Hope For Brady Intro

I have been blogging for quite some time, but on another subject.

Until today I have blogged only about digital scrapbooking. That has been my passion, and my business as a digital scrap designer. While I do not plan on quitting that completely...I have been side tracked by my research and implementing some alternative therapies in hopes of recovery for my son Brady...from...deep breath...autism.

In March of 2010 when Brady was 2 and 1/2 years old he was diagnosed with autism.

Brady was a normal "physically" developing child. However neurologically...he was developmentally behind. Let me go back to the beginning...when Brady was 6 weeks old we took him in for his 1 month shots. I remember this specifically because I was feeling like a bad mommy for getting him in 2 weeks late for his 1 month check up. At this appointment Brady got his shots...and way too many in my opinion!! Brady got 2 shots in each leg...poor baby!

After the check up we took our tiny baby home and from that point on he was...different.

We gave him Tylenol for the discomfort and potential fever from the shots like every pediatrician recommends after a baby gets shots. Hindsight is 20/20...if only I knew then what I know now!! ONE, he would not have gotten so many shots all at once...maybe not even at all until he was older...and TWO; I for sure would not have given him TYLENOL to further tax his liver at clearing the stupid toxins...WE just injected him with!!

Anyhoo...even me, an educated RN...took my baby in to get his shots as recommended by 90% of doctors in the US. I did not know there was the potential for this sort of harm...harm that he can potentially never recover from.

In the days and weeks that followed that fateful visit to our doctor...we THOUGHT our baby had developed "colic". Every time we tried to lay Brady down in his crib he would SCREAM the worst blood curdling screams of a baby in severe pain...we treated him with gas drops and you guessed it....more Tylenol. Hindsight again...when I look back now, I don't think he had colic at all...I think his brain was swollen...and when we laid him flat in his crib...the pain in his head was excruciating. 

Brady also had welts in this legs the size of shooter size marbles for almost a YEAR after his first shots. Because of the welts reaction to the shots...we went to our family doctor and asked if we should hold off on any other shots until Brady was older. (Little did we know that the damage was MUCH worse then a few welts)!! Since he was not in daycare...she agreed that holding off would be best. Hubby and I decided to hold off on all shots until Brady's 2nd Birthday. THANK GOD we did!

Around Brady's 2nd birthday we had been wrestling with the decision of whether or not to start up with his vaccines again. Hubby and I decided against starting them back up...due to the lack of language development in Brady. We did not want to add insult to injury!!

By the time Brady was 2 and 1/2 and still not talking...Hubby was really getting concerned.

Brady had met all of his "physical" milestones...rolling over...crawling...walking...etc.

But he was very much behind...in social development. He did not respond to his name, make eye contact...and words that he had picked up at around a year..."bye bye" "ma ma" 

"da da" had disappeared by age 2! Hubby insisted that something was wrong...I was in denial...I was convinced Brady was fine...he just wasn't talking because he was a boy...he was the second child...and we all know boys are a little slower when it comes to social development.

We were referred to the developmental pediatrics department at Mayo. After a battery of tests...the results confirmed our worst fears...Brady was autistic!! OMG!!

Shortly after that is when we put it all together...I don't think Brady ever had colic...we think he had a severe, and not JUST a local (the welts) reaction to the immunizations when he was 6 weeks old!!

We have one doctor that when we asked him if he thinks the shots when Brady was 6 weeks old caused his autism, said this: "People may be genetically predisposed to be susceptible to becoming autistic. Consider genetics to be the metaphoric "gun" and the shots may have been the "trigger" that fired the gun".

WE pulled the trigger! We gave him the shots...part of me feels so guilty for that. But then the logical part of me tries to tell myself that he was predisposed...there may have been other triggers in life...and this may have happened any way. We live in a very TOXIC world...and our government does not educate us...warn us or PROTECT US!!

It is not until something like this happens that we go on our OWN search for answers. Everyone knows the symbol of autism is the puzzle piece. This diagnosis is very complex...and solving the puzzle is even more complex.

This blog will be my record of our journey into solving the riddle...and I pray to God...helping to recover our son from autism.

It will be my place to share with other struggling parents things we have tried...things we are looking into...and things we have tried but seemed to have no effect.

WELCOME

to the 

HOPE FOR BRADY BLOG!!