If you are employed by one company or another, consider taking advantage of a Flexible Spending Account, if it is offered.  These special account plans are also sometimes called "Cafeteria Plans."  They allow you to put aside $5,000 in pre-tax income to pay for qualifying childcare or healthcare expenses.  This income cannot be taxed (section 125 of the IRS Code) and is not counted as income when applying for SSI (Social Security) benefits.

We use my husband's Flex account to pay for things like Music Therapy for our son, dental woes, and my prescription co-pays.  At the beginning of the calendar year, the company puts aside up to $5,000 (whatever amount we have chosen) in an account.  So theoretically, we could use the whole $5,000 right away.  Over the course of the entire year, the divided amount is deducted from my husband's paychecks.  So, if we have opted for the entire $5,000, my husband's paycheck would be about $200 less per pay period.  But we are still getting that $200, just in another account and tax free as well. 

Okay, problem solved!  My friend thanks you for all of the advice!  It worked.  Crisis averted!

Alex Hansen, 7, is moving on to second grade at Millbrook Elementary School in the fall. A few years ago he was diagnosed with autism but manages well in a regular classroom with the occasional help of a teaching assistant. Like most kids with autism, Alex has to deal with communication issues. Last summer he attended Camp Puzzle Palooza, a weeklong day camp at Cedar Creek Church intended especially for kids with autism, as well as siblings and other children.
"I'm a normal kid at that camp," Alex told his mom, Jamie.

I applied for the MR waiver here in Iowa, which is what Autism falls under. I know Michael is not the only Autistic child in this county needing this waiver, yet they are having such a hard time getting his psychological and IQ tests done. I am beginning to become  discouraged. I would be willing to take Michael to a bigger hosptal or wherever to get this done.

I know SSI can take months to go through, especially with most cases having to be appealed. I read that some states require that the first application be denied if the waiver had not been issued yet.

I really have no idea what I am doing. I know I can fill out an application on the website, but other than that, I know nothing about what I need to do. 

I have a six-year-old son with autism.  He was diagnosed at 3 1/2 and has always been very aggressive.  We hadn't wanted to experiment with any medications, but after he started kindergarten, we decided he needed some help with impulse and anger.  He is now in the first grade and doing well acacemincally, however, still problems with aggression.  I need any new ideas I have missed, words of wisdom from parents who's autistic kids are older and doing well/or not and encouragement that my son can grow up to be a good, productive human being.  I haven't met any other kid like my son yet

Diet is the whole key to recovery because they have to grow new brain cells (damaged to varying degrees by various things in vaccines, like toxins from bacteria causing necrosis of budding dendrites). Brain cells can keep growing in the Higher Brain (with protein, balanced, non-toxic diet), but NOT in the Old Brain. The Old Brain at the base,  location of all Behavioral Instincts, and Chemical Regulation for the body, including the Gastro-Intestinal Tract, releasing the chemicals needed for break-down and digestion. Thus, these kids problems are compounded by difficulty digesting (absorbing nutrients). Digestable high protein diets will give the building blocks in the form of Amino Acids to make new brain cells. The peculiarity of Autism is from Developmental Damage in the Old Brain - depending on the severity of brain cell damage, recovery occurs everywhere , but in this area (being the foundation). BUT recovery cannot be ruled out, and anything is possible. But therein, within the unknown region of the Old Brain, lies the dilemma. Higher brain recovery can become great enough to raise geniuses whom can learn to understand what they lack instinctually. Using their highly developed conscious minds (Higher Brains), they can teach themselves how to behave properly, becoming Consious of what is missing, thus learning to teach natural behaviors to themselves cognitively. (by the way, each vaccine dose is suspended in vials of heavy metals, so Thimerasol did not need to be replaced by anything). I give talks with drawings on chalkboards for visual comprehension; about germs, vaccine recipes, and infant physiology. I have a booklet about how vaccines cause Autism, and the site http://www.trackingvaccinations.com (Tracking Vaccinations).

This is my first blog, yes I am behind the times.  I am a newly stay-at-home mother of 3, my oldest son has autism.  My husband and I have been married 11 + years and according to statistics, I am one of the 14% who has support and help from her spouse.  We have been using the traditional school therapies and biomedical treatments to combat our son's autism. I am interested in others' opinions on the "diet", chelation, vaccination effects, and other therapies. 

My first question is should we be getting therapists for the summer beyond the extended school year?  What about on the weekends during school?  We have always followed what the school district told us and no one mentioned additional therapies beyond what the school provides.

Second, Is anyone successful in getting refunds or coverage for treatments from their insurance company?  My next battle is with the insurance company and getting tax breaks for medical expenses.

 Thanks!

Short Introduction

Hi Everyone!

