An Autism Mom Goes Back to Christmas 1962

By Kim Stagliano

Let's take a trip back to Christmas, 1962. A little girl named Michele had a Christmas wish for Santa. Michele wanted to play Mommy. Mommies used to take care of sick children. It was part of their job description. Sniffles and sneezes, spotty rashes and wheezes. That was childhood, after all. Get sick, build an immune system, grow up.  Michele got a wonderful new doll from Santa that year. Her name was Hedda.

Hedda slept through the night like a dream.

 

Hedda smiled at her Mommy

 

Hedda had one more face. In 1962, it was a face that every Mommy recognized and knew how to care for and love. So did doctors. In 2009, this face would instill fear, panic, disdain, loathing and angry cries that Michele was a very, very bad Mommy to Hedda.

 

Hedda had the measles!  See the little hole in her mouth for the thermometer?

Yes, in 1962, measles were a common childhood illness. And little girls played with dollies that had the measles, and made them all better. So did doctors for children who got the measles. The full name of the doll was "Hedda Get Better."  Michele is my big sister. She found a Hedda doll on ebay this Fall and sent her to me. Perhaps I'll invite Hedda to Autism One, if she's feeling up to it.

How about your child? Is there a magic button you can twist so that he/she gets better? I wish there were. For each of us.

Kim Stagliano is Managing Editor of Age of Autism.

Comments

[Cherry Sperlin Misra]

Friends, Here's a real case of measles from about 8 months back in New Delhi: My friends son(18 years old) has been weak all his life after suffering undiagnosed gluten intolerance as a baby for 2 years. He also has asthma and in April was on cortisone for his asthma. He developed measles, one of the few cases I have ever heard of in my 42 years in India (despite the fact that many kids here do not get measles vaccine).
It took several days to get a diagnosis because most doctors here can no longer identify measles. He had a high fever and was very sick,but he recovered.
So a teenager, who has been weak all his life, and had an immune system compromised by cortisone, was nevertheless able to overcome the measles. A dreaded disease???

[Cherry Sperlin Misra]

Kerbob1 - The song is terrific- Please everyone- take the link to Kerbob's song !

[julie]

This reminds me of a mention of measles in Jane Austen's "Emma". Mr Woodhouse (Emma's father) remarks "If Miss Weston (Emma's governess) wraps Emma up well you need have no fear for her" (during a bout of measles). In one of Colette's novels "Claudine at School" the main character says, "Oh bother, I've caught the measles!" It would be interesting to do a search of references to measles in 19th century literature. Not considered a scary disease at all.

[Gatogorra]

Kim-- I think found the modern symbolic equivalent for the Hedda Get Better doll-- a doll that seems to represent our times and the current medical attitudes being passed on to children through their play: the Risperdoll:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_NiFFQuiS-AU/SuGXPd_sTmI/AAAAAAAAAVQ/2hLb5lbsGdw/s400/martinez1.jpg

[Jessica]

My dad had the measles. He "miraculously" recovered and is still living 50 years later. Maybe the news would like to interview him as surviving the measles is such an incredible feat.

This reminds me of the H1N1 vaccine radio spots I have been hearing... "Hey, are you going to the big game?" "Yes - is Johnny?" "No, he's sick with the flu!" "Oh no, he should have went with us when we went to get our seasonal and H1N1 vaccines!" "Yeah! Boy I'm glad I went! I wouldn't want to miss the big game!"

A systematic posioning of an entire generation of children and adults is happening in front of our eyes - all so we don't miss a few days of work caring for a sick child, or *gasp* miss "the big game" for any reason. Priorities, you know.

[jen]

OMG! The doll with the measles lives!! How can this be? THe measles is a dreaded disease. Sweet. I really loved my "Chatty Kathy" and my Kiddles. THanks for the nostalgic look back.

[Harry H.]

Kim, thanks for the Deja Vu...I remember one of my sisters had that doll. And yes, back then measles were a common childhood illness, not a deadly disease that threatened the lives of millions of kids. I guess we were too busy being afraid of nuclear bombs from the Red Menace to concern ourselves with a few red spots.

[Sarah]

I agree with what Kathy Blanco said about the number of ASD kids out there and this becoming the new normal.

