The other day I was walking my two dogs on our street. My son was walking with me. Before we left the house, he had asked if he could bring a chocolate milk with him and drink it on the walk. I said yes and thought nothing of it.

I am the mother of an eight-year-old with autism and my family has been in the “autism system” for seven years. If you do the math, you’ll figure out that we began around our child’s first birthday.