Cassandra and Bill Oldham's two youngest sons, Gareth, 4, and Korlan, 2, have a special diet. They must be separated when eating so they don't eat each others food.

Photo: Katherine Frey, Washington Post

Tagged: children, health, Lansdowne

Gareth Oldham loves to be held upside down and tickled by his dad, Bill Oldham.

Photo: Katherine Frey, Washington Post

Tagged: children, health, Lansdowne

Bill Oldman changes the diaper of his youngest son, Korlan, 2, who did not shows signs of autism until after an illness.

Photo: Katherine Frey, Washington Post

Tagged: children, health, Lansdowne

Gareth Oldham, 4, helps to seatbelt himself in as he and his brother, Korlan, 2, go to school. Both have autism and are in the same special needs class.

Photo: Katherine Frey, Washington Post

Tagged: children, health, Lansdowne

Four-year-old Gareth Oldham shows a visitor the basement where he has therapy six days a week. He did not show signs of autism until after an illness, when he started to regress developmentally.

Photo: Katherine Frey, Washington Post

Tagged: children, health, Lansdowne

Brothers, Korlan, 2, and Gareth, 4, play in the basement with their father, Bill Oldham. The two have autism.

Photo: Katherine Frey, Washington Post

Tagged: children, health, Lansdowne

Rachel Lawson, left, looks after nine-year-old Zach Case, foreground, who has a form of autism, and his siblings eight-year-old Jared Case and six-year-old Katie Case while their mother speaks before the Virginia House Appropriations Committee and the Virginia Senate Finance Committee during a public hearing Monday, Jan. 19, 2009, in Richmond, Va.

Photo: AP Photo/Richmond Times-Dispatch, Alexa Welch Edlund

Tagged: children, health, health care, State news