I’ve definitely written quite a few posts in the past about poop. We had another ‘poop incident’ tonight and I mentioned to my wife this would make a good blog post for one of us to write. She said, “You’ve pretty much cornered the market on writing about poop, so go for it.”

Part of our life revolves around our son’s pooping schedule. Some parents of autistic kids deal with diarrhea and having to change messy diapers several times a day. We have the opposite problem…our little guy is often constipated and we are constantly on high alert to see if he’s gone yet. He rarely goes #2 every day.  Sometimes it’s every 2 days. More often it’s 3 days till he goes. We’ve even had a few scary times where he stretched it out farther than that.

Tonight was night #3. You celebrate when he does go, but you know the next day the clock starts over. We try to give him extra fiber and lately we’ve been able to sneak more veggies and foods into his diet that should help out.

I had a feeling he would go tonight. There was some stinky gas earlier in the evening (or harbingers as I call them). Tonight was also bath night and my wife had just started bathing him when I heard her say, “Oh no!” I knew right away what had happened.

By now these things don’t faze me. My first thought was just, “At least he went tonight.” I got some bags to clean it up. I scooped up the evidence and started to drain the tub. We had to wait for what felt like an eternity for the tub to drain.

Josiah stood very nicely in the bathroom with us while we waited. I was just thinking, “I hope that all of it came out” when some more #2 appeared and plopped on the bathroom floor. As my wife recoiled in horror, all I could think to say was, “That looked like a Hershey bar!” I guess the 7-year-old in me will never die.

We cleaned that mess up. Still waiting for the tub to drain too. Then the urine started spraying all over the place. Great! Once that was done, I noticed he let another morsel o’ poo out on the floor. This time Josiah noticed it and thought it would be a good idea to try to squish it with his foot. We’re so lucky we were both there to deal with this cleanup. I can’t imagine it would have been too much fun if just one of us was there to do the cleaning.

Eventually we got him back in the tub, got him squeaky clean, and our evening resumed. I was just relieved that this all happened either in the tub or the bathroom floor. If he would have ran off and done his business on the carpet, it might not have been so funny.

In the end though, I’m just glad he went and now we can relax until we reset the clock tomorrow.

By now you may be well aware of the Michael Savage/Autism controversy. Savage is a radio commentator who has angered the autism community with the following statements he made recently….

“I’ll tell you what autism is. In 99 percent of the cases, it’s a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out. That’s what autism is. What do you mean they scream and they’re silent? They don’t have a father around to tell them, `Don’t act like a moron. You’ll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don’t sit there crying and screaming, idiot.”

The backlash against Savage has been pretty swift. The National Autism Association has quickly issued a response that is well-written and very insightful.

Normally I don’t get too involved in these kinds of matters because these types of radio pundits always seem to be saying something to court controversy. I wouldn’t doubt that’s a large part of Savage’s motive just to get his name out there a little more and get some added publicity whether it’s positive or negative.

Besides the above quote, he’s since said some things about how parents want their kids to get the autism diagnosis because they’ll get all sorts of free medical care. That statement will get a good laugh from any parent who has an autistic child. I’ve yet to come across any help so far that’s been anything close to free!

I’d love for Mr. Savage to spend one day in the shoes of a parent of a child with autism. The constant worrying about your child’s present and future. The depleted financial resources from all the therapies, supplements, and diets. The toll it takes on relationships.

I wish it were as easy as telling our kids to ‘cut the act out.’ The fact is our children’s conditions are all too real and what they need is love, support, and understanding from everyone.

All I know is my two-year-old autistic son is the farthest things from a ‘brat’ you’ll find. He’s actually the bravest, most courageous person I know. He has to work harder than any little guy his age should have to. We’re always subjecting him to a therapy, a supplement, a shot, etc. He does all this the best he can and with much more grace than I’d be able to.

I don’t know much about Mr. Savage other than what I’ve read about him from this controversy. Why is it that so many of these buffoons are the ones that have the ability to reach the masses with their outlandish and outdated views? Imagine if someone in that position could use their influence for something positive. Like using the microphone to preach tolerance for those affected by autism.

I originally wasn’t planning to even comment on this situation. It seemed to me a lot like dealing with bullies when you’re a kid. The best advice was usually just to ignore them and they’d go away. But I know I, along with countless other parents, deal with enough crap in a given day to have to let someone bully our kids on the airwaves. Many autistic kids may not be able to defend themselves against such a ’savage beast’ but I’m not about to let someone who is ill-informed off the hook without getting my 2 cents in.

I’m glad to see many advertisers are pulling their support for his program. And by reading up on him, I learned that Savage isn’t his real last name. It’s funny that his real last name fits his personality much better. His real last name?

Weiner. (I’m not kidding, you can look it up). I think it speaks volumes that a Weiner has to act like a tough guy and call himself “Savage.”

Yeah, Weiner sounds more like it.