Customer Reviews

Fighting for Tony

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4 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Having lived through the diagnosis of my son -- I can relate 100% with this book. The mother's feelings, the ability to press on while others are in denial..... It can be a lonely road at times. You become so desperate that you feel that one day your child will snap out of it. I read the reviews and thought it is easy for a reader to criticize not having gone through this. Mary, I apologize for their ignorance.
As a result - in addition to the chelation therapy I also removed dairy from my son's diet. At first I saw little change until I put him back on milk and boy I saw the self stimming go out of control. His dad and I were at the verge of separation a few years ago as well. He was in denial while I was fighting the system -but thank God he is has come on board and is the most dedicated Dad and supportive husband - even among my friends that have autistic kids - my husband is a Godly Gift.

We are doing a lot better - I feel so encouraged and hopeful. I no longer feel guilty about my frustrations or anger - I now know it's a natural feeling and I know I have over come it. BUt I did feel guilty for having the initial feelings If only I had met someone as truthful and honest - I thought I was going mad with my thoughts and reactions to my son's diagnosis. Now my son is 6 years old. He is high functional - there is still a long journey ahead. This book has made me even more determined to seek more help.

I've had the opportunity to meet Renee Randazzo, (Tony's sister in the book)- she works at a center helping children get services for their special needs. She took her family's journey to help others. I APPLAUD Renee's work and her mom's determination to see through this whole ordeal. I wish I could meet Mary Callahan in person and let her know that I was encouraged and determined to also fight for my son, Cristian.

This is a great book for someone who has had a diagnosis in their family. Years later - therapies and treatment change to the better - but initial feelings are just as real and painful. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR WRITING YOUR STORY!!!!!!

When Tony Randazzo was born in February 1978, he smiled within hours after his birth. However, even as an infant he did exhibit overtly autistic behaviors.

His sister Renee was born a year and a half later in August of 1979. Tony, still nonverbal was by then enrolled in a special needs pre-school program. He and Renee plainly bonded from the start and, upon returning from pre-school, Tony bestowed his sister with a spontaneous kiss.

Problems with behavior management arose; Rich and Mary Callahan eventually separated for two years. A chance viewing of the now defunct Phil Donahue show in 1980 led Mary Callahan to believe that Tony's problems were allergy based. It was during this time that Tony was taken off certain substances, milk included. While he showed improvements, milk was then not targeted as the culprit.

Reading of how Renee and Tony interacted was heartwarming; indeed, these siblings were quite good for one another. Once milk was identified as causing Tony's problems, he was switched to a soy product. From that point on, he showed no trace of autism, which led Mary Callahan, a nurse, to believe the boy had a cerebral allergy.

Tony's shadows were kept at bay until a family trip in 1983. He had two cartons of milk in his class, which led to a sad backslide into autism. Once he had a chance to sleep it off, literally, he showed absolutely no trace of autism.

Renee and Tony were kept in the same grade because of Tony's auditory processing difficulties. This turned out to be a good move because they looked out for one another and worked well together. In fact, they worked so well together they staged a coup at a day care center! That was so funny! I just loved that part!

It would be interesting to hear an update on Tony's continued progress and of Renee's work in a special needs center. It sounds as if Renee had on-the-job training the first few years of her life. This in turn, no doubt, I believe, made her more effective in her line of work.

I recommend "There's a Boy in Here" by Judy & Sean Barron along with this book. Sean, like Tony had autism and both young men were blessed with younger sisters who were extraordinary teachers who loved them unconditionally.

This book was about a boy, Tony, who was diagnosed with autism. In the book, his mother discovers that he has a cerebral allergy to milk. He is taken off dairy products and seems to be cured of autism. The book also talks about the author's marital problems caused by the strain of taking care of such a difficult child.

The author is very honest about her feeling towards her husband and over taking care of her son, plus the run ins with various professionals who just don't get it. She describes her anger and frustrations very well and doesn't sugar coat anything. I found myself getting very angry at her husband and other family members for blaming her for everything that was wrong with her son.

As a book reviewer for a family friendly site, I must say that there is profanity in the book that is always distracting. If the language was cleaned up some, that might make the book better. Plus, some scenes are kind of tough to read. Some of her behaviors, although they weren't frequent, were abusive. I know those incidents come out of frustrations from dealing with a difficult child, but maybe she could have pointed out that how she was dealing with the situation at times was not necessarily right and could have hurt her son.

All in all, this was a very interesting, informative book. I was glad that she and her husband remarried towards the end. The book does have a happy ending. But not all stories like this have happy endings.

IT IS SO MUCH EASIER TO UNDERSTAND YOUR CHILD WHEN YOU REALIZE A FOOD OR CHEMICAL IS CAUSING HIS IRRATIONAL BEHAVIOR AND IT IS NOT THEIR PERSONALITY, OR THEY ARE JUST BEING A BRAT. I WOULD "HIGHLY" RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO ANYONE THAT IS RAISING A "DIFFICULT" CHILD.

