1 in 50

I saw it last night.

The articles started to come through on my Twitter feed.

The new "new" Autism numbers are out.

1 in 50 school aged children have Autism. A survey of parents conducted from 2011 to June 2012. A phone survey of 100,000 parents across the country (not just 14 stupid states like the previous survey). It focused on children age 6-17 years of age whereas the previous study started at the young age of 8 years old. For reference my daughter was diagnosed at 28 months of age. There is no data for very young children like her. Apparently little kids according to the CDC are not being diagnosed like 6 year olds.

From National Autism Society

I know I talked about the numbers they released last year on the blog but I can't seem to find the post. I do remember saying that we (general friends and I) thought the 1 in 88 was to high. uh huh. Are today's numbers more accurate? Maybe. The only way you can get accurate numbers and only true way is that every DR who diagnosis a child on the spectrum has to report it to authorities like they do with a gun shot wound or to have people register. Which I doubt would happen ever.

I can put it in a different perspective for you though. Yesterday I visited a private school for Avery. When they started their program for Autism they had only 6 kids. Ten years later they have room for only 75.  It's a lovely program and I can see her doing wonderfully in this program. I have two more to look at before we start to make a decision.

So I won't rant and rave anymore about the numbers.  Do we need answers? Oh hell yeah. Do we need a federal mandate for insurance coverage? HELL YEAH! So please if you can do two things today. Please take a moment to make a small donation to Organization for Autism Research aka Run for Autism. Secondly please take a moment to sign the petition to get the government to develop and implement a comprehensive national plan for Autism.



Please make a donation to: Run for Autism - Team Avery

Please sign the petition: Develop and implement a comprehensive national plan for Autism


Thank you.

Monday photo dump

These couches in the family room at little one's therapy place are sooo comfortable. ZZZ's.

I don't know how they do this at school. But she came home like this on Friday. So stinking cute!! And she hardly has any hair left to!

This is so true. And so proud of that!

I went to add something in my countdown APP on my phone and saw the 3,359 days since and had to think what it was. It was the last day I heard my Mom's voice. After that day she wasn't conscious again or she was intubated and couldn't talk. :( I only remember the day because it was my parents 40th wedding anniversary. :( boo. Well that's a downer...

No we don't have a dog. That handy work is from little one. Oh don't worry it's been coming out all on it's own.  That old theory if the children are quiet then be worried holds true.

While day light savings time can go suck it when it comes to screwing up my kids schedule. It really produced a wonderful sunset last night.

So since my gym membership expired and I'm not sure if I can get another one I used a GC from my sister to get a weight bench. I didn't even pay close to that sale price so it was all good. I picked it up this morning and maybe I will put it together tonight.

I need a dutch door installed in our house. Except ain't nobody got time for that here apparently. My Dad's busy, my husband is super busy.  The doorway is kinda of crooked esp since this house is from the 40's. This is the only way we can keep little one out of the kitchen. She can climb the installed swing gate. I can't go into another room without wondering if she's in the kitchen creating havoc. She's not really almost 5 but I would say about 18 months. And if you have kids you know exactly what I am talking about. ;)

I originally was going to title this post Honey Badger + Autism but I figured some people might not know what I was talking about but if you don't go watch this not safe for work language video on Youtube.com




That's sometimes the inside joke between my husband and I. We know if she wasn't autistic she would give a shit. But she's sometimes so angry/crazy that she's "honey badger don't give a shit".  Her mind doesn't work like mine, her sisters or her fathers. She gets so angry about not being able to communicate that the person who is trying to help her the most (me) get's the brunt of it. I was kicked and punched this morning trying to get a diaper on a kid who knows how to hold her urine but is terrified of the potty. Then I don't know what happened with getting on the bus but she wants nothing to do with that part of the day. For the past 2 weeks I've had to wrestle her to get her coat and her harness on and carry her to the school bus. First Then cards are helping but she's pissed about something and she can't tell us.

I'm angry at the world as well. I thought about all this while at the specialty store looking for something that she might eat the other day. I take care of her, her sister, sometimes her father but nobody takes care of me. When will that day come? Well since it's not on anyone's priority list it should be on mine. Right? At least that's what I tell myself but somehow I talked myself out of it today and I ate crap for breakfast and I ended up only having 4 points for the rest of the day at 2 pm. That's not exactly great planning. That's a rarity to. I normally don't blow my points for the day until the hour before dinner. lol

But being angry at the world doesn't help. All it does is fuel my desire to help her in any way we can. It does help to joke about it sometimes so we joke about her being all Honey Badger like sometimes. Because sometimes you just don't give a shit.