Monday, November 19, 2007


Money - WASTED! Not this Mom.

THIS STUDY is a crock of shit. How's that for a Monday morning? Scientists are going crazy trying to find out any cockamamie idea for the cause of the explosion in autism. Now they are saying we mothers DRANK during our pregnancies.

I had one scotch by accident when I was first pregnant with Gianna. Let me rephrase that. I didn't know I was pregnant and I drank a cocktail. I felt terrible about it for 8 months. When I became pregnant with Bella, Mark and I joked that I should head into the city to score some Crack Cocaine. After all, two clean as a whistle pregnancies hadn't done much for my older girls.

My generation of Moms is the first to have been liquor Nazi's. How DARE anyone think that these studies will divert us from looking at real potential poisonous causes of autism?

Mother's moderate drinking, watching Elmo and Barney (named in a study as a cause) old fathers, what's next? Breathing the mercury laden air?

Where's the Chivas? I need a shot in my coffee.

19 comments:

Ms. TK said...

Dear God. Blame the mother AGAIN?

Anonymous said...

And there was me thinking it was because we were fridged. Silly me!

PERSONALY the only thing that does worry me about my pregnancies is the amount of artificial sweetners I unwittingly consumed. They don't do adult brains any favours so not the best thing for a feotus either is my guess.

Kathi said...

I am so right there with you. Read it this morning on one of my newsletters. R I D I C U L O U S - are they grabbing a straws? I think we are going to hear a lot of crazy crap for a awhile. I'm trying to let it roll...

Kathi said...

Kim, I also read at the same time I received this information about us drunken mothers, that another study blames it on cell phones and electromagnetic radiation. Made me want to pop open a cold one, you know?

Essential Amy said...

It's totally grasping at straws here. I have already run the gamut of the blame game for myself, from the tuna fish I consumed, to the fillings in my teeth, to the fact that I gave up on breastfeeding,the large amount of hours spent watching baby einstein. I also thought my ppd was the cause of it. Somehow I survived all the horrendous guilt I put myself through. Now when I hear this malarkey, it just makes me angry for all the new parents who will see this and feel like they did something horrid to their kid.

Anonymous said...

It's bad juju for parents already at wit's end. And this shit gets FUNDING!!!!!

Anonymous said...

I found it rather depressing really. It's not what any or us did or didn't do, it's the underlying accusation that we must have done something wrong.
Best wishes

Samwick said...

I did around 4 pounds of blow while pregnant, which may have been slightly irresponsible. The bigger problem, however, was the fact that I am male. I mean, seriously, what's up with that?

Kim Rossi Stagliano said...

Samwick, thanks for the laugh! It's your OLD blow, infested sperm! Maddy, it's amazing these studies get funding. Really. Alcohol? We all not not to drink to excess. How about checking out whether injecting 36-48 viruses into a child within 4-6 years has repercussions??? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? I have never blamed myself. Nor will I. Neither should any of my dear readers. Except Sam, and the 4 lbs of blow....

Michelle O'Neil said...

From the moment I even thought about getting pregnant, I didn't touch a drop of alcohol. I didn't even take a tylenol!

I had an educater recently look me in the eye and tell me she thought autism was caused by all the pot our generation smoked in their youth(as opposed to the sixties??), this as she organized the flu shot clinic for the school.

I say lets run a contest for the silliest cause. I'll start

1) Autism caused by thongs. Think about it. No one was wearing thongs 15 years ago. Spooky.

Tyhitia Green said...

What are they talking about. They're afraid of the truth coming to light. I don't have kids and everything is freaking me out about having them...geez....

Robin said...

Michelle,
LOL, and I needed it, this acticle made me see red.

"1) Autism caused by thongs. Think about it. No one was wearing thongs 15 years ago. Spooky"

(Actually we wore thongs but they were on our feet)

2) Autism is caused by Leaf Blowers. (I hate those things, maybe this could get rid of them)

Laura said...

Hmm, the thong and leaf blowers both work, but I think I've been exposed to leaf blowers more than thong wearing! And how to explain that my younger guy is NT, and my husband got a leaf blower after my older son was born? Hmmm.

How about mothers being exposed to foot fungus in gym showers as the cause of autism? Ah nuts, I went to the gym a ton more when I was pregnant with my NT guy than my older son with autism. Back to the drawing board for more inane blame the mom causes!

I agree that this study is utter bullshit. Cause, you know children who have an obvious regression - yeah, they had FAS from birth. Sure. It just didn't show up until about 18 months or so. That makes perfect sense!

Laura, the bad, bad, alcoholic who had a glass of champagne before knowing she was pregnant.

Robin said...

Okay, truth be told my children do fit this study. So my outrage comes from several places, first I feel anger for all of you moms who really do not need more accusations and blame, second with the mainstream trying to write off the increase in autism (which is it better diagnosis or more drinking?) and then with the finality of “see if these kids were exposed to alcohol there is just nothing we can do.”

After I cooled down and thought about this study, something positive occurred to me… What if we lumped in all the FAS kids with the Autistic kids and then treated their symptoms instead of their diagnoses. You know the whole biomed routine, food sensitivity, vitamin and mineral imbalance, instead of blaming every problem on their prenatal experience and using that as an excuse for every problem in their life. (Too bad the rest of their life is going to suck, hope you luck out better in your next life.)

You see my boys were exposed to “God know what” prenatally. They were born addicted to heroin. And luckily (seriously luckily) they got diagnosed with autism. Because of this diagnosis I was led to read about biomed treatments, find a DAN doctor, and at ages 10 and 11 my boys mostly indistinguishable (contrary to one doctor that told us to prepare for the time they would have to be removed from the home). (This is also where I explain to the IEP team that my boys are adopted.)

What do you think, is there any chance of using this study for good instead of evil?

Kim Rossi Stagliano said...

Robin - yes. That's the short answer. Of course. But the vast majority of kids on the spectrum were more likely born to kids whose birth mothers did not abuse substances. So in reality, it may be useless to most of us. That doesn't take away it's importance if your child fits the bill. I tend to think they highlighted "autism" in the headline to generate buzz and controversy given today's "sudden" awareness of the diagnosis. I'm glad you commented.

Happy TG.

Holly Kennedy said...

More than anything, this is sad. There's so much energy being wasted, so much cash being thrown at illogical studies.

They should create a panel of experts made up of mom's (inc. Jenny McCarthy) who have kids suffering from autism and sink money into studies put forth by that panel.

Robin said...

Oh Kim,

I am sorry if I came across as anything less than 100% in agreement with you. This "study" is nothing more than more smoke to hide behind. They even found one poor mother to quote, I didn't know drinking could harm my baby. So. very. stupid.

I was trying to think of a way to throw the study back in their face. Their face, not yours.

Peace.

Kim Rossi Stagliano said...

Not at all, Robin! Not at all. Everyone of us has a unique story. And I'm pleased we can share them here.

Damn, I hope pumpkin pie doesn't cause autism!

Peace back at you.

KIM

Valerie Arias said...

I cannot believe they would publish something so completely inane. Seriously, I was nineteen and had never consumed a drop of liquor when I got pregnant with my first child with autism. Hmmm, however, that and my extreme cell phone use, and the huge amounts of microwave popcorn could explain the other two. Puhleez.