When it comes to rumors, I typically ignore them. But, last week a piece of “news” (if you can call it that) popped up in one of my Google Alerts and caught my attention. The "news" involved information about a high-profile actress, her daughter and the word “autism.” I was intrigued enough to click and read more.

The newsletter from my oldest son's pre-school came home. Sure, the newsletter was a happy color of yellow with cute little pictures of smiling kids on it, but what was typed in dark black letters had the potential to ruin our lives forever! It read, “Due to the increasing number of allergies amongst children, for the safety of our pre-schoolers, we are going peanut free.”
What?????!!!!! How were we ever going to survive? Andrew was the pickiest of picky eaters, and the only sandwich he would eat was peanut butter and jelly. And those delicious mini-Ritz crackers with peanut butter in the middle, how could we possibly go a whole five hours without those? Then there are the mouth-watering Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, and the endless delight that peanut M&M’s could bring. My son was going to starve, I was sure of it. I could already picture him running out to the car after pre-school, and I would need to immediately hook him up to a peanut butter IV.
I mean, are severe allergies even real? We never had allergies like this when I was growing up. Was this a case of crazy, over-bearing parents that had nothing better to worry about? How is it even possible for a little peanut to cause so much harm? It is just food.
I was sure my concerns were justified. And then it happened to me.

Over the last several weeks, I’ve been making some very basic observations about human nature in regard to patience and kindness. I guess that sometimes I get too busy or too bogged down with life to really spend time noticing or thinking about other people’s behaviors, because we have enough “behavior” on our plates to deal with any given day, but lately I’ve been noticing that some people are patient and kind and some are NOT – at least they are not with Ethan.

Acetaminophen, commonly known as Tylenol®, is a medication used to treat fever and mild to moderate pain. Dr. Shaw owner of Great Plains Labs wrote about this topic in his newsletter stating there is strong evidence that increased acetaminophen use in genetically vulnerable children appears to be the major cause of the autism epidemic. Of course this possible genetic susceptibility is also a concern with pregnant women ingesting acetaminophen. Most pregnant women are told acetaminophen is an option to relive headaches with little known side effects.

Last week Julie Hornok wrote a touching, heartfelt post HERE about children with autism speaking the words “I love you” to their mothers. I deeply appreciate her words as they very much mirror how I feel and reading them made certain sentiments Ethan proclaimed in the last week, ever so much sweeter in my eyes.
Over the long (President’s Day) weekend, twice Ethan said words that warmed my heart and gave me the motivation to keep on keepin’ on with all that we’re doing.
First, Ethan was avoiding doing what I had asked him to do, focusing instead on something more appealing…either LEGOs or a book, I can’t exactly recall. After redirecting and reminding him several times, when I was about to get more firm, Ethan did what I had been asking and then came over to give me a big hug. With the hug, came these words, “Mom, do you know why I love you so much? Because you’re so kind and calm.” Gulp.

A New York Times article on January 19 entitled “New Definition of Autism May Exclude Many” has started a panic in the autism community about the changes in the definition of autism scheduled for release in the DSM 5. Are our children in danger of losing services? Can we hurry science? Is anything really changing? These questions and more are perplexing the autism community and professionals as well. I write from the perspective of a practicing psychologist and as the parent of an adult child with autism.