Thanks... but what now?

The paediatrician was a nice enough man. He knew his stuff, and he made a good diagnosis. But that's pretty much where it ended.

My question was obviously, "well, what now?"

And he didn't have too many answers.

He said we should contact the Autism Association. He also said that speech therapy would help a lot. And then he did tell us that we'll need lots of support.

And apart from getting a detailed report about Bright Eyes's presenting symptoms and the basic diagnosis, that was basically it - for the lovely cost of $300*.

I felt a little ripped off - and I still do. If my child had been diagnosed with cancer, diabetes, or anything else that has mainstream tried and tested medical treatments, I would have been given a blow-by-blow description of what would happen next, what could possibly happen, what possible prognoses there were for the future.

The paediatrician could answer no questions about Bright Eyes' future. And he wasn't particularly interested in what kind of treatments there were out there. He was concerned about us, which was nice, but I was more interested in my son than myself at that stage!

I felt alone and floundering. What were we supposed to do now?

*At the beginning, costs associated with doctors and therapies used to shock me. Now I don't even blink if people start quoting four figures (of course it doesn't necessarily mean that I'll pay them though...) The word 'autism' is like the word 'wedding' in terms of its impact on cost prices.