My story begins when i had a beautiful little boy, collin xavier huntington, on 7/19/07. He was our 4th child and our family was complete. As the years went on, i knew there was something different about collin. By the time he went to the doctor for his 18 month checkup, the doctor recommended he go see a specialist because he wasnt up to par with other kids, and still non verbal. It only took the doctor a few minutes to tell me what i dreaded to hear. He was autistic. That was the day that changed my life forever. I googled and read books about autism to try to understand what autism even meant. We started seeing different therapist, and doctors and trying all new medications. Collin started putting everything in his mouth and i was so concerned that he was going to eat something poisonous and really harm himself. He loved to eat his diapers, feces, dry wall, ect. Thats when he was diagnosed with pica. They put Collin on all sorts of meds so he was able to participate in school somewhat and they added and changed his meds for 3 yrs that he ended up taking adult size meds and it was literally driving him insane. His sensory issues are so severe that these meds were having a huge effect on his sensory issues. He became so violent and was constantly hitting, biting, screaming, kicking and wasnt my sweet loving boy anymore. The doctors were so confused on what to do, that after 6 months of this, i decided to take matters into my own hands. A mother has her instincts and mine was to take him off of all these meds and just let him be himself, and wow what a good decision that was. My beautiful boy, now 6 yrs old, is still non verbal but now going all day to school. He is my sweet, loving, happy boy again. Doctors are just as confused as we are, but ive learned meds arent always the answer. Patience and understand are.

shelley huntington
eaton, IN