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Cincinnati Babies
Autism
Have we discussed ASD? Does anyone else think about the topic as much (relatively speaking) as I do? Perhaps it's related to my type A personality, but I digress...
I don't even know what, in particular, I want to ask or isolate as it relates to sparking conversation/debate on the topic; but, as I considered it (after watching the Dr. Oz episode, last week), it just struck me as odd that I don't ever remember us bringing up the subject on this board.
Somebody say something...
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Autism
Okay, to level-set, a few clips (and articles) from the show on autism can be found here:
https://www.doctoroz.com/videos?page=2
https://www.doctoroz.com/videos?page=3
It is interesting that we haven't discussed it much over here. Personally, I stopped thinking about it alot when I realized that DD exibited no symptoms. She is very social, talkative and affectionate etc. That may not be the best reason not to become educated but I feel like there are so many things to worry about with our kids I was just happy to cross that one off the list. Now I guess I will start thinking about it a bit more as Asher begins to develop.
I'll be honest, I haven't thought about it much. I haven't read much about how vaccines supposedly contribute to/cause it (now disproven, I guess), or any of the research about it. I know I breathed a huge sigh of relief when Justin did not show any of the signs of it at his 18- and 24-month well checks. Tyler hasn't been checked for it yet, but I'm reasonably confident he isn't.
As someone else put it, there are so many scary things to think about when you're raising a child. I just choose not to think about this one. That may make me seem uncaring about it, but so be it.
Tyler Anthony arrived on 9.21.09
The Chronicles of Justin and Tyler
I perfected the art of doing so while on maternity leave.
Of course, the vaccination topic was discussed at the top of the show. However, of more interest (to me, perhaps because I hadn't really heard/read any studies related to them, yet) were the *links* made to (1) age of the mother/father at conception (2) fertility treatments...among a laundry list of possible environmental causes.
We vaccinate on the AAP's recommended schedule, mostly because I don't trust myself to keep up with an alternate schedule. Who, among you, use an alternate schedule? Do you follow Dr. Sears and his recommendations. If so, why? I'm not asking this to cause drama. I, honestly, just like to hear/read the opinions of other parents for whom I have respect.
I kind of worried about it with DD, especially after all her meltdowns at her second birthday party. Turns out she's just super shy and needs to know exactly what's going to happen next.
I honestly haven't really thought about it much with DS. Poor second child.
I think/worry about it often but don't consider myself an expert by any means. We are fairly sure that my nephew falls somewhere on the higher-functioning end of the spectrum. He's involved in ST/PT/OT with minimal progress and he continues to fall behind his brothers and even behind Allie (who is 15 months younger). An official diagnosis of ASD has not been made as of yet, but it is often discussed. I spent Saturday with him and was shocked by the number of symptoms and characteristics he displayed during that time. It may not be ASD, but there is definitely a deficit in many areas and I feel like it will only be a matter of time.
Photos courtesy of Jen Rose Photography
It's not something I worry about with DD. I don't think my pediatrician worries about it either. Our 24 month appointment on Friday was a total waste of time - they barely asked us any questions relating to her development aside from "can she throw something over her head?"
I don't think that autism is caused by vaccinations. It is concerning that the diagnoses of ASD seem to be increasing...
To be clear, it's not so much that I *worry* about it. It's more that the topic/diagnosis really, really interests me. It always has. Is that strange?
This is rather comical. Does her pedi moonlight as a softball coach?
It was never a concern of mine with my older 2. I studied Autism and lots of other psychopatholgies of childhood in college... so, I knew a lot about signs and such and my older kiddos just never gave me a reason to give it a second though. Also, I've also been fairly distracted by their more pressing medical issues.
However, it's on my mind TONS now with Henry... I just can't figure this little guy out.
Hannah
ps - There's no link btwn vax's and and Autism. The joke of doctor who did that 1 single study made sh!t up. Just sayin.
Maybe, and maybe she's looking for an undersized 2 year old ringer to play in the 1 year old league. K fits that bill.
Yes. Yes it is.
Just kidding. It is interesting.
I have diagnosed lots and lots of kids as having autism. And I suffered from the med student problem of having too much knowledge about a topic and becoming convinced one (in this case my kids) suffers from any given disorder. But talking to other psychologist moms help since we all go through it. Katherine clearly doesn't have it. Sam probably, most likely doesn't.
I am glad you brought up the age of parents at conception link. It is something that has been known, talked about, and researched in the field for quite some time but for some reason that news doesn't seem to have reached the general public. I am glad it is becoming more widely known now.
I think we haven't had a lot of talk on this board about it yet because most of the kiddos on this board are just now reaching the ages where symptoms of spectrum disorders become quite pronounced. So it isn't something that has really been on a lot of people's radars yet. But I would imagine as more of our kiddos reach that 18 month to 3 year range that there might be more talk about it.
No joke. That was a HUGE recant. Silly doctor, making shiz up like that.
However, I can't help but wonder - In light of the retraction, why are so many parents of ASD children STILL convinced that there is a link between vax and ASD? Is Jenny McCarthy THAT convincing?
I don't deny that I'm at least 67% strange.
No, she's not. Many parents still hold that belief because of the temporal relationship that exists between the time of onset of symptoms and the timing of vaccines. Because they happen around the same ages people erroneously infer a cause-effect relationship that simply does not exist.
Apparently she is. And she had Jim Carrey on her side.. and you know what is even more f'd up??? It was proven her son doesn't even have autism... but you know that was quietly swept under the rug.