I just want to introduce myself briefly so you know who I am and what my mission is. I was born in China, grew up in Vancouver, Canada, where I did my honors in Biochemistry and Medicine. After graduation, I practiced many years as a Family Doctor and as an Emergency Doctor. I really love practicing medicine; I used to say, “Wow, they pay me to do this?”

About 15 years ago, I moved to the United States from Vancouver when my husband’s infertility practice was relocated here. I had just finished settling down and re-started my work when my son, Marc, was diagnosed with Autism. I thought to myself, how many years did I spend in medical school and how many years did I spend with my beloved patients? The least I can do is to spend my time and energy in helping my son now.

So I stopped all activities and just concentrated on helping my son. Along the way, so many parents asked me for my help that I started my practice of treating Autistic kids exclusively. All my waking and sleeping hours were devoted to figuring out how best to treat these lovely, sweet kids.

Fortunately, the protocols have been improved more and more so that most of the kids that we treat with the DAN (Defeat Autism Now) protocol improve greatly. Some improve quickly, just with the gfcf (gluten free casein free diet) alone, some more slowly. Then there is the challenging 10-20% that won’t budge, no matter what we do. So I continue to be humble and open-minded—we want to be able to help ALL Autistic kids!

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Hello, This is my first blog entry and I am writing because I am interested in finding out if there is anyone with an autistic child who has tried to get them to write over and over an autosuggestion like "I will be good in school" over and over. Did it help? I would like to know if that would help in school instead of sending a child (my grandson is 12) home expelled for two days for calling a teacher an unacceptable name. Thanks for any help.

Recently I attended an Autism Workshop with Donna Williams and I have to say it was fantastic. Donna had many wonderful ideas and strategies on dealing with different aspects of autism, addressing issues and problems in a way that I had never really heard before. Her thoughts and ideas were so practical and user friendly, to the point where I was able to come home and try out some new strategies straight away.

Donna talked about the ‘Fruit Salad Model’ of Autism. She noted that whilst most people understand that every case of autism is different, people also need to realise that we can’t address or treat the difficulties of autism with a ‘one size fits all’ approach.

During the afternoon I took many notes (which I am now still making sense of, but will eventually be able to put into a format that is understandable) and really had my eyes opened to different ways of tackling problems.

Donna talked a lot about finding the right way to work with different personality types..........

As any parent with a child who has autism would understand, it can be nightmarish facing the real world where there is often harsh judgement and a lack of understanding. For myself, it is often an effort to ‘face the world’ and the safety of home is very comforting..........

(Rest of my thoughts on the workshop at http://managingautism.com/autism-spectrum-disorder/donna-williams-autism-workshop)

Elissa :-)

I used to be an extremely sociable person, and this was by far the time of year I loved the most. You get together with family and friends and sit around and talk about life; yours, mine and things in general. Its a little different now. Well let me start over; I had a bad day, well actually I had a bad couple of days. I have a four year old autistic child, love her to death, she is my joy, for the most part. But just like most of you here, we have good days; were I am so optimistic about life, and I find myself thinking that things are going to work out fine, she'll get older have friends, walk, talk and be "normal". And then there are the days that I have been having lately, those days that I just want to curl up under the covers and cry myself into a new reality. Those days where not only will she not eat but she knocks all the food on the floor, or those days where she cry's countinuously non-stop for hours to the point where, Myself and her father have to step outside to argue and place the blame(because when things go bad as they often do, the faultline has to lie somewhere....if only for a moment). And on the bad days things seem like they cant get any worse...until they do. Right around Thanksgiving, my daughter had a breakthru, see she doesnt walk , or use normal speech (she does some signing, but mostly we use pictures, and do a llot of guessing). But her teachers had been calling and telling us how well she was doing at school; standing all day, and walking long distances in her gait trainer, even doing some spoon feeding on her own at home, just making a lot of progress in general. Then saturday and we couldnt get her to eat, she's fighting, and exibiting a lot of SIB's. Then the nonstop crying. now usually at this point we put her in the tub because bathtime calms her down tremendously, but not today.  read more »

To do which diet? Which doctor? all these initials DAN,CAN,PDD,CDD,NIDS,ADD,OCD

Whats a mom to do and where to start I'm on a journey

Sally

On Sunday morning things were so different.  Monday brought a new set of troubles!  Actually, the home troubles blossomed into school ones when our boy took IT out during a mainstreamed class.  While I was at work, the phone rang at home and no-one had the guts to say why I had to call them back.  Of course it was late so I telephoned the administrator and got my answer. 

He doesn't acknowlege why he did it, only repeats when.  He fell short of tellling and that's all we want to know. 

PS:  Did anyone read about the woman in England who torched herself and disabled daughter in a car?  She was being harrassed by youths and couldn't take it anymore.  She left a 16 year  old boy to fend for himself.  

I found this great site that has a list of local autism support groups. They have most states listed. Hopefully you can find something close to your location. You can see the list here: http://www.kylestreehouse.org/local_support_groups.cfm