“To change the world,
Start with one step.
However small,
The first step is hardest of all…”
They. Are. Everywhere. Sick kids. I can’t go anywhere without seeing sick kids. They are at Target. They are at the pool. They are in every school in America. Multiplying.
See that girl over there by the vending machine? Look at the dark circles under her eyes. Allergies. Probably dairy or wheat.
Did you hear about the boy down the street? Life-threatening peanut allergy. Just diagnosed.
The Kindergarten teacher’s daughter? Hospitalized with asthma complications after her flu vaccine.
Your cousin’s child developed OCD after a strep exposure? Welcome to your new life with PANDAS.
And the autism. My God, the autism. It is everywhere.
So what’s a Thinking Mom to do when she encounters these situations every single day in every corner of society?
There was a time when I would have done nothing. When I was just starting out trying to treat my own son biomedically, I kept my mouth shut tight. I barely knew what I was doing. Who would listen to me? What does a mom know anyway? I am not proud of those days because even then…I saw it. I saw kids who needed help. Kids that were ill. But as we traveled along our autism road and my knowledge base grew, I became slowly more vocal and increasingly more forward.
I started occasionally posting compelling articles on my Facebook page about health, vaccines and autism. Not all the time, but enough to get it on my friends’ radar. Hey…autism is medical! We are doing (insert intervention here) to help our son. See…you can too. I’ll never forget when I got two messages in one day from long lost high school friends saying, ”My kid just got diagnosed with autism. Where should I start?” I cried for an hour that night. Despite the 25-ton weight I felt on my heart, I was grateful that those posts could help get a child on the road to recovery and better health. Yes, our kids with autism are sick, but they can get better.
Maybe even more importantly, I started talking. I talked about my son’s history of antibiotic use and the fact that he got vaccinated while taking them. I talked about how he stopped growing, and stopped developing. I talked about how three months of cod liver oil brought eye contact back. I stopped being worried about what the person on the other end of the conversation thought. I talked at the bus stop. I talked at preschool. I talked to my family. I once had a mom at preschool approach me to tell me her son was in the process of getting diagnosed. She had heard me talk about my son and met him at pick-up. She felt alone and needed someone to talk to. I handed her Kenneth Bock’s book and she read it. And she acted. And guess what? Her son is no longer on the spectrum. He no longer meets the criteria for an autism diagnosis. Read that again. Recovered.
One of our fellow Thinkers sent us this message along with the photo below: “This is exactly how I feel about speaking out on the causes & treatments of autism. I’ve made it my personal goal for 2013 & every year after to never be afraid again. Thank you for your site. You make it so much easier to be brave.”
No other message that we have received has touched me the way this one has. Probably because I feel the same way. Being part of this group of amazing people and this supportive, knowledgeable community has given me the confidence and the courage to put it all out there. No longer silent, I now say something and take action as I wade through our sea of sick children. We must never stop talking about all of this. We must not be afraid of the conversation.
Still, I am not as outspoken as some. I am a subtle, drop a pearl of wisdom here, or suggest an alternative to medication there, kind of gal. I could do more, but at least I am no longer silent. I tell my friend when I see those dark circles under her son’s eyes that her child likely has a food allergy. I express my concern about a neighbor’s child if I am seeing red flags. I can’t sleep at night if I don’t.
To all you Thinkers out there…not just the autism moms and dads, but the aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, grandparents and friends. Find your voice. Don’t be afraid. Please, share with us what your message is. You may help another Thinker find his or her voice. Even better…you may start a child on the road to recovery.
~Sunshine ☼
For more blogs by Sunshine click here.
Loved this, thanks for posting!
One step at a time no matter who long it takes or how long the journey. We can all do this.
Today I had an AMAZING OPPORTUNITY to speak to a very well known person in America. I spoke of the sick kids, the food supply, how hard it is to know what you are really eating, how you need “a degree in Organic Chemistry” to know how to pronounce the ingredients, how many ingredients there are in the food supply, etc…. I spoke with passion AND I WAS NOT AFRAID. We are the voices for the kids. UNTIL we really have honest conversations about our sick kids in our country, I will continue to speak, speak, and speak……. like it or not! 😉
I will admit it- I post way too much stuff about autism and vaccines…I am obsessed with telling others to watch out for the same fate as my son…..but I also post good news of recovery…. I will never give up- Ive gotten lots of unfriended friends on facebook who have deleted me, but they got the truth before they deleted me….
I never thought of myself as someone who spoke out on any kind of cause since I was always shy growing up and for a time in my life, I just went with the flow of things and did not rock the boat. I was always the joiner but not the leader. This was how I was when I had my first child. I took him to the pediatrician for all of his well checks and did as the doctor said because I did not know better and I respected the medical profession. It was not until I watched my son regress into autism after being vaccinated with multiple vaccines at one visit when he was 18 months old and after that, what language he developed, became silent, he started having diarrhea and numerous poops a day. My son started to stim and after he was diagnosed with autism, my world changed and I decided to read and research all I could especially on the Internet and attended conferences. I found out that autism was treatable and that the root of the symptoms is medical. I was relieved to know this since it gave me hope and I pursued finding a biomedical doctor and I tell everyone what I’ve learned since this information is not widely known. I even risked losing my job for refusing to take the flu vaccine. I love my job but the old me never would have risked my livelihood for a cause. When it comes to your own child, there isn’t anything a parent wouldn’t do for them. Your blog and website gives me the courage and inspiration to keep on going and to never give up hope. Thanks TMR!
What a beautiful post! I think you had to go through your own healing to find your voice. We all need to do that to move forward and find our voices. What a difficult thing to do. I just blogged about moving beyond the fear, short but sweet, after I got into a “public” discussion regarding the flu shot on a raw pet food group. I talk about these issues in person, but I ventured into the very public forum of the internet with people I didn’t know. I thought I would be more well received since there is much discussion about not vaxing dogs, but was I wrong! Though a few expressed support, the moderator even mocked my words.
I NEED to build a business and generate a full time income and I realize that I am not moving forward out of fear. And that is why I feel so limited inside. I’ll never reach my financial goals (OK, needs) or my personal goals if I continue to allow myself to be limited. So just keep moving forward. You, and all the moms here, are making a tremendous difference. Solvitur ambulando (the title of my post)…..to solve, start walking. Thanks for your voice whether it is on a small scale or a large one!
Remarkable post… Finding my voice and letting my light shine for the hope that it would help others has been a 3 year struggle for me, I lost so much (friends , relationships, confidence and trust) in my attempts to help my daughter (suspected mitochobdrial disease), but 3 years later after I started sharing our story and blogging, I am in a spot that I can see the tremendous amount that I have GAINED… A renewed sense of hope, new thinking friends, a whole lotta knowledge about topics i never imagined studying, and the confidence to walk up to another parent and offer concern and support. Thank you TMR!