Subtle Differences From Birth

My son was diagnosed with autism at age 3. He is now considered recovered at age 8. I have been an active member of several parent support groups over the last 5 years and I do not know a single parent that believes their child was different at birth. Every parent of an autistic child I have ever spoken with describes normal development followed by a period of regression in their child, typically between the ages of 18 months and 2 years of age. When my son was diagnosed, his doctor told me to read Dr. Siegel's book titled The World of the Autistic Child. In my opinion, this is the worst possible recommendation a doctor can make. If you are only interested in the semantics of the different labels on the autism spectrum or want to hear that 80% of autistic children are mentally retarded (and you might as well give up), then this is the book for you. Instead, I chose to listen to other parents and follow the Defeat Autism Now protocol with my son. When my son was tested by his school disrict at age 3, his Standard Score for Cognitive Thinking was a 1 (where the average standard score falls between 7 and 13). He is now in a typical 3rd grade classroom. He has many friends and is indistinguishable from his peers. He recently scored between the 96th and 98th percentile on all divisions of the Standardized Test given to all children in his second grade classroom. I attribute his recovery to the gluten-free / casein-free diet, B12 injections, multiple supplements and Chelation Therapy (which removed large amounts of Lead and Mercury from his body). If you are the parent of a recently diagnosed child, I highly recommend the book Louder Than Words by Jenny McCarthy. She also has a book coming out in late September titled Mother Warriors. I have learned to put more stock in the opinions and knowledge of parents of autistic children over the so-called "experts" in the field of autism who have no children of their own and have never had to live a day in our shoes.