45. Autism Comes in Layers - Get to the Root of the Issues with Teresa Badillo

In this week's information-packed episode, I interview Teresa Badillo who is a mom of an adult son with autism and a writer for The Autism Exchange and Epidemic Answers about getting to the root of the issues in autism at the biomedical level.

Teresa embarked on a mission to find alternative non-invasive biomedical, therapeutic, sensory, and educational solutions for autism after the diagnosis of her son in the early 90s. She has served on several Boards of Director: Foundation for Children with Developmental Disabilities (FCDD); The Autoimmunity Project (TAAP), Developmental Delay Resources (DDR) and currently Epidemic Answers (EA).

She has been researching and writing articles for The Autism Exchange and Epidemic Answers’ websites and consults and advises parents on biomedical protocols to autism spectrum disorders.

She shares her journey of struggling to find the answers and right therapies for her son in the '90s when there wasn't much awareness, information, or resources for autism. She recalls the story of being told that her son was going to be institutionalized and how not many doctors wanted to work with kids with autism back then.

She took whatever therapy that was available at the time, including oxygen therapy among other things, and saw improvement gradually over time. She says that autism is like peeling the layers of an onion and many layers have to be addressed at the biomedical level as well as behavioral and sensory levels.

She talks about how comorbidity is common in autism and how her son started having seizures when he entered puberty. Seizure can develop in 1 in 4 kids with autism at puberty because of the hormones that kick in around that time, she says.

She shares some of the therapeutic protocols that parents can look into to reduce the symptoms of autism.

She advises autism moms to look into the gut-brain connection and find the right help and support they need to make this journey a little easier.

She tells autism moms to never give up no matter where they are on this journey. "Body is the great healer, we just have to figure out what it needs," Teresa says.

She also tells autism moms to not dismiss their intuition even if their doctor doesn’t see what they see. "You know your child best. Find the right doctor who will work with you. Follow your gut!"

Enjoy this Episode!