DrinkTheElixir

It is a shame that the other thread became so heated and had to be closed. Sorry for the duplication - I didn't realise another thread existed. My view is that all people who fall within the AS are worthy - no matter where on the spectrum they fall. The real tragedy is that it is difficult for some people to discuss the diversity without slighting another parent whose child falls elsewhere on the spectrum - because that isn't what it is supposed to be about. My position is, as a mother of a child on the AS is that I am beyond the point of dreaming that there will be a 'cure'. I am not sure that I want my son to be 'cured' because it is at that point that my son stops being who he is - and who he is is not purely defined by his diagnosis, they are intertwined. What I DO want to change is other peoples perceptions and reactions to people with AS. That is why I found parts of this article refreshing. Caplan in my opinion has a very skewed view on this subject and I winced at his comments - but he really wasn't what I was focussing upon - I dismissed what he said. What interested me is the focus upon what society tries to DO with children/people on the AS. They are put into a situation where they are forced to comply and in many cases complying by being forced into an uncomfortable situation is wrong. My son is in mainstream and for the most part copes excellently - but his teachers (in the past) flagged things about his behaviour that they saw as 'problematic'. He played on his own, he sat and faced the wall at dinner time, he insisted on wearing a specific hat at all times. Hello? These are not problems. My son, at that time preferred his own company and more often than not, still does. He faced the wall at meal times because that was a coping mechanism that worked for him, the hat thing passed less quickly because the teachers made an issue of it. THAT is what really stood out to me about parts of that article. Peoples behaviours being stifled, behaviours which are comforting and necessary for them and yet society can't cope and so we try to 'fix' it. My son isn't broken - society is. This isn't about putting people in little boxes and saying 'you can be celebrated because you have Aspergers' or 'you are less worthy because your condition is more severe'. Far from it. This is about being proud of our children for what they are and can be. Caplan missed that because in my opinion he doesn't understand the subject he is spouting off about - and it did sound as if he was saying one end of the spectrum were more socially valuable than the other. I think that we all know that is pure BS. I take all of your comments on board and agree with you, I would have much preferred Gareth and Amy to have more input throughout. What I embraced was the notion that Society needs to change their expectations and attitudes to people like my son. What I have noticed and find quite frankly painful is that is is near impossible to celebrate your childs abilities without being seen as somehow 'disrespecting' anothers. The battle against societies intolerance and hindered understanding of this issue is one thing, accepting that us as parents have different perceptions and ideals is another. The former lies solely on people like us to educate those who don't understand ASD, the latter merely underlines a need for a new level of tolerance and just a small ammount of support. It is difficult when discussing such an emotive subject not to get heated at times - I just refuse to go there when the taper that lights my fuse or anyone else around me are blinkered people like Caplan who fail to go beyond academia to fully understand the intricacies of the AS.

For anyone interested there is an excellent article in the New Scientist on Autism titled "Autisitic pride - we don't need a cure, we want acceptance". The article covers alot of ground, but basically the gist of it is that there is a movement that is ever growing of people with ASD who are campaigning to have autisim recognised as a normal part of human diversity. Also within the article is the idea that some traits should be accepted in some cases rather than people continually trying to deconstruct why ASD people find it difficult to make eye contact for example, or find comfort in stimming. The idea that perseverations (intense interests) can be their greatest gift rather than something that has to be constantly stifled by others is raised once again. Awareness is raised explaining that it is more than possible that perseverations can be channelled into a an area that could become their career. One example of this was Temple Grandin (I don't know if anyone is familiar with her) she chanelled her perseveration about cattle squeeze chutes and went on to become the leading designer of livestock facilities. Anyway - it was a refreshing read and reaffirmed my thoughts and feelings about ASD - and it is well worth the �2.60. Check it out.

