ASD / Autism - What do you think caused it in your family?

[Wanderingthoughts]

Inspired by my own experience and talking to two friends who's children are autistic.

My DS, 8, diagnosed ASD (formerly Aspergers, geeky-intelligent type). I think comes from his father (my ex). Their ASD traits are very similar and I think his father would definitely be diagnosed. DS also has ADHD which I think comes from me (I have lots of traits) and this is his primary diagnosis and much more prominent. So in our case, I lean towards genetic, although I was anaemic during pregnancy, had a low lying placenta and DS was born via induction and ventouse.

I'm pregnant with DC2, this time a girl, and my current DP has no ASD traits, and none I can see from anyone in his family. I am, however, anaemic again and this time facing having an iron infusion as the tablets haven't worked. I've read some research that low iron in pregnancy can be a potential cause of autism.

My friend has a 3 children, only one (DS2) is diagnosed Autistic. He has a more classical presentation, non-verbal, developmentally delayed and requiring a special school. She feels his autism comes from a long and traumatic birth, and she has no family history of ASD.

Ditto for another friend, she also has 3 children, and her DS1 is both Autistic and has learning difficulties. Her other two children are unaffected. Similar to my first friend, she thinks the cause of his autism was a long and difficult labour and birth trauma. No family history of ASD, although I can see some ASD traits in her DH!

What do you think the cause, if any, in your personal family experience?

genetics - you see it in families

mutation in particular part of the genome if accompanied by a LD maybe

It's not completely known but the conspiracy theorists state all sorts of reasons but no proof for any of them

I read that you are more likely to be diagnosed autistic if there were complications in pregnancy or you had a traumatic birth.

There is clear neurodivergence on both our sides of the family so I imagine that it's partly genetic, but who knows whether the twin pregnancy, extended labour, failed induction and emergency c-section also had an effect. I think it's an area that is still the subject of a lot of study, so I hope we will know more in the future.

I don't think being born early or late or having a traumatic birth causes autism

No, not alone they don't, but outside factors may kick in and influence that predisposition if it's already there.

Struggling with relationships
Sensory challenges - extreme picky eating into adulthood
Obsessions
Hoarding
Extreme need to stick to routines and huge overreactions when things go unexpectedly
Being unable to cope with the everyday demands of adult life
Remaining "childish" into adulthood
Not understanding why what they said has upset someone even when it's explained
Struggling with theory of mind/not understanding that not everyone thinks the same as them

These are all things that I have noticed about various family members. One or two I would bet money that they would be diagnosed if they sought assessment, others I just see traits that make their lives more difficult.

Genetics.
My DD is diagnosed Dyspraxic, ADHD and is borderline for autism (assessments still ongoing). My DS is starting to show ADHD traits. My DH is diagnosed Dyspraxic and has autistic traits. I have ADHD traits, as does my dad.

Our brilliant genes. Don't beat yourself up anyone x

Or perhaps a genome mutation somewhere. Or problem in the womb?

Absolutely genetics. I find it interesting that a lot of couples both seem to have diagnosis / traits. I didn’t realise until later in life that I am very likely asd/adhd and now I see it so clearly in my dh and through both our families. It’s crazy.

Genetic... clearly runs down my side going back to at least my grandmother, down through my dad, then me and now my DC. At least each generation is learning from the previous (mostly what NOT to do, learnt retrospectively from the emotional damage done by parenting as if NT)

My DD is one of three and the only one with autism. She's also the only one who had both a placenta and umbilical cord anomaly. I always wonder, since it emerged that she would likely have had some degree of compromised oxygen levels in utero.

Autistic traits the same as we see in ourselves and our children. I could be here for an hour writing a comprehensive list but I think you can safely assume the 'usual' kind of autistic traits.

@JosephFrancis See, I find this interesting, thank you for sharing. I think with some people with ASD, there are very clear family members or parents on the spectrum (albeit undiagnosed). But for others, there is no clear genetic links. Perhaps some conditions we label 'autism' are genetic, and other conditions labelled 'autism' aren't?

