Where do we start?

When I learned that one could treat autism, my next step was to find out how. And that was (and is) no small task. We cannot go to a doctor and say, "Fix him; do your stuff." Each kid has symptoms and problems that is so unique to them that a doctor cannot say, "Do this, then this." The doctors that work with this protocol were called MAPS doctors.

Two important things that I learned were:
1) The senerio in creating autism for us was: the vaccinations (too many, child too small) causes a weakened immune system; the child then get sick--especially ear and respiratory infections; they are taken to the doctor and are prescribed antibiotics; the antibiotics cause a change in the enzymes/bacteria in the gut with an overgrowth of Candida; the small intestines then start having problems digesting foods; the brain then gets an inadequate type of nutrients to develop normally. How severe a child's disability becomes depends upon factors such as their genetic susceptibility, when they got their shots, if they were ill at the time, what type of ingredients were in the shots (most were made by a couple of different companies), etc.
2) Autism, ADD, ADHD, seizures, Aspergers Syndrome, OCD, asthma, etc. are all related and considered "autism spectrum" disorders.
3)There is also toxic ingredients in the vaccinations (called adjuvants) which increase the response but some kids, especially those with lowered immunity, are not able to detoxify this material well and ends up causing them more health issues.

It just takes so much time to learn what is wrong with each kid/person that it truly takes a village, or in our case, at least a family. We learned quickly that no doctor or practitioner will advocate for your child like the parents. We HAVE to be part of the treatment plan and we quickly learned that we must be the lead for treatment, unlike the old model where the doctor lays out the road map for treatment. We are the ones who observe our child's symptoms, what helps, what doesn't.

We also learned that allopathic medicine (typical western medicine) is not as effective as natural means. (This was a real surprise as we thought natural medicine was weaker and unreliable.) This means that Naturalpaths, Homeopaths, Chiropracters, and acupuncturists all seem to be able to treat our kids better than the allopaths. The only thing the allopaths seem to do well is order and read tests and surgery which are important.

All in all, we have spent (over the course of the 21 years of their lives) well over $200,000 out of our pockets for all the special therapies, school, tests, treatments, supplements, and other incidentals to help them both. We are now looking at our retirement years and seeing that we will be working well past age 65.