New Study on US Children Diagnosed - The Comments Section

This morning as I was lying in bed, procrastinating getting up to get ready for work, I opened up my phone and started scrolling and an article from the Today Show caught my eye.

“One in 44 children diagnosed with autism, new data suggests.”

https://www.today.com/health/one-44-us-children-diagnosed-autism-new-data-suggests-rcna7493?cid=sm_npd_td_fb_ma&fbclid=IwAR0o4HEjFCf2SswAIX1yZndJQxm4Yr5qXNzqaBF0d809Zo3dUM9muHDhaKk I didn’t read the article but something lured me to the comments section. Which in turn made me want to puke.

“It’s the chlorinated water.” “It’s the food we’re feeding them.” “All those vaccines right next to each other...” “Those poor kids.” “Nobody acted like that back when I went to school.”

As a parent of a child with autism these types of comments are extremely hurtful. Is autism hard? Absolutely. But guess what? So is parenting my neurotypical child. I swear that one will give me more gray hairs than my child with autism. I have never smoked anything. When I got pregnant, I cut out all caffeine. I craved fruits and vegetables. I couldn’t stand artificial sugar. I breastfed for a year. I made his baby food. He didn’t have candy or popsicles for at least the first two years of his life. I tried to do everything right. Yet, my child is autistic. And trust me I blamed myself vigorously when he was diagnosed, obsessing over what I could have done to do this to my child. So naturally when I see comments like this it hurts, because I tried REALLY hard. And imagine how a person with autism must feel reading these comments?? But as the years have passed, I know that’s not the case. This is only just a part of Hudson and I love him and the boy he is. Even on the hard days. He has this big brain where he can remember insane facts or read words like “adventure” while in kindergarten. He has a huge heart, too. The first one to hug someone who’s crying. He’s extremely observant, but also totally unobservant. And so funny in his own way. He judges no one. I’m not an expert - I never will be - but I do know that these children deserve better. Way better. And maybe, just maybe we should watch them a little closer because I bet we could all learn a thing or two from them.