All the same

Have I mentioned how picky Hunter is about eating?Let me tell you...cheerios seemed to be his first love and what we called ragu it was a microwave pasta dish kinda like the mac n cheese that goes in the microwave.He would only eat those two things and drink pop and it had to be in the same cup.My mother in law would drive to timbuktoo if she had to to find his ragu.We would try everything but he would not eat anything else just then we introduced him to pop and fries from Mcd's big mistake that was all he was eating.His eating habits really never have changed he would eat a hot dog now and again but to this day we have tha same cup and bowl and if it isn't in the same cup and bowl he will not eat it.lol!I have caught alot of grief over the years from people saying try something new but it just doesn't work I will not make him eat somerthing he doesn't want.Food isn't the only picky thing he would only wear one red Thomas the Tank shirt til it was literally falling apart and even then he would still wear it we have gotten better with that but he doesn't like to wear clothes at all he has even stripped down at school he really is something else but we just take each day one at a time.You will hear more about his obsessive behavior later.

Preschool Years

Hunter first started school in Ida and his teacher was Tammy Castiglione and she was amazing she helped us so much.Hunter then moved to Summerfield for his 2nd year of preschool his teacher was still Tammy and I was so excited because she was wonderful and then we met Miss Michelle and I couldn't ask for a better teachers aide EVER she has been Hunter's support system from day one.He has given her alot of trouble but she just keeps on going you will hear more on Miss Michelle throughtout the years.So the 2nd year of preschool was a lil better.He was 3.5 and we had our doctor appointment for his diagnosis it was about 6 hours long of evaluations and activities and then the doctors conferred and called Cliff and I in the room for what they had diagnosed and we got the news it was Autism his label was mild to moderate.I just knew we could finally get him all of the help he needed because his current label was just speech delayed.We tried alot of things over the years with much family and friend support we tried ABA(applied behavior anaylsis)a very good program but Hunter needed one on one 24/7 to make it work we started with such a good support team,My best friend Laurie started a candle fundraiser for us ABA is not something covered by insurance it is out of your own pocket and just to have the first appointment would cost us $600 and every visit after was $70.We raised around $1300 so we knew it wouldnt go far but we tried anyway.Cliff,Laurie,Tammy his teacher and myself got very intense training on how to do this and Laurie and I attended seminars with Kim Renner the ABA instructor it turned out to be very hard for all of us to keep up with it since we all had full time jobs and it seemed Hunter was not getting what I expected.During that school year Hunter was granted a scholarship to take a class for a month called the CHIPs program we drove him everyday to Toledo for a month and he attended school just on Friday that month it was great he was with a couple other children at his same level they had a routine just like school with a lot of coping mechanisms and there was an observation room where we could watch the whole day if we wanted without him seeing us.

The Beginning

So as most of you know my son Hunter has autism and I decided to blog about or daily trials and tribulations and tell his story....Hunter is 9 now so I will bring you up to speed...Hunter was born on September 28,2001 at 1:05 pm and it wasn't an easy birth I dilated to 9 after 36 hours and ended up having to have a C-section.He was a happy baby and was developing normal as we thought he had alot of ear infections at first so when he was 14 months I took him to the doctor and explained to her I didn't think he was hearing good because he wasn't saying words or making sounds that all of the parenting books said he should be doing.The doctor examined him and said to me"I would say he has autism but he has good eye contact"my heart dropped when those words came out of her mouth.Autism was the new growing term used alot then and I had no idea what it was I just knew I had to help my baby.I did exactly as the doctor said not to do that day I looked up info in the internet.I had pretty much diagnosed him myself by reading what the signs were.One sign was rolling cars or trucks on the floor and staring at the wheels, yep he did that, another was opening and closing cabinet doors repetively, yep he did that too.That was all I needed to read and I just felt in my gut that he had autism.Over the next year we did everything to rule it out we had hearing tests and all were normal it was going to be a waiting game because they usually do not diagnose Autism until children are 3 or 4 is what my doctor told us.We immediately got him in speech therapy and boy that was not fun he did not want to cooperate when we took him he wanted out of that room.Not to mention it was costly the insurance would cover 10 visits with a copay of $100 and had we had the Autism diagnosis at that time it would of not been covered at all.Hmmm....I was told to contact the Monroe County Isd after our 10 speech therapy visits ran out to see if we could get help from them and that was when I met some of the greatest people I know.Hunter was now 2 and they came to our home and evaluated him and told us he could attend preschool in the fall because he was definetly showing signs of delay.