Caleb's Eyes.com - Raising Autism Awareness

"Caleb was a very happy, energetic baby. He reached normal milestones at the appropriate ages. He was sitting up at 6 months, beginning to speak and walk at 12 months, and he was drinking out of a sippy cup not long after that. It was just our oldest child, and only daughter Aliya, and Caleb at that time. They would play and laugh and have a great time together. He was very social and interactive with her. We were just your average everyday family. Then it happened. I can't say for sure what it was. I have a strong belief that all of my son's vaccinations bombarding his probably already weakened immune system had a great deal to do with it, but we will certainly get to that. Caleb was about 15 months old. He began to get very ill. I assumed that he probably drank some old nasty pond water, as we had been swimming the weekend before, but again I didn't know for sure. He was running incredibly high fevers and began to have extremely bad bouts of diarrhea. He would just lay around and not move. I have to say, this was a kid that couldn't sit still, it was so hard to watch him just lay on the couch. His little eyes seemed to sink back in his head, he developed very dark colored circles under his eyes. At first of course, we just gave him pedialyte and tried to feed him the occasional cracker. We also gave him Tylenol and Motrin for the fevers like any normal parent would do. However, he was not getting better. The fever got so high that the medicine wouldn't touch it. We tried cool baths and we would even take him outside in just his diaper to try to cool him off. My heart absolutely broke for my little boy. We would hold him and his body was just limp. It almost seemed lifeless. He was losing weight like crazy because he couldn't keep anything down. This went on for a couple days, when Bob (my husband) and I decided that it was time to make a trip to the nearby walk-in center at the local hospital. The doc there just told us to keep doing what we were doing and that he should be back on his feet in no time. Another two days had passed and if anything, Caleb just looked worse. This time I took him to the emergency room in the hospital. There is nothing quite like being up all night with a sick child and making that 5am trip to the emergency room. This doc just told us the same as the previous; just keep giving him the pedialyte and he should get better. As I think back on it now, I know I should have been more forceful with these doctors. As a mom, I can say that my gut said, question this guy, because we are doing all of this and it still isn't working. But, silly me, I trusted these over-paid and apparently under educated doctors to do their jobs. That was mistake number one.

     We made a total of 3 trips between the emergency room and the walk-in center before we were told that Caleb was dehydrated. The doctor sent us to the hospital to have Caleb hooked up to an IV so that we could get him rehydrated. I will never forget that day. I have never had a feeling quite like it before. I can't even put it into words. To see my baby lying on that table with wires coming out of his arms, was just horrible. He was so weak, and he kept saying momma, momma. I just sat there and cried when the nurses would leave the room. I tried to pull it together when they were there. This was the first time I heard the screaming. Caleb laid there, almost lifeless it seemed. He wasn't moving very much. That was a good thing actually because every time he moved I had to try to kind of restrain him. He kept trying to pull out the IV wires. Then I heard it. It was the most awful sound. It startled me. He arched his back and let out a very loud, almost ear piercing yell. It sent chills down my spine.

     We were discharged from the hospital that same day. I was a little surprised considering that my son had been hooked up to an IV for the better part of the day. They didn't keep him for observation or anything. He was definitely looking better though. We truly didn't notice much of a change at first. He seemed like his old self. We did notice that he seemed to get sick at the snap of a finger. If he was within a mile of a sneezing child then he got whatever the sickness was. It got to the point that I didn't like taking him out anywhere because I was afraid that he would get sick. It always seemed to affect him the same. He would get high fevers, diarrhea, and his body would go limp and lifeless. Some of the biggest changes came around Christmas of 2004. Caleb had caught a stomach bug and all the same symptoms appeared as before. He looked just awful. This time though, he was having a very hard time sleeping. He would normally get up in the middle of the night when he was sick, but it was usually only for a little while. There was something so much different about it this time. Caleb was waking up in the middle of the night screaming as if he had had a terrible dream. It would take anywhere from an hour to two hours to get him to settle down. He would hold tight to whichever of us happened to be up with him. Even after he would settle down he would just be awake. It was almost like he was high or something. He would run all over the room, jumping and laughing.