A few nights ago when I was having a low moment and a few tears, my 7 year old gave me a brief hug and said "I love you Mummy, but can you turn your taps off because they are making me wet"

The University is around a 25 minute drive for me, it is on my doorstep just about That said I still posted the urine sample. You get sent a kit with a bottle for the sample and instructions on how to post it back. It consists of collecting the urine and deep freezing it, then insulating the sample in bubble wrap, newspaper or whatever. If you are close by though you can drop the frozen specimen off yourself. I too am not sure whether the MMR had any effect on how my son is - but there is always a tiny doubt. I suspect that it is largely genetic and in all honesty I can see small traits in my son that quite honestly, my husband and I have ourselves! Regardless I have opted not to have my youngest immunised with the triple vaccine, I just don't want to tempt fate. As for Paul Shattock's work, well, you don't have to doubt the vaccine to see the value in the tests like you said, it is worth it just to see if some of the symptoms can be alleviated by altering the diet. It is a two way operation, you fill in Paul's questionairre about your child and their development plus a few other things which help him in his research. In return you find out if you child is sensitive to gluten and dairy - regardless of the reason behind the sensitivity. Everyone wins all round. My son is better off on the diet for sure, his tantrums have lessened dramatically, his bowel issues are resolved and he seems calmer. We know if he has had gluten in error, he becomes hyper and bad tempered. Having gluten in his system (as research indicates) has an opiod affect and he reacts to it quickly. It is scarey to think that Gluten can stay in an intolerant childs system for up to a year - when I discovered that I was horrified! At first altering his diet seemed insurmountable, but now I find it pretty damned easy. He gets pasta, flour, biscuits, pizza bases, crumpets and bread free on prescription. The rest I make. Hope that the test answers some questions for you

There may difficulties with your child being immunised so long ago. If they try the route of checking invoices, they may have purged their records and disposed of the invoices already. I am not sure how long receipts are kept in the system before they dispose of them. That said, I would be pretty astounded if there was no way at all to find out the brand of vaccine used some other way. It sounds like pretty slap dash record keeping if they don't record the vaccine sufficiently in his notes or in their practice records to trace patients vaccines. After all, it isn't as if we as patients or carers have sourced the vaccine and had them administer it. They themsleves have ordered the prescription, accepted the deliver and administered it. In that sense they have a responsibility to ensure that meticulous records are kept for eventualities such as these. Put it this way - they have to record the batch number by law. Why on earth do they bother if that number is rendered useless because there is no additional identifying information? If all else fails, you may be put in a situation where you have to gather possible pharmacuetical companies potentially responsible for that vaccine - which may give you a short list of 2 or 3 companies (as you have mentioned in your original post) and trying to trace the vaccine using the batch number. The companies should be able to tell you whether the batch number is one of theirs. Hopefully, you won't have to do this yourself and your GP will try to help you. Additional information: There is a book that every GP should have (I have one as a nurse) called the British National Fomulary. It is a joint publication of the British Medical association and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. In that, you can look up any prescribed drug, it lists the pahrmaceutical companies that make the drugs, what the drug looks like (so you can identify it) the doses, side affects and indications. You can buy this book at Waterstones in the Medical section. In the back of the book there are a handful of yellow slips which can be torn out. These slips are to be filled in if any side effects not yet recorded are reported by patients. The GP's fill in the form with the drugs details and prescribing info, the reaction and their own details. This form is then sent off to the Committee on Safety of Medicines as a 'Report of Suspected Adverse Drug Reaction'. These are the guys here: http://www.mca.gov.uk/aboutagency/regframe...csm/csmhome.htm This is the reason why it is necessary to have the brand name - because without it the GP can't properly fill in this form when it is needed. And that is another reason as to why I find it astounding that the GP has no record of the brand. Whichever, you have the number so it may be a case of approaching the companies with it. POM also make this vaccine by the way - I am not sure about it ever being combined with with the HIB vaccine being combined with any other vaccine though. As far as I am aware it is entirely seperate. My son was immunised at the same times as your child ( he is 7) and I have a 2 year old - the HIB was always given as a separate vaccine in both cases. Not sure whether this is everyones experience though. As for bowel problems, my son was plagued with bowel problems amongst other things. We switched his diet to Gluten free after he was tested for sensitivity. It showed that he was sensitive to Gluten. His bowel problems dissapeared within a week on a gluten free diet. Thankfully he was not sensitive to casein and so is ok with Dairy. I wish you all the luck in the world - I hope at least some of my post has been of some help. Certainly look into having your child tested for Gluten and casein. The test is �60. Paul Shattock is in my neck of the woods and tested my son, it is really worth the money - they have limited government funds - hence the high fee, but they will reassess the fee if you are on a low income I believe: http://osiris.sunderland.ac.uk/autism/dietinfo.html

