I am willing to take the time to write about the accomplishments that Alexia has made and the reasons for them mostly because of the pride I have but also because I do believe that sharing what we have been through will give other parents of children blessed with autism a glimpse at hope.

More often than not people have no clue that there is even anything wrong with my granddaughter because with the perseverance and patience of her mommy, she has been given so much love and a lot of “treatment” that she has become what looks like a normal 8 year old child.

Still, there were many years when my little girl Elizabeth, had to take care of this baby that was completely uncontrollable and she had to do it on her own.

I was there so many times to see Alexia go “crazy” and I have to admit that I could not have done nor put up with the tantrums and the episodes in the patient way that Liz did when Alexia went into her little world.

I realize this may not make sense to some but any parent who has a child with autism will instantly understand what I am trying to put into words.

I want to post stories of how we first found out and how Elizabeth (mommy) learned how to deal with it.  While I did not always agree with some of the choices, the fact is Alexia is simply awesome and I know a lot of the reason for this is the way that Liz decided to be the mom she is and to take the steps necessary.

One of those steps was to change Alexia’s diet and while some may not believe this can make a difference, I am happy to say that it can and it does most definitely.

If you give Alexia any kind of dairy, ie: milk chocolate, cheese, real milk, etc. you may as well be taking a needle full of heroine or morphine and pumping it into a child who will not know how to deal with it.

I really hope that the stories which are all going to be real and true will help some other mom or parent or caretaker of a child that has autism find some hope and maybe even a few answers to how do I help my baby because he or she has autism.

I still remember the day Alexia was born, so beautiful and perfect weighing in at 8 pounds 7 ounces. She had 10 fingers, 10 toes and sparkling blue eyes that later turned to hazel. Autism was not even something we had ever really given any thought to.

My granddaughter was the most wonderful baby in the world in my eyes and she seemed to be progressing normally for the first few months.

She smiled and interacted with us. She hated to be held when it was time to go to sleep, she much preferred to just be laid down and left alone.

She laughed her first real laugh at about 4 months old. My daughter had said to me “Don’t you dare make her laugh for the first time while I’m not here”, but of course I had to do it. I was playing with her and she just started to do her little baby laugh.

All seemed to be going well but when she didn’t start talking or even trying to talk a few months later, we started to wonder why. I guess we just figured that she was taking everything in and would soon start to babble away but that time just didn’t come.

By the time Alexia was 2 years old, we knew that there might be something wrong. Still, we had no knowledge of autism. We may have heard the term autism at some time but we were not aware of what it really meant.

We went along just thinking the time would come when Alexia would just suddenly start talking in a way we could understand. I guess I should clarify that of course her Mommy (my daughter) usually knew what it was she wanted but I was struggling to make sense of anything she would try to say.

Then one day it happened. Elizabeth called me to say “Alexia has autism”! I will never forget that phone call. Liz said to me “Mom, why does my daughter have autism”? All I could say was that it was because she (my daughter, Liz) was one of the lucky ones.

Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t wish autism or the trials of autism on any child and most certainly not on any mother but I really believe the fact that Alexia was diagnosed with autism forced my daughter to reevaluate her situation. Liz started to learn all she could about what autism really meant and what her options were.

She became one of the most patient mother’s I have ever seen becoming very aware of what her daughter might need or want. Liz learned to communicate with Alexia in ways that I would never have been able to.

Liz began to seek help and luckily for us there seemed to be a lot of resources in her area and with the help of some wonderful daycare centers where they are aware of autism and even have staff that is trained to deal with special needs children, Alexia began to develop her speech and communications skills.

Today Alexia is in kindergarten and unless you happen to see her when she is one of her all out tantrums, which seem to be one of the major signs that a child may have autism, you would look at her and think what a wonderful, beautiful child. I sometimes still find it hard to believe that she does have autism because until she is lost in whatever place she goes to in those horrifying and difficult times, she acts like any 6 year old.

Autism affects many of our children and while we still don’t know the cause of autism, there are ways that we can help our children and the parents to learn the best ways of dealing with autism.