About book All I Can Handle: I'm No Mother Teresa: A Life Raising Three Daughters With Autism (2010)
I bought this book while I was at AutismOne in Chicago and couldn't put it down. It is heartbreaking, raw, real, and addictive. I was disappointed when it ended because there was so much more I wanted to know and a thousand questions I wanted to ask the narrator. Kim Stagliano's three daughters are all autistic. Just that fact alone should send everyone in the medical community, including researchers from the CDC, flocking to her doorstep to figure out why (hint: it's NOT GENETIC). Instead, when she tells doctors about a child's autism diagnosis, they dismiss her, they stop trying to figure out why her daughter is having a seizure, or what else is going wrong with her child's health. There is an autism epidemic in the United States right now and every parent in America should read this memoir to better understand what parents with children on the spectrum are going through. The book also has many great one-liners. Though the subject is devastating, it's not a depressing read. I found this book to be fascinating. I picked it up for no other reason than self education. I was appalled by the sheer amount of vaccines I've just willingly trotted to the doctors to administer to my kids without doing the research. I'm pretty fearless about research - and I'm not afraid to go against the grain when it comes to accepted medical opinion but I admit I think I may have dropped the ball a little with my children's vaccinations. Why did I never wonder why my newborns were being vaccinated the day of birth against hepatitis, a sexually transmitted disease? And chicken pox is something children in other countries get once and are then immune to with no serious issues. I'm not against vaccinations but with anything we are allowed as parents to change the vaccination schedule and maybe eliminate a few if we want to. Most of all it was brought home to me just how devastating a diagnosis of autism is and the far reaching life implications. I admire the author immensely, for her courage to stand up and be a voice. I often feel like the only one with a certain opinion in a room full of people who think the exact opposite. It can be challenging and disheartening but we should do it. I like the author more as I learned more about her.
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Memoir about a mom raising three girls with autism. An eye opening point of view.
—azin