Not counting the ASD kids I've seen at the playground or at stores, I started to track in my head people I know who have family members affected by autism..some of these people I've known for years but who never before disclosed that they had or were related to an ASD kid until I told them my son was dxed. It's like you become part of a secret club.

Coworkers:

SG- son ASD
EJ- son ASD
EH-son aspergers
AS-daughter ASD
EW-son ASD
JM- son ASD
BM- nephew ASD

Aquaintances and friends

CW- nephew ASD
AH- nephew severe ASD
MR- nephew severe ASD
DC- son ASD
GW- son Aspergers
RG- grandson ASD
L- son ADHD

My Family/ Relatives

One nephew Aspergers
My son ASD

[kerbob1]

Kim,

Fortunately for all, you are one of the ones that gets it.

As you dig deeper and deeper in the quest to understand why this happened you come to the knowledge that the vaccine industrial complex is a disgusting bunch of money-grubbing thugs.

This is precisely why I made the following video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQVy2_TPcBo

[Kathy Blanco]

There's a movie almost all women love, AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER...where the main character get's paralyzed after a car accident to "go meet her love" and decides to live her new life, and to teach at a catholic school...in which, one of their performers got the measles...and everyone knew...that a week home with fever, was a natural phase of childhood. Now, our natural phase of childhood involves vaccine reactions autism and adhd, diabetis, allergies, multiple ear infections, chronic disabling neurological illnesses like ataxia and seizures. We have switched a rite of passage to, no rights of being a normal healthy neurologicaly well child.

Talk about heads turning! How many times have I heard and seen and autistic child in a store, a library, the church, the movies, the playground!? Now people aren't turning around so much anymore I fear, it's becoming the new normal, god help us all. In our church family alone there are eleven children on the spectrum in a congregation of five hundred...I won't do the math, but that's more than expected in the CDC number crunch. The grand scheme of things is that this is a silent insidious epidemic, which is encrouching almost all our lives. No one goes unscathed, sooner or later, society will pay for the things they have unleashed on these poor kids.

[Gatogorra]

Now they have baby get better dolls for sale-- they all come with syringes. I don't suppose they're for blood draws to check RBCs post mercury poisoning?

[nhokkanen]

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Yes, back then routine childhood diseases were managed as an accepted part of a family's domestic life. The parents in one's telephone social network provided guidance on symptoms and treatments.

I always wanted a Nancy Nurse doll. She's young because she has yet to get married, give up her career, and start extruding tiny replicants.
http://dollreference.com/deluxe_reading_doll.html

[Renee Tag]

I LOVE this. It's a wonderfully simple "reality check" and particularly well suited to send to all of our nervous new mothers.

Where are all the people who dropped off the earth from all of these scary, grusome, deadly early childhood illness'? I don't know a single ONE. Not saying that people do suffer and die but not anywhere near the document AND undocumented fall out from these toxic, excessive "government mandated" vaccines disguised as "prevention" and "good science".

I have young children and what THIS Mommy is going to make damn well sure is planted in their heads is:
1: NEVER trust a government agency/affiliate/acrynym as a credible source-no matter how "smart" they profess to be. 2) the power of marketing and advertising - what they claim is probably not anywhere near the truth 3) always look for the adgenda and follow the money
4) use your own brain to guide your ship

[htbenz]

One time we were driving through Ogunquit,ME and one of the clubs was advertising a drag queen named Hedda Lettus !!! LOL!

[bensmyson]

My son watches the TV show "Little Bear" There is an episode where Little Bear and Emily get the mumps.

Ben, the little recording device that he is, will lay down on the bed, say (parroting just like the character on the show) "Oh I have a chill." That's our cue to lean down and kiss him on the cheek. When we do that he will say, "Ouch, my mumps still hurt."

The two characters are no sicker than having the flu, they have to stay in bed, the message is that it is contagious. They are over it fairly quickly with no complications.

Oh my autism still hurt!

[4Bobby]

My sister had the mumps as a child. Some how she survived and managed to graduate from an ivy league school...

[Maurine Meleck]

Lest we not forget what that thermometer had inside it. No wondeer she had a head that spins.
Maurine

[Jeanne]

I must admit, I'm more than a little disturbed with the three faces of Hedda. More specifically the turning of the head - or spinning - which evokes thoughts of spewing green vomit and, "Demi, why you do this to me Demi..."

I'm probably going to have nightmares for weeks over this one.