to themselves as Autism Moms. This, she says, takes the focus off the person with Autism and puts it on the mother. Unless the mother has Autism herself it becomes a title: " Autism Mom. Two words put together to create a phrase, a title – and that’s what it is - that I really don’t like." I can't help to feel the sting of judgement - I mean, have you seen the title of my blog?

DS was a happy, gentle, high functioning Autistic toddler. Since there was no delay in when he began speaking, DS's needs were effectively communicated. As such, he was immersed, like any child, in the bliss of early childhood. At the time I worked in childcare. DS being my only child, I routinely spoke of how comparatively high maintenance were the regular kids I cared for at work. I often heard myself say things like, "I'll take my Autistic child any day" and that, "regular kids are over-rated", in a LOL, "isn't this ironic?" sort of way.