     Caleb of course recovered from his illness. He was still having a terrible time sleeping. It was like he didn't need sleep. He could go on forever. My husband and I were both exhausted. Neither of us ever got much over 4 or 5 hours of sleep a night, plus we were both working full time jobs. Caleb also developed an unusual habit. He was starting to play in his poop. He would mess in his diaper and then paint on the walls, the crib, his toys, and of course all of the bedding. This was happening at least 3 to 4 times a week. I was constantly doing laundry and I swear that we had the cleanest crib around. I washed that thing with Clorox so many times that the paint was starting to come off. Caleb also started putting everything into his mouth. I know that kids will be kids, but this was different, it was everything. he would try to eat everything from Play-Doh, to change, to dirt off the floor. I couldn't keep anything out of his mouth. He also started with these very intense tantrums. They were nothing I had ever seen. He would yell, scream, kick, pinch, bite, and bang his head on things. It got so bad at times that we had to put him up in his room for a time out. That may sound mean, but I was afraid that if I didn't get away from him I was going to start hitting him and not stop. At that point we had no idea what was going on and we thought that he was just acting out for some reason. I think the hardest thing at this point was the frustration. We had no idea why he was acting this way. I kept thinking that we had done something wrong or there was something that we just weren't doing. We also began to notice that he wasn't saying any new words and most of the words he was saying, he had lost. He would come out with Mom or Dad once in awhile, but it wasn't long before they were pretty well gone too.

     We managed to get through each day without killing him or each other. Bob and I were starting to have a lot of problems. It was almost as if we were blaming each other for what was happening to Caleb. We could barely be in the same room together without yelling and screaming. You could cut the tension with a knife. Caleb still wasn't sleeping and we were trying to take turns every other night. We were both exhausted. We were trying to balance our life at home with life at work. It is pretty difficult to act happy at work when you are not sleeping, your marriage seems to be failing, and you have a child you can't control no matter what you do.

We began to notice that Caleb's play habits were changing. Instead of driving his cars around like he used to, he would line them up. If anyone touched his line, he would flip out and scream and pinch. We learned early on to let him be. He was also jumping a lot and flapping his arms. He would put his hands together and move them back and forth very fast. When Caleb would line things up on the floor, he would put his head on the floor to look at his arrangement up close to make sure that they were all straight. He would actually get very upset and frustrated and throw things if he couldn't get them just right. This is about the time that we noticed that Caleb was becoming distant. Caleb was always a very affectionate baby. He loved to be held and he would snuggle in tight to me. Now, when I tried to hold him, he was resistant. He would push away with his hands and feet. He would cry and sometimes scream, almost as if I was hurting him. He also seemed to get this strange look in his eyes. It was almost as if they were blank. He had this kind of fog over his eyes. They were always glassy and his pupils were huge. It was like looking into a black hole. It was almost as if I was looking right through him. Caleb was in there, but I couldn't reach him he was 'lost'. Even with all of these signs, we still had no idea what was going on with him. I didn't know if this was just his way of playing or if there was truly something wrong with him. I know that sounds really funny, but it is true. Maybe it was just my subconcious way of denying that he had a problem."

     Caleb was formally diagnosed with Autism in january of 2007. He has been receiving Speech, Physical, and Ocuupational Therapy since July of 2006. He had made minimal progress. My youngest son, Josh, was diagnosed with Autism March 4, 2008. We recently started both boys on a gluten free diet. Their progress thus far has been amazing. We believe in miracles and know that our boys will recover from this disorder.

     Thanks for visiting our site. Please feel free to check out Caleb's pics and our Links Page. We have some great links to sites with info about Autism. We also have links to the gluten free diet, and the link between vaccines and autism which I believe exists. In addition we have an Autism Symptoms Checklist with common early signs of autism listed there. We are very proud of the fact that on April 18, 2009 we sponsored what we hope to be our First Annual Autism Awareness Walk in Norwich, NY. We have a brand new page here on Caleb's Eyes.com with pictures from the walk and rally that followed. We invite you to visit that page also. It's called simply Autism Walk.

     Please contact us with questions or comments. Thanks!!

*** Come join us for the 2nd annual Autism Awareness Walk in Norwich, NY on April 10, 2010 at 1pm. We will be gathering in the Norwich High School parking lot and proceeding down Hale Street to South Broad Street and then on to East Park. We will have a bounce house in the park for the kids, as well as raffles and speakers. It will be a great day to walk for the biggest epidemic in the history of the world. Bring everyone you know!! For more details, or to RSVP Email Us!