James Hunt used to work in a successful marketing firm in London, but when his sons Jude and Tommy were diagnosed with autism, he decided to care for them and his parents full-time. Having started blogging about his family nine years ago, he has now gained over a million followers on social media. James shares, in his own words, his hopes for the future of his sons.
When his eldest son Jude was a baby, he didn’t crawl very quickly and didn’t respond to his name. Jude’s mother Charlotte, James’s ex-wife, first raised her concerns when he was eight months old, but James thought he was just lagging behind as he was born premature. Autism was diagnosed when he was 18 months old. Back then, there was mostly clinical information out there, and James found himself unable to take it all in.
Three years later, they went through the same diagnosis with Tommy. Although James knew more about autism than he did when they had Jude, the boys were very different. The first year of Tommy’s life was not as enjoyable for James as it could have been because he spent most of his time watching Tommy and looking for signs. Tommy developed some skills faster than Jude, but he did not like eye contact, and he got easily frustrated and preferred playing alone. Around the same time, Jude started having massive meltdowns, especially hurting himself physically. This was a tough period for James as Jude was non-speaking, and it was impossible for him to explain what was troubling him.
In 2016, James and his wife Charlotte separated because Tommy was a big trigger for Jude as Tommy was loud and unpredictable. Tommy got scared of Jude’s self-harming, and keeping them apart became a necessity. The couple split the boys, but Jude became a completely different child immediately, and his anxiety disappeared. James now lives in an annexe at his parents’ home and swaps his time between caring for his sons and his parents, bill-paying duties, and so on, all from the same house.
James started sharing stories from their lives online, and his weekly blog got quite the following. Their sons struggled with social occasions, so they stopped going. James learned a lot about autism, connected with people from all over the world, and even discovered a passion for helping other families. He has been fortunate enough to make
Read the full article from The BBC here: Read More