I was reminded of it today just by happenstance. This was back before we had the internet, and the isolation was horrible. This warts-and-all account was just what I needed at the time. Mary was a mentor to me. She never pretended she invented autism or that she cured it, the way Jenny McCarthy and some others do.

Did she slap the kid one time that I read in the book...yes. Was it wrong...yes. Should they have worked on a better marrriage and environment for the kids...yes. Should their kids be taken away because they could not afford to live in a better neighborhood...no. The saying "People in glass houses should not throw stones" comes to mind. It is always the self-righteous who fall the hardest.

This book explores through a very human story the nature of autism and its destructiveness. I only wish more folks knew of it. It reminds us of the importance of at least ruling in or out allergies and the need for biomedical and/or dietary intervention to assist in recovery, be it full or partial, and hope, be it full or partial, for a group of children that society, and sadly, often doctors, don't really understand and refrain from helping...not so much from a place of spite as a place of fear. Whether the autism or the root cause of ut in Tony's case affects you and yours, his story is likely relevant, moreso some 20 years after it was written. I just wish there was a sequel.

if you have ben reading my other reviews youcan tell Ilike books on autistic kids. This one is very good. ihte boy in the story actually has a cerbal allergie to milk. you can really the moms joy when here son iss better. to bad this book is out of print,

Everyone has a story to tell, but after reading Fighting for Tony I have to say that the author, Mary Callahan has some nerve to use this title. This was one of the hardest books as a parent I have ever read through. The time period covered is late 1970s through the 1980s, when life was much different raising an autistic child.

Tony was born in 1978 to Mary and Rich. After one week home from the Hospital Tony had crying spells that lasted hours. His six-week checkup showed nothing wrong, yet the crying would continue nightly for hours. Mary thought that nervous mothers made nervous babies and cringed each time the crying would start. Rich was not interested in having kids but Mary prevailed and they agreed to have two children. Mary found out she was pregnant when Tony was just seven months old and still crying four hours out of each day. The crying would start with interruptions like when a plumber entered the house or a barking dog while taking his nap.

Although hard to believe, Mary was a Registered Nurse working in the Pulmonary unit. As a result of several ear infections Tony was on antibiotics often and at fourteen months old had an operation called a myringotomy.

Tony was seventeen months old when Rene was born and not playing with other kids appropriately. Rich thought Mary was looking for flaws and hoped that with caring for Rene the problems surrounding Tony would subside. Tony showed no interest in Rene and Rene helped boost the parenting confidence that Mary lacked.

The child development specialist was the first person to mention autism to Mary, who experienced terror after hearing this and some sort of psychic pain. The diagnosis was early infantile autism and functionally retarded. It was at this point in Fighting for Tony after the diagnosis that the profanity and abuse started.

Mary described her family as one wounded cub, one normal baby and a depressed husband. Mary was overcome with sadness while Rich retreated deeper into his depression. Rene was the salvation and the one that Mary turned to when she needed comfort. Mary started doing more for Rene even though these adventures were feared by Tony who did not need the break in his routine. She packed the kids up and went to New Mexico to visit a friend. Tony screamed all night and the verbal abuse was evident in front of her friend who did nothing.

By page 58 of the 170 pages the abuse was hard to read because this dialogue was so disturbing to me. I needed constant breaks from the tone of these parents and could not comprehend these thoughts shared on the pages of the book.

It seemed that the light went on way past when it should have for Mary and she should have been focusing on learning and reading books much sooner than she did. One summer when Rich took one month break in the summer things spiraled out of control with Rene and Tony. Mary found a day-care center that was open around the clock so she could work the night shift. Turned out her kids kept the other kids up all night and Mary in turn paddled their bottoms on two occasions.

There were some disturbing incidents of breakins from the teenagers in the area that Mary moved to after the divorce. I felt this was really confusing and detracted from the book. It was quite evident that Tony took a backseat to everything. Soon after they stayed at Rich's apartment and their lives resembled a regular family. They both decided at the same time to give marriage another shot so they remarried.

It is amazing that no one ever reported Mary for abuse to her children. She had her children living in a bad neighborhood, all their items were being stolen and it took a long time for them to finally move or as she wrote they were driven out of town.

The back cover states this is a book about misdiagnosis and how a Mother brought her child back. That is a bunch of bull based on the book I read. There was no real evidence to this reader of Fighting for Tony. There is obvious distress by both parents in learning about autism and their fears and guilt play a big role in their daily lives.

I would not want someone who just received a diagnosis to read such a book or to think such horrid thoughts just because their child is autistic. Fighting for Tony includes eight pages of black and white photos of the family through the years. The most important lesson from reading this book is to love your child and treat them kindly.