It might be worth a try eliminating certain foods from the diet but it's not going to be a cure-all. I noticed an article in either That's Life or Take 5 where this lady with an Aspie son said he got much better with the GFCF diet but I seriously doubt changing my diet would do me any good.
It's possible even the birth process would cause a sensory overload so I don't see how that could be prevented. It's more likely that autism is inborn. Maybe the people who advocated handling the baby very gently after birth were on to something. It must be a huge shock to the system to be hung upside down and slapped on the bottom!
When my older daughter was born, she was purplish-blue and the doctor did that to her. I didn't realise it was still done. I think it is to get them to start breathing and I wonder if there is some other alternative that is a bit less traumatic.
I also think circumcising little baby boys without anaesthetic would be a massive shock to their system and could trigger off further problems in very sensitive children.
Dietary changes should only be undertaken with proper medical advice unless they are just something such as removing one or two foods that seem to cause bad reactions.
Great to hear two of my favorite ideas being thrown around in this thread:
1) In autistic/AS kids, the brain may not develop properly if the diet is not adjusted to suit their individual needs/sensitivities
2) "It all happened at birth"--forceps causing a shock to the brain, skull-reshaping issues, cord clamping caused brain damage, sensory overload at birth
The longer people with AS propagate this unsettling stuff, the longer it will stay around.
Sorry to be so blunt... and yes I am not doing the field research... so my opinions lack credibility.. but oh well, I think (just like "all Aspies are great at Math").. this is another thing we need to get away from.
I personally believe this stuff is crap. I am entitled to have this opinion.
Batman, as far as I'm concerned, autism is genetic. Diet helps some autistic people if they also have food sensitivities but it won't cure the underlying autism.
Batman, as far as I'm concerned, autism is genetic. Diet helps some autistic people if they also have food sensitivities but it won't cure the underlying autism.
I agree. As I've said before, food intolerances show up as gut, lung and skin disorders. My kids have suffered one or more of each of these, as have I. If you, or your child, has eczema, asthma, diarrhoea, constipation or vomiting then NOT testing their food intake is cruel, whether or not they are autistic.
But to remove foods from a child's diet 'just in case' it might 'cure' an inherited, genetic, neurological condition is equally cruel, not to say totally pointless.
I saw Jenny McCarthy on tv the other day. She claims she reversed her son's autism with diet. At first his problem was seizures and she claims she tried his medication and it made her feel disoriented.
She claims she got so much information about her son's medical conditions from the internet. Too bad she does get some good parenting information. I think she probably is a bad parent. She blames her divorce on having an autistic child. She mentioned that 80% of marriages with an autistic child end in divorce.
I wish she would shut up.
I saw Jenny McCarthy on tv the other day. She claims she reversed her son's autism with diet. At first his problem was seizures and she claims she tried his medication and it made her feel disoriented.
She claims she got so much information about her son's medical conditions from the internet. Too bad she does get some good parenting information. I think she probably is a bad parent. She blames her divorce on having an autistic child. She mentioned that 80% of marriages with an autistic child end in divorce.
I wish she would shut up.
So, what chance a marriage between two autistics with five autistic kids?
Err... really happy, actually!
It's good that autism runs in families. Mothers with autistic traits are more likely to form bonds by intellectual rather than instinctual means; so they are also more likely to analyze their infants' behavior rather than "pick up" social signals. Perhaps the best mother for an autistic child is a mother who is on the Spectrum herself.
I agree - I had no problem bonding with my children. In fact, NT friends were surprised by how much interaction I gave them as tiny infants. I just felt rude if they were awake and I ignored them - just as I wouldn't ignore an adult or older child.
Of course, it might have been that they were influenced by some social cues that I had missed as to how much interaction was acceptable!
I think that what was meant was this:
One mother will love her children and interact with them whether or not they make eye-contact.
Another mother might feel that she is being rejected if her child does not make eye-contact.
My eldest didn't make eye-contact and had terrible colic. I loved him and felt terribly distressed for him in his pain. I would have done anything to take the pain on myself. I heard from other mothers that they felt their colicky babies were angry at them - a thought that never occurred to me.
I guess that we're all individuals, dealing with individual babies and perhaps it is rude to generalise?
I don't mean to be confrontational.
Its just that same sort of thinking that the way "I" do something is somehow better than the way someone else does them. Not any different than the moms that claim that because they breastfed they are better parents than those that don't. Or working moms that claim that they are better than stay at homes.
I certainly think that some AS moms do a fantastic job with their AS kids. Some don't. Some NT moms are great, some aren't. I just don't think that anyone is great at being a parent because of their wiring. I think someone is great at being a parent because they want to be a great parent and do so by treating their child as an individual and loving them regardless of what they say/do/think.
Though admittedly everyone has their own opinions.
Well said! Sorry, I didn't realise that my post would sound 'prickly'! 
I love that phrase: 'Elderly primigravida'!
Apparently, it applies to anyone over thirty.
Hm..... Child until 25, elderly at thirty...... doesn't give us much time to be independent!
I'm on a GF diet because my gut cannot take it! Didn't make one iota's difference to my brain, though.
It has become less of a problem in recent years as there is now a wide range of products available. I bake my own bread, though. The frozen stuff is AWFUL.
I 'regress' when I eat gluten!
"I'm sorry folks, but I'm just not up to talking when my stomach really hurts."
If it was the case that her son 'regressed' and then improved it may well be that he has a gut disorder. After all, gluten intolerance is common enough that we are advised not to give any to our infants until they are at six months old.
IMO it is irrelevent to his autism though.
Why did everyone miss the "she took her son's seizure medication"? She claimed his seizure medication made him dopey etc. Once he had his medication changed, he might have seemed "less autistic"? So what about the side effects of the seizure medication?
And what was she doing taking her son's medication anyway? I thought doctors and pharmacists advised very strongly against such actions.
