YOU are trying to one-up ME?

So last night I knew I should have kept my mouth shut... ok not my mouth I was typing on Facebook. 

A friend of mine posted an article titled "Jenny McCarthy: My bad, turns out my kid didn't have Autsim." Now before I decided to get mad at Jenny McCarthy I read the article.  It is not as bad as it sounds because it is not like she was faking that he had it to get attention.  The child was misdiagnosed, but still has a rare neurological disease.  It was probably ok that he was misdiagnosed because I'm sure whatever therapy he had was helpful anyway.

The 'problem' with her child being misdiagnosed is that she had many believing in her advice on autism and it turns out her child did not have it.... still not her fault.

I've never listened to Jenny McCarthy as a advocate for autism.  I mean I'm sure having a celebrity for awareness is great, and I'm sure she raised a lot of money for the research.   What I never bought from her campaign is that vaccinations are the cause and changing your child's diet is the cure.  I don't want to go much farther into that.  I may not be all knowing about autism but I do know a lot from my Speech Communication degree and from my teacher education.  I also know how to read credible sources and what article are important.  I know what I have been told be doctors that gave my son his autism diagnosis.  There is more research proving that vaccines are not the cause and some of the people who said they are the cause came out saying they made it up.  And to end on a note... if they changed their minds and told me tomorrow that vaccinating my child caused his autism, I would rather him have autism than be dead because he got an illness he could have been vaccinated for.


So as I was saying I should have just took my fingers off the keyboard.  All I typed was that I never believed her campaign about vaccines and diets.  To which a friend of my friend comes back at it saying "Vaccinations causing autism is on the rise and there is plenty of research to prove this. Although her son does not have it many children have suffered this fate already."  I could not let that sit. So I told her I did not agree and my son HAS autism and it has nothing to do with vaccinations.  

She tells me she disagrees with me, but I already knew that.  That is fine, I understand people won't agree with me.  Many mothers of children with autism would agree with her.  The thing that drove me crazy though is I felt then she was trying to one-up me.  She proceeds to tell me that she has close friends/family would have children with autism and she knows other people and they all got autism by vaccines.  Well that's nice....  Nevermind that I live with my son, who has autism, everyday.  

So then I just write.  Well my son never had problems with vaccines.  Then I get some lame response:
"With the vaccinations it truly is a tough call. ...... But for those they have affected it is truly sad and something everyone should be aware of."  Well that's nice.... 


I let her have that last word on that post. But what I wanted to write back was "Autism is not sad, it's just different.  I would not take my sons autism away.  I'm sorry that those who need to find someone or something blame, blame vaccines... that is what is truly sad."