Autism

[Laura0609]

Hi,

I don't want this to seem negative at all but I've been thinking about it and just need some advice. My partners uncle (mums side) is autistic. As far as I know no one else in either side of our families are autistic. Is there a high chance our baby could be? X

[Coffeemachine]

to worry about ASD because of one case in the rather Distant family is not that reasonable.

however, newest Figueres suggest that 1 in 68 will be identified AS having ASD. Is this high or low to you?

We have no family history whatsoever and a severely autistic DD.

[IndomitabIe]

I may be wrong or out of date, but as I understand it the spectrum of autistic conditions includes dyslexia and ADHD and goes on.

It's highly likely that most families therefore have relatives with some ASCs in them, and most likely undiagnosed.

There's also the (tiny) risk of millions of other conditions (inherited or not).

The risk is there, but is small. The only way to avoid is to not have DCs. But in reality most of us will take that (small) chance.

[Pipistrella]

'but as I understand it the spectrum of autistic conditions includes dyslexia and ADHD and goes on'

I've never, ever heard that before.

[IndomitabIe]

as I said, I could be wrong. That's how understand it to be. Obviously dyslexia is at the very mild end of the spectrum (well, depending on the severity of the dyslexia).

[hedgehogsdontbite]

There is a genetic factor in autism. So a family history of autism would indicate an increased risk of autism. I would imagine that 1 autistic person in the extended family would mean that increase is miniscule. To put it into perspective both DH and I are autistic as are both our mothers, my nephew and my older DD from an earlier relationship. Despite this history and the considerably higher risk, our DS isn't.

[IndomitabIe]

Ok, so a Google and a look at the Autism UK site tells me dyslexia and ADHD are common co-diagnoses but don't include them as part of the spectrum of conditions.

My mistake. It's probably a remnant of some well-intentioned and clearly now out-of-date training I've had back in the mists of time.

[allwornout0]

I was told the same thing about the connection between autism and dyslexia by my dd Dr at the hospital.

[hedgehogsdontbite]

Dyslexia and ADHD are often co-morbid with ASD but they are not on the autistic spectrum and never have been. Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is just the new name for 3 previously separate autistic conditions which are now seen as 1 condition rather than 3 different ones: classic autism (sometimes called Kanner's autism), Asperger's syndrome and PDD-NOS.

[hedgehogsdontbite]

Dixie my consultant says the same about eating disorders.

[AlanPacino]

There is a huge overlap in adhd and autism in terms of social functioning.

[NickiFury]

Ds's developmental paediatrician told me that all the mentioned conditions dyslexia, dyspraxia etc are "on the spectrum". She's in charge of a child development centre and has years of experience.

[NickiFury]

Dixie she said that too. That eating disorders such as anorexia in young girls often turned out to be undiagnosed ASD. I think there's been some research to support this. Will take a look in a bit.

[AnotherTimeMaybe]

OP yew here is a chance. As I understand it there are some gene mutations that don't allow for some basic body functions like sulfation. Given some unlucky environmental factors autism could develop
We have noone in the family but I have a DC in the spectrum
However don't despair, there is a lot to autism than people usually know about ... There are a lot of cases of recovery by changing diet alone or looking into underlying illnesses the child might have that were never detected before
Just enjoy your baby for now

[fanjoforthemammaries7850]

I wouldn't assume autism can always be recovered from. If you utterly couldn't deal with it then you shouldn't get pregnant really as there will always be a slight chance of it. But if it happened you would cope I think.

[Coffeemachine]

there is no cure/recovery from autism

[Fairylea]

Don't be ridiculous, there is no recovery or "cure" for autism. Early intervention can make a difference - speech and language therapy, "learning" how to relate to others and read people's emotions and so on can help. But there really is no recovery!

Asd and suchlike does tend to run in families, to what extent exactly no one knows. But it is certainly true that families that have asd in their midst do tend to have more than one person with the condition. As others have said though the incidence amongst the general population is thought to be 1 in 100 (at least) so if you think about several generations of a family it is more common than not to have some form of asd somewhere.

In our family ds has fairly severe asd (expected to start in special school in September), our eldest child is 13 and has no asd at all and in my dhs family his brother is undiagnosed but I would say is definitely on the spectrum - lives at home with mum and never had any kind of relationship or even friendships at age 31, talks incessantly about his favourite topics oblivious to everyone's cues he's waffled on too long (I say that with fondness, my ds does the same thing about road signs!) and is very inflexible in his thinking. He is one of 4 of my dhs siblings and the only one with asd.

It's quite complex but the one thing I will say is asd or not I wouldn't change my ds for the world. If I knew he was going to have severe asd I still wouldn't have hesitated having him for a moment.

[AnotherTimeMaybe]

Who says there is no recovery? some cases maybe not
But there are underlying issues like hypothyroidism and bacterial infections in some of them that once they are addressed the impact is huge. UK is not big on this, they accept asd and that's it. It's not about recovering from asd it's about finding out if there is something physically wrong with the child and try to address it and yes big percentage of autism has issues that need to be looked at

[Coffeemachine]

well, then the child has clearly not ASD but another condition. If ASD would be that easy to cure, sure human kind would know by now

[AnotherTimeMaybe]

Well there are cases of Asd that have been diagnosed as such because the child is not NT. Especially in this country no one will do any testing to see if there is anything wrong
And the recovery is not always easy there are loads of tests to do but if you are lucky enough to know what to test then the child might show amazing improvement
I saw it first hand with my boy who was moderate severe and few months after his ABA supervisor asked me if he's autistic!

[IndomitabIe]

Nice to know I didn't imagine the postulated relatedness of conditions!

Not sure I agree with AnotherTime. Let's face it, there's a shocking lot of people that believe they've cured their children's autism by making them drink bleach (aka miracle mineral solution or something). They might see a recovery, but that's because they're deluded/unwell and horrifically abusing their children.

However, I would imagine that some people with autism learn skills to better understand and cope with their autistic traits, and this could be seen as (and maybe even defined as) recovery. [disclaimer: I'm speculating, not an expert]