Saturday, February 20, 2010

Patricia before Autism

Patricia was born via caesarian section on February 5, 2007. She was a healthy 7 lb. bouncing baby girl. She was very easy to take care of. I didn't have a hard time even though I haven't recovered from my operation yet. I only had a hard time breastfeeding her since she didn't know how to suck correctly yet. It was frustrating. She had reflux, she vomits everything she eats when she cries, coughs a little or even for no reason at all, which makes it even more frustrating. At 1 month old, she was given Motilium for her reflux. It helped but only a little. Other than that, she was healthy. I breastfed her for almost a year, exclusively for 6 months. Her weight and height is above average, always at 95 percentile. She reached her milestones on time. She took all her vaccinations as scheduled. We had no worries. Our pediatrician said that she was perfectly healthy. One time, she even said that she's advanced for her age when Patricia waved goodbye to her at 6 months. She can do lots of tricks. She can swing her legs, sing "Twinkle, Twinkle" with actions, she can imitate Kris Aquino's "Deal or NoDeal" and the "Singing Bee" gestures, she can do "Hep Hep Hooray", she can sing in tune, "close-open" her hands, she dances, she makes poses in front of the mirror, and she can say "mama" and "papa". And then at 1 year and 5 months, they're all gone. It's as if a switch was turned off. She wasn't looking when we call her name, especially when she's doing something. At first my sister in law who's a doctor thought that there was something wrong with her hearing. But we were sure that it's ok. She knew that Patricia should have words already at that age. But then, she's still a baby, it can come later. We thought that maybe, she just didn't want to do her tricks anymore. But those were our only concerns. Other than that, she was okay. She was still a happy baby. What happened to her? Was it triggered by something? Did she just forget everything that I taught her? Was it really because of the vaccines? She had 24 shots already when she was diagnosed. Maybe, but that's not proven yet. This is why autism is a very mysterious disorder. I feel like it stole my baby girl away. But I won't stop until I crush the autism out of her.. I will never stop...

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