She’s best known as Octomom after giving birth to octuplets in January 2009 when she already had six children at home.
And on Wednesday, Nadya Suleman revealed it has not been all smooth sailing.
Taking to her social media page, the 44-year-old revealed that her 14-year-old son, Aidan, was severely autistic and needed total care and assistance at all times.
Doing it tough: ‘Octomom’ Nadya Suleman revealed on Tuesday that one of her elder children, Aidan, 14, had severe autism and required complete and total care from her
Nadya, who goes by her birth name of Natalie on the account, shared a video after taking him out to the park on Tuesday morning.
‘This is my adolescent infant Aidan. He is 14 years old, going on 1 in his head. Aidan is severely autistic and total care. He requires complete assistance in meeting all needs in activities of daily living,’ she began the lengthy post.
‘Aidan is non-verbal, requires feeding, changing (he is not potty trained), bathing, and one to one supervision, as he has no safety awareness and would walk aimlessly into traffic. I, his mother, am, and always have been, his ONLY care provider. This “job” is my life (other than caring for 13 other children singlehandedly).’
Busy mom: Besides Aidan, Nadia is the mother to 13 other children, ranging from 10-18 (pictured 2012)
One of 14: ‘This is my adolescent infant Aidan. He is 14 years old, going on 1 in his head. Aidan is severely autistic and total care. He requires complete assistance in meeting all needs in activities of daily living,’ she began the lengthy post
Nadya went on to explain that her children were her ‘life’ and she cares for them despite living with a permanent disability that sees all discs in her lumbar spine ruptured.
Bringing her caption back to Aidan, she added that after dropping 11 of her children off for their first day of school, she took him to the park where he had a meltdown.
‘He engaged in a meltdown (dropped to ground, threw water bottles, took off shoes and propelled those at my head).
‘As soon as we arrived home I bathed, changed and fed exhausted Aidan and held him until he fell asleep.’
‘Why did I choose to share this aspect of my life on the same day as my other kids’ first day of school, as opposed to posting an adorable picture? For a couple reasons.
‘First, to describe the details of my REAL life, not a “perfect” depiction of what I want people to perceive my life to be,’ she penned.
Six boys, two girls: Nadya is best known as ‘Octomom’ after giving birth to octuplets in January 2009 (pictured 2018)
‘Second, to provide a contextualization for both my supportive followers, and the condemnatory critics, as to what truly matters in my life: my family.’
The video saw Nadya stay behind the camera while calling Aidan, ‘baby’ and ‘angel’ as he enjoyed a morning at the park.
Other than a highly dependent Aidan, she’s also the mother to 13 other children between the ages of 10 and 18.
The California native began IVF treatments when she was just 21-years-old, carrying a full-term pregnancy for the first time at 25 where she gave birth to a son.
The following year in 2002, she welcomed a daughter via the treatment.
IVF was also used for her next three pregnancies as well, which saw her welcome three more sons and one daughter, including a set of fraternal twins.
Babies makes 14: Naya welcomed six children between 2001-2008 before falling pregnant with eight children – they were all conceived via a sperm donor and IVF
And while many would call it after six children, especially as a single mom, Nadya wanted to utilize the remaining embryos as she didn’t want to continue paying for their frozen storage nor destroy them.
She reportedly requested the implantation of six, despite being informed that the recommended guideline for a woman of her age (34 at the time) was only three.
Her physician, Dr Michael Kamrava (who later lost his medical licence for negligence) transferred 12 embryos to Nadya’s request.
The Medical Board of California later revealed after an investigation that 29 embryos remained frozen.
The octuplets birth saw 46 medical professionals assist for a 31-week scheduled c-section, with two practice sessions held before the big day.
Taken to court: Nadya’s doctor, Dr. Michael Kamrava lost his medical licence for negligence after he transferred twelve embryos to Nadya’s request, despite the recommended amount of three (pictured 2010)
It was later revealed that they were only expecting seven babies, with the eighth child arriving as a surprise.
Nadya delivered six boys and two girls within five minutes and they weighed between 1 lb 8 oz to 3 lb 4 oz.
There’s been contradicting reports on who the father of the children in, with Nadya’s mother previously stating the sperm donor was David Solomon – the man who was also used to produce the six elder children.
She allegedly once dated David but realized she didn’t want to be in a relationship with him, but wanted him to father her children.
All healthy: Nadya delivered six boys and two girls in 2009 within five minutes and they weighed between 1 lb 8 oz – 3 lb 4 oz
Others have claimed David is a fictitious character.
Former lover Denis Beaudoin stepped forward in 2009 to claim he was the sperm father, to which Nadya denied.
Her ex husband, Marcos Gutierrez, who she was with between 1996 and 2008 also denies being the children’s father.
Nadya’s also been in the spotlight for welfare fraud after failing to disclose nearly $30,000 in earnings she received from personal appearances and videos while in the spotlight.
She was sentenced to 200 hours of community service, two years of probation and ordered to pay a small fee.