Influencer parents ‘rehome’ son with autism three years after adopting him because he made life ‘too difficult’

An influencer couple who posted a video about their adoptive son has since said they have ‘rehomed’ him.

Myka Stauffer is an immensely popular 'mommy vlogger’, particularly well known within parenting YouTube, where people upload videos about their children and how they parent to thousands of followers.

For years, Stauffer and her husband, James, have posted videos about their son Huxley, who they adopted three years ago from China, and who is autistic. Altogether, they posted 27 videos about their ‘adoption journey’ alone, and posted fundraisers for unspecified needs for Huxley.

Over the last two years, Stauffer’s profile grew, and she was writing blog posts, posting sponsored content with brands like Glossier and was even featured in People magazine during the birth of her last child. She often wrote about the realities of caring for a child with autism, and posted parenting advice on YouTube and elsewhere.

Up until February 2020, Huxley continued to appear in videos with the rest of his family, after which point he didn’t seem to feature in any of them. He also didn’t seem to be in any family photos or videos that Stauffer posted on social media, which led some fans to start Instagram accounts and to ask Myka to answer their questions.

One fan says Myka blocked her account after she asked where Huxley was. Then, on Tuesday, the Stauffers posted an emotional video to their Youtube channel where they explained that they had ‘rehomed’ Huxley, for his emotional wellbeing.

“After multiple assessments, after multiple evaluations, numerous medical professionals have felt that he needed a different fit in his medical needs, he needed more,” Myka said in the video. They also said that unspecified behavioural issues had made it ‘too difficult’ for the rest of the family.

People on social media pointed out that Myka had made money from videos she had posted about Huxley, including the ones that she posted before the family had even adopted him.

One ex-fan started a petition saying that those videos should be demonetised.

Others criticised the fact that Stauffer and James filmed a video where they used terms like “forever family”, as though Huxley was a pet that they had given away.

The couple has over 332,000 followers on their joint Youtube channel, and have been sharing videos about their life since 2014. The couple have four other children.

In the video that they posted, which now has over a million views, the couple explained that they had waited to update their fans because they wanted to protect Huxley’s privacy.