I think she sucks... and she should feel personally responsible for a lot of the scare and unvax'd kids (the ones whose parents did so based on her scare tactics and NOT on their own research)
Ahhhh, correlation vs. causation. I should've paid more attention in Stats 101.
TTT - Are you asking us if you have it? Cuz you should've done a poll for that.
Moesten - I have a family situation (not my children) that I would really love to talk to you about sometime.
Here's my take.. totally 100% my opinion.
I never believed vaccinations "caused" autism. Even a little bit. We ended up breaking up some of the shots only becuase DS had bad reactions... 36 hour high fevers, lethargic.. when he would get more than 2 at a time. So we got all the important ones on time, and left the less for later (delayed all Hep, etc) Breaking them up helped his reactions to be small.. because dealing with a fever for that long and a cranky baby was horrible.
I think I breathed a huge sigh of relief at about 4 months old when he was very engaging, smiling, etc. It would have scared the hell out of me if he wouldn't have been.. from then I guess I just don't worry about it because he's never given me any cause to worry.
So here is my total, 100% JMO non-medical conclusion... I am totally convinced that one of the factors that causes autism is the pesticides and all the crap in our food. That is why I have always made DS food (starting at 6 months) and always buy organic. Always. For me it is SO important and I'm willing to sacrifice other things to be able to spend the money on good, clean food. Why I breastfed for 15 months and why I drove far around Florida at Disney to find organic milk because I refused to give him regular milk even one time, ever.
You can flame me if you want... I can take it. I also in NO way would judge anyone for how and what they feed their families. Again, it's just my opinion : )
I don't have a ton of time... so I've merely skimmed the responses. However, I will tell you that with B's speech delay the thought has crossed my mind. So much so that I've brought it up with his service coordinator through HMG.
When I did this, she asked me a few quick questions-
*is he social with you? (yes)
*does he smile/laugh/communicate (even if not verbally)? (yes)
*how is he interacting at school/other kids his age? He "plays" with them and participates, tries to be helpful when he can be, holds open the door for one of my friend's daughters when we're there (so cute!), took turns playing golf with another friend's kid, etc... In other words, he may not talk but he is still social.
Thus, autism is not a concern.
I hope this quick little response makes some sense...
Nope, my diagnosis is far more rare. I'm special.
A few things: 1. Has anybody else seen this website, re: Jenny McCarthy being a spokesperson for misinformation about autism?
Jenny McCarthy Body Count -its a little extreme but I thought it was...interesting?
2. I am a little concerned about autism w/ Nicholas since the kind of RSS he has (11p15 methylation error) has a higher rate of autism. RSS kids in general have shown to be at a higher risk in general and with his specific genetic phenotype its even higher risk. I keep an eye out for signs but so far I haven't seen any early markers or even anything to really make me concerned.
Also, IMO, the increased incidence in autism diagnoses is due to a few social changes. The negative stigma attached with any sort of developmental/cognitive delays is decreasing. There are more mental health professionals who are trained in recognizing and diagnosing autism. Pediatricians are more aware of what to look for. Since autism is a spectrum disorder I would venture to say there are MANY more people (in their 20's+) that are actually undiagnosed b/c they are on the high-functioning end of the spectrum. After having some training in ASD, there were many people that I could think back in retrospect that definitely had markers of Aspergber's but were obviously never diagnosed.
As more research surfaces and more understanding of the intricacy's of ASD arise I think the numbers of children diagnosed will continue to increase. As for the causes of ASD, I personally feel like they aren't very close to pinning down a causation. There are plenty of correlations but still no definite causes and until there are I am not going to spend time trying to shelter my children. As a Christian I firmly believe that these type of things are predetermined and I am willing and ready to take whatever comes our way. And now I will step off my mini-soapbox ;-)
I really wish that I could've seen the Dr. Oz episode you're talking about. In any case, I don't have much time to respond, but wanted to share this link to an article that I ran across not too long ago.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/autism-research-discovery_b_794967.html
Personally, I feel that environmental factors are involved and my views are very similar to those of Traycee.
One thing that is important to note is that the diagnoses are increasing, but autism itself is not. We can look at the stats of "this many kids out of this many kids" will be diagnosed with ASD, but the truth is that autism used to just be a couple of things. The spectrum now means that you can have kids who are extremely high-functioning (like Asperger's) diagnosed as autistic. As recently as 15 years ago, those kids may not have been diagnosed as anything. They may have just been considered anti-social, or a little socially delayed. So the word "autistic" is now being applied more than it ever has in the past....thus the diagnoses of autism are increasing...but autism itself is not any bigger than it was when we were babies, really.
I work with a number of autistic kids and some are completely normal, just a little anti-social, and some are so severe that an outsider might suspect brain damage or mental retardation without knowing the kids. There is just a huge spectrum. I believe that ASD is a combination of things-- both nature and nurture. It has been presented that children who grow up without being held, loved, etc. at a very young age (like those kids in foreign orphanages, abusive homes, etc.) have a higher incidence of these kind of diagnoses, but I believe there is "nature" factor involved as well-- perhaps a pre-disposition of sorts. I read somewhere that parents with autistic tendencies often have children with autistic tendencies. When I was college, they made a connection between parents with autistic tendencies who live/work in Silicon Valley and their children, who also had autistic tendencies. The idea was that the anti-social behavior that often accompanies types of autism might be a combination of an inborn behavior and a learned behavior (esp. given the types of people working in Silicon Valley at the time). Fascinating.
LMAO