Maybe it is a case of really having to dig around for it, who knows. I do know that if it takes alot of admin time to find what you are asking for some (not all) but some GP's practices will charge you for it. My local paractice charge �15 admin fees. That said, if they are feeling generous they may let you off on that one. It is also worth noting that some records of immunisations may be purged from your notes after 9 years. They basically have a records spring clean. I had problems retrieving evidence of my Hep B immunisations. I needed them so that I could sign up on BUPA's nurse agency - but I was immunised in 1989, so the records had been destroyed. I had to have the immunisations and titre levels done again. Really, I would think that if they keep their records correctly, there should be some evidence of the drug order and delivery. How long ago was your child immunised?

The batch number should be more than enough to identify the vaccine and it's origin Greg. Throughout my nursing career I have had to record batch numbers for vaccines, IM analgesia and so forth. The batch number should have some identifying data within it so that it can be traced back (usually lettering amongst the numerical part of the batch no. Assuming that the jabs were administered by a health visitor at your local practice (which is the protocol in my area) the records should definitely show more detail. For example, the vaccines would have had to be ordered in for the clinic, there should be a record for that order - not necessarily in your childs notes, but there should be a record somewhere in their system of THAT particular order of vaccines. This should identify the brand of vaccine. Any time a drug, vaccine etc is delivered to the practice an invoice is signed which identify's the precise contents of the delivery. If the Health visitor ordered the vaccines through the local pharmacy, records should be archived as to exactly what brand the vaccine was (and the records should be found from their source, eg. the pharmacy too). That has to be recorded by law - for the very reasons that you illustrate, sometimes there are side effects and the drug batch needs to be traced back. Unfortunately, I have the lovely task of checking in drugs as part of my job. So I know for a fact that the stuff isn't dropped off without rigorous checking in procedures being carried out. 1) Whoever immunised your child is you first port of call. 2) If it is your health visitor, contact her and try that route. 3) Make enquiries about their ordering source and record keeping, ask them to check their invoices for the brand names and check them against the date that you child was immunised. Hope that helps.

Hello, My name is Grace and I have a 7 year old son who has been diagnosed with Aspergers. I am not sure even where to start trying to explain his situation, he is a very complex little boy and typically doesn't present with many of the 'expected' symptoms. We are exploring new ways to help alleviate some of his behavioural issues and started with a gluten tolerance test which shows that he is highly sensitive to Gluten - we have successfully cut this out of his diet and have seen amazing improvements. I found this site by doing a search or cranial osteopathy - so here I am! I am a 35 year old Mum of two, I work in the Nursing profession and have been an RGN for toooo long - nursing from 1989 to present. I guess that as parents we have worry's, concerns and are always looking for ways to make our son's life easier. At times we have felt that the main barrier to this has been other peoples attitudes and ignorance as regards children with aspergers and indeed any child on the spectrum. I think that for a long time I have fooled myself that I can march along, cope, alwys find the answer. And today I happen accross this site and realised that I don't have to (my husband included) stumble along trying to figure things out. As my son has gotten older I think that I have a growing realisation that I need more support, somewhere that I can ask questions about other peoples kids. My son attends a mainstream school - I would be interested in chatting with other parents who have children in mainstream and the difficulties that they have encountered. Also, anybody who has experience with paediatric cranial osteopathy - and whether it has had an impact on their child - if so how. Actually, I have a thousand questions - I really don't know where to start and feel a little overwhelmed! Anyway, I suspect that I am jibbering a little, so I will close here