The Attached Mother

Jenny McCarthy has been one of the most outspoken Celeb moms on autism, since her own son was diagnosed in 2005. She has talked openly about her challenges when her son was diagnosed and her struggles towards a cure for her son’s condition. Though not everyone feels that autism is something that can be cured, Jenny’s son has made amazing improvements that seem to support her research.

With the recent ruling that vaccines attributed to Hannah Pollig’s autism Jenny spoke out again on autism and her son Evan for CNN.com. Through diet and detox Jenny was able to help her son recover and regain things that were lost to him before. But she feels that changes need to be made before instances of autism occur rather than trying to help the children recover later.

We believe autism is an environmental illness. Vaccines are not the only environmental trigger, but we do think they play a major role. If we are going to solve this problem and finally start to reverse the rate of autism, we need to consider changing the vaccine schedule, reducing the number of shots given and removing certain ingredients that could be toxic to some children.

We take into account that some children have reactions to medicines like penicillin, for example, yet when it comes to vaccines we are operating as if our kids have a universal tolerance for them. We are acting like ONE SIZE FITS ALL. That is, at the very least, a huge improbability.

To see a short clip of Jenny talking about her son, and fighting back some tears, visit here at Mom Logic. I would also recommend reading The Next Big Autism Bomb: Are 1 in 50 Kids Potentially At Risk? It is certainly something worth thinking about. Jenny will also be on Larry King Live tonight discussing autism. You can visit the site and vote in a poll on whether you feel vaccines are linked to autism.

Be sure to head over to Discussing Autism for more information and some great discussion on this topic. To keep the conversation going on check out her list of the best autism blogs and share with other people living with autism or an autistic child. Also head over to Momologue who is keeping the autism discussion going on all month. To see the list of who is joining her this month and toss your own hat into the ring visit here.

autism, curing autism, Jenny McCarthy

I read an interesting article over the weekend on how people come to their parenting style. There are so many different parenting viewpoints, and even more grey areas in between that use bits of this and bits of that. How we get to our respective places in parenting is an interesting topic. (Parenting styles: How do you choose?)

I am curious how parents who follow attachment parenting came to do so. Was something you always knew you would do? Did you fall into it on accident? Did you try various things until you found what worked? Or was it just a slow gradual change as you parented your children?

For me it was a slow change, but one that I already had roots in. I knew there were things I wanted to do differently than how I had been raised. There were also choices that I had made that seemed to fall more in line with families using attachment parenting than others. It started with my oldest son’s natural birth and our breastfeeding relationship. When I began seeking out others who felt as I did I began to find that the books and people that I agreed with also advocated things such as co-sleeping and baby-wearing. It wasn’t long before I found myself immersed in Mothering Magazine and Dr. Sears.

My ideas certainly changed a lot over time. Things that I swore I would never do when my oldest was an infant now I couldn’t imagine not doing. As I became more confident in myself as a parent it became easier to buck social norms for what felt right to me. I grew into a person who loved using the tools of attachment parenting, and from there grew into natural family living. As my children grow I am still changing and adjusting and growing into the parenting I want to be.

attachment parenting, parenting, motherhood