I originally placed my family history with autism here, but have removed it at the request of older family members.  Below are some thoughts on autism:

 

In the autistic children that have touched my life, I see how profoundly they have affected the families they live in.  While this is true of any child with a chronic illness, in most cases there are established support structures for the illness.  Children with cancer or diabetes have professional healthcare, multiple individuals who will support the family every step of the way.  In the community as a whole, chronic disease brings an avalanche of support and sympathy.  Charity drives to defray medical expenses, offers of help from near strangers, the support is absolute. 

 

In contrast, parents of autistic children often face a shortage of medical support (the waitlist just for diagnosis was a year and a half here in Maine last I checked) and a strange, suspicious attitude from much of the community.  Not for severe autism, but for any level of spectrum, the response is often diagnosis by sight:  "He doesn't look autistic to me."  Maybe that isn't said out loud, but the slide of the gaze to the child and back is pretty clear.  The community response, even when sympathetic, is often:  "I know he's autistic, but could you just stop him from acting out?" which makes as much sense as:  "I'm sorry she's diabetic, but could you stop her from going into an insulin coma on our department store floor?"

 

So the parents of autistic spectrum children are the primary caregivers.  The most brilliant plan and practitioner will work brilliantly if the practitioner comes into the house and spends 24/7 with the child, but not otherwise.  I have seen too many great treatment plans unravel over the Christmas holidays, when clinicians are on vacation and parents are at their weakest (and most defenseless against relatives who express their love with sugar). 

 

As such, parents should be educated enough to mix and match DAN, methylation, environmental stimulation, and genetic variation, into combinations that work for their child.  It isn't necessary to understand the biochemistry, it is necessary to understand the input and response.  But the feedback must be immediate and cannot depend on a practitioner.  (If you are on the telephone at 3 am with your practitioner then you don't have enough information).