With my friends DC, they have no clear living or known autistic relatives - of course there is the chance there are unknown historic family members with ASD - yet their children have fairly severe presentations.

Definitely genetic - lots of similarities with uncle on one side and great uncle on the other.

The big difference is a lack of diagnosis for previous generations.

I have thought in the it might have been the difficult birth, something thing that happened during pregnancy, blah blah, but now I can see it's as genetic as the brown eyes and curly hair.

Genes from partners side and I have hypothyroidism and read that can sometimes cause it. My child has and and adhd.

It depends- stigma compared to what?

Being ‘kookie’ or having ASD, maybe there is more stigma today for the DC who could have passed as ‘kookie’.

Having ASD or just ‘learning disability’ or BPD, I think there are lots of parents of girls especially who would prefer the ASD diagnosis for their DC.

Going with genetics. 4 of our children are ASD, 1 not.

Yes that’s exactly how I’ve been thinking of it. Does your radar also work on folk outside of your family? I don’t mean to sound flippant but I spent a while ‘spotting’ ND around me when I first understood about my DC and myself- it was astonishing to me at the time but I struggled to name any friends I was certain were NT once I really thought about it.

Hereditary conditions are genetic, but not all genetic conditions are hereditary, some are random mutations in genes, not present before in the family.

Thanks for your replies @Cheztwix @Wanderingthoughts @azimuth299

Yes I see those would be the "stereotypical" types of things the layperson would think of.

As several PPs have already said, sometimes just "quirkiness" could sometimes be misinterpreted by non-professionals as ASD, but the behaviours you describe are probably more outside the "norm" (whatever that is supposed to be).

I know some personality types (e.g. INTP and maybe INFP in the MBTI typology system) are sometimes viewed as possibly being on the spectrum by people who don't know about function stacks etc.

I’ve been puzzling over this. Why is it offensive to wonder what causes autism? I do agree that it is genetic, often hereditary, and has existed forever by different names and understandings. But why is it offensive to be curious?

Is it because you consider your autism makes you different but not lesser? That’s fair, but difference is still interesting and provokes curiosity pretty naturally. I think for those whose autism is really significantly disabling in every day life the question ‘why’ can feel more pressing too.

@GreenGarnet what are function stacks?

Why would somebody with a particular meyers-briggs personality type not also be autistic? I don’t see why somebody couldn’t be INTP and also autistic? That’s not the same as saying everyone who is INTP is definitely autistic. Though I wonder if there is significant overlap between what have been thought of as ‘personality types’ and autism - tell me why that assumption is wrong? 😊

It is entirely genetic for my DS. He has two genetic mutations that are associated with ASD, ADHD and LD. He's five and developmently 10 months old. He was 31 wks prem, apparently the reason that he was prem could have been to do with his genetic abnormalities.

Yes that's what I mean ... an "overlap" between innate personality/learned behaviour from a "quirky" family and some kind of potentially "diagnosable" condition.

Like the little girl mentioned upthread by a PP who was tested and just turned out to "march to her own beat", so to speak.

That's why I asked for examples, I was (genuinely) wondering how "extreme" these traits were that were being noticed 🙂

.. And yes, of course a person can be XXXX type and also autistic 🙂

Yes that's what I mean ... an "overlap" between innate personality/learned behaviour from a "quirky" family and some kind of potentially "diagnosable" condition.

Just quoting this as it's the closest but I appreciate its part of a wider discussion...

The diagnostic criteria has little to do with 'traits' as we think of them. It's about deficit and impairment and very little to do with 'quirkyness' so I don't see how there could be an overlap

In our family it's definitely genetic. Ds is a third generation autist (great grandfather, uncle and now him, great aunt on the other side has suspected autism too but no diagnosis).

I did have a difficult, prolonged and traumatic labour - that child is neurotypical. The birth of my autistic child was very straightforward.