About Me

I am the proud mother of 6 children. 5 of our children have autism. We do not feel our world has ended, but just begun. We do not chelate, intervene biochemically, give shots of any kind, practice ABA, etc. We treat them as we treat any humanbeing. We treat them with kindness and respect and expect the same from them. They are exceptional children.

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Friday, October 13, 2006

Biomedical Interventions...

People have assumed that I am against anything Biomedical. That is simply not true... I am against doing these procedures to someone who does not have the voice or the ability to say no. I am against using children as guineau pigs for DAN! Doctors and other medical quacks.
Now, if you as a parent, an adult so to speak, wants to shove a suppository up your butt, feel free. If you want to smear smelly cream on your body, go for it. If you want to put a hood over your head for HBOT, be my guest. If you want to sit in front of a person and be berated with ABA, have at it. If you want to hook yourself up to an IVIG, more power to ya.
I am just against the fact that these innocent children are being subjected to these regimens on the fact that parent's think they will be cured or recovered. Use whatever phrase you want....I do not care.

Our children do all the things regular children do. All but the oldest and youngest have good friends, ride bikes, play at the playground, have sleepovers, ya know...things kids are supposed to do growing up.
Many children spend alot of time at our home. Parent's have no problem in doing so. They know their children are well-cared for and treated well in our home.
Our children are well-respected at school and known as the O'Donnell children. Not the autistic O'Donnell children.

I have been questioned on the fact that we used Occupational Therapies, Physical Therapies and Speech for our children.
That is true...we use OT because they could not use a spoon or grasp a pencil. They needed the deep brushing to calm them down. They needed deep pressure through massage to make them calm. They loved the swinging on the big swing, it seemed to make them come together in their minds. They do not require this anymore. They are now able to calm down with few prompts to take a deep breath.....it works wonders for them.
The PT was for Caitlin and Erin only. They never crawled and had some issues with walking.
Speech for all but one of our children. Although Deirdre spoke very early, she was hard to understand. The others did not get words until later in their little lives. Kiernan is still non-verbal...his speech teacher is using the AudioVox with him....he loves it.
We were blessed with amazing therapists who seemed to really love our children. We have had the same speech therapist for 12 years. We had the same OT for 8 years. She went through all of our children.
These are interventions, yes, but they do not tout to cure autism. They are used to help our children succeed in areas they were not successful in. IT WORKS FOR OUR FAMILY.

I do not see the fascination with our family from a select few. If you visited our house, it really is quite boring. Right now, at this moment, little Patrick is waiting for me to get off of our computer. Kiernan is watching his Wiggles video. Meaghan is singing One Tin Soldier. Caitlin is in her room. Erin is watching Country Music Television with her father. Deirdre is in her room listening to The Beatles-her newest obsession. Later, we are going to a birthday party. Meaghan is going to a sleep-over and Erin is going with the Scouts to gaze at the stars this evening.
This is what works for our family. NORMALCY.....

And on a final note for the evening...our youngest, Kiernan, who has been trying to master a spoon for a long time, finally succeeded. He now can hold a spoon and eat like a big boy. This is a major hurdle for this child. We are so proud of him...I cannot wait to tell his teacher on Monday. She has been working so hard with him on this.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

HI,
I was just surfing and ran across your blog. I am so glad things are working out for you and your family. Congratulations to your child's newest achievment. Keep up the great work. You are right; you should do what works for your family. I wish you and your family much more success. Personally, I feel normalcy is very important. No one wants to stand out as different everyone just wants to have a normal happy life. :-)

Unknown said...

Hey hi,after reading your blog ,I get impressed by your thoughts.I am fully agree with you, about the normalacy.Personally I heartly congratulate to you and your childrens about their aciehvement.Justkeep it up.
Have a nice day!

Unknown said...

Firstly, congrats for such great work and achievement of your children. Everybody wants normal life. Its very easy to go with it, but the real life is that which is spent in reducing others pain, reshaping others damadged life.Good luck.

jitendra said...
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