Thursday, January 24, 2008

Five for Fighting

Please take a few minutes out of your day to stop by and watch this video on autism awareness. It will help raise money for autism research by just watching or you can choose to directly donate.

So many families are impacted by autism in this country and around the world that do not get the services needed for their children. Austism and spectrum disorders are becoming more and more frequently diagnosed in preemies, especially micropreemies. Unfortunately this is one of the areas that the neonatologists don't mention in "the talk" regarding possible long term effects of prematurity. Many parents of micropreemies today are not only finding that the horrid "catch-up by age 2" fantasy that most neonatologist and pediatricians feed us in the birth and NICU days is a blatant lie, but that neurological diagnoses like Autism are disproportionate in our children's population. We need more answers. We need more research. We need more services. We shouldn't have to fight tooth and nail to ensure our children get the appropriate medical and mental help to function and thrive.

I thank my little sister for working hard everyday with austic children. She is an inspiration to me as well as the families she touches each and every time she helps their beautiful children.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Just wanted to thank you for the post. I have a preemie now 2 1/2 that may be autistic, and I didn't know that preemies are more likely to have the disorder. One day I think he is autistic, the next day I'm sure he isn't. We've been on a waiting list for three months to get an appointment with a specialist.