In my little Primary of less than a hundred children, there are about 5 children with autism or autism like symptoms. Being a pregnant mom with oodles of wacky genetic predipositional options in my family tree, I worry. It's not that I wouldn't love my baby if she was born with or developed something, but I would like to make sure I'm not doing anything to provoke a predisposition.
A bad study I read tries to link mother's drinking to autism. Utah has one of the highest rates of autism and one of the lowest rates of drinking. PLUS, people have been consuming alcohol for a very long time, long before any surgeon general warnings were issued. Pregnant women are pretty darn careful (for the most part).
Then, I watched a you tube report with a CDC lady saying autism is caused by a mitochondrial malfunction set into action by a fever. Now, mitochondria are very cool, if you don't know. They are the "power plants" of the cells, but what makes them interesting is they have a few of their old DNA. Assuming you believe in evolutionary theory, scientists think Mitochondria used to be a bacteria with a symbiotic relationship. Eventually, it became part of the human cell. Mitochondria are also where are free radicals come from, and just FYI, I don't think pomegranate and blueberry juice has any way to fix a free radical. Free radicals are spare electrons that bounce around your cells and mess things up (am I getting this right, Greg?). Cells are small, but electrons are really really small, atomic even. I just don't think fruit juice has that kind of range. I could be wrong - Dr. Oz said it helps??
ANYWAY, where was I? Oh, yes, the theory of autism (as I understand it) is that the mitochondria problem is kicked off by a fever, which is often the side effect of vaccination, thus we see the vaccination-autism link that tons of parents have noticed and plenty others fear. But, I always wonder, is that link REALLY valid? Well, evidently, they have looked at a few groups of people who do not vaccinate their children, the Amish for example, and autism is very rare, nay, very very rare there (but what about trained psychologists who can accurately evaluate children?) But kids still get sick and have fevers, even if the fever isn't caused by a vaccination.
Nothing really adds up, but it irks me when CDC people and doctors and scientists and VACCINE MAKERS continually poo-poo PARENTS who know the child better than anyone and who constantly observe the child and can immediately see normal versus abnormal behavior. No matter what, this disease is becoming more and more common and SOMETHING is causing it and they can't tell us what exactly, but here's a new ED pill and here's a new anti depressant, and here's a new lip0suction technique and here are 3 more diet pills.
When I see the sweet little children, struggling to focus, not in control of themselves, knowing how difficult it will be for them in this competitive world, and their poor parents tired of being embarrassed, and the end of the rope life threw them ... I just wish our society could get it's priorities straight.
And now, well, there goes the box or crayons on the floor again, time to get MY priorities in order.
3 Brilliant Bits of Inspiration:
I love your blogs, they always are about something interesting!!!
As you know from my many comments, i work w/ kids who have emotional and behavioral challenges, most of them w/ a significant mental health disorder. Quite a few of them have been on the autism spectrum. I find autism extremely fascinating and some of my favorite kids I've worked with have been autistic. My favorite thing is how they break the stereotypes every time, you hear autistic kiddos have trouble connecting, but they want to connect with others badly, just don't really have the social awareness to always do it appropriately.
No one is quite sure WHY diagnoses are so much more common nowadays than before. There are a lot of theories, one of them is that it is more likely for a kiddo to have autism if the father is older, something about older sperm. Then there is the vaccination idea, which has in no way been confirmed. They do know that often if a mother has 1 kid on the spectrum, they may have another. Part of it must be that we as a society are so happy abotu diagnostic labels these days, to explain things that seem a little off, whether it is some anxiety or a kid who has trouble making friends. There are a LOT of totally functional adults who fit the Asberger's diagnosis, or high functioning autism (autistic symptoms w/ a normal IQ) this includes- challenges social skills, better at abstract reasoning than w/ verbal skills, etc. Think, Bill Gates, some say Einstein, etc. Plenty of high functioning austics are professors, computer programmers,etc! Of course, it is a very tough diagnosis and varies w/ everyone.
Anyway, I'll stop rambling about one of my fave subjects now.
Oh and doctors are starting to include screens for autism VERY early on now, so it hopefully won't be diagnosed so late. Eye contact is the big thing with the babes. If your baby is staring at you and smiling, it is probably all good!
I have written an article about the possible link between prenatal ultrasound and autism, available online at: www.midwiferytoday.com/articles/ultrasoundrodgers.asp It is my conjecture that ultrasound, which has thermal qualities (the sound waves turn into heat when they are absorbed by tissue), sometimes damages heat shock proteins, which is why some children undergo such devastating regression after exeperiencing high fevers. Interestingly, a 30-year-old study showed that ultrasound could irreversibly damage mitochondria.
I worry so much about this baby girl. Because of all these expectations I have for me and her and our relationship. Then, I have this anti E blood thing, where if my blood and the baby's blood were to mix and there's a 50-50 chance we have a different component (as Greg is positive E, like 99.9% of everyone, and somehow I am negative E) then my immune system will attack the baby and difficulties will ensue. AND I have these two rambunctious boys, especially the 2 yr old, who bounces around and occasionally into my big old belly. Then I was so sick around Christmas, I had a flu shot, had some stress ... please God, let my baby be okay.
Now I have to worry about the 3 ultrasounds we had too ... sigh. But even so, there must be something more, some specific trait or predisposition because not all children who had prenatal ultrasounds have autism - ultrasounds are so very common now - and I'm not 100% sold on the fever activator thing either - especially when you read mother's stories where they had a normal smiley baby who quite suddenly changed ... had they no fever before that time? Does the fever have to come at a specific vulnerable period of time that coincides with a specific vaccination age? That all sounds like too many variables.
BUT who knows for sure, the body is a complex series of chemical reactions, put together the wrong cocktail at the wrong time and bad things might happen.
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