Somethings really bugging me so had to share (ASD)

[Marne]

When i sit here on the PC i look up and see a photo of dd2, it was taken when she was around 2 months old (one of those photo shoots in boots/pixi photo things), she looks so alert, she looked at the camera when the photographer waved toys around and called her, her eye contact was good and she looks relaxed. At the age of 2 dd2 was referred to paed as she was showing signs of ASD, she was non responsive, poor eye contact and non-verbal, at the age of 3 dd2 was diagnosed with Autism and severe language delay.

The thing thats bugging me is 'when did dd2 become this non responsive child?', when she was a baby she would lie next to me and look into my eyes, she would respond when i called her name and when some one entered the room but at the age of 2 she would not respond to her name or notice things going on around her. I keep going over it in my head (every time i look at the photo) and all i can come up with is the MMR, she reacted to both jabs (mmr and mmr booster/pre school jab), after the booster jab she ended up in hospital after a bad reaction.

Now i don't want to start a whole thread about the MMR argument, i just wanted to share my thoughts about dd2.

She's now 5 and after a lot of therapy will now look into my eyes (briefly) and will respond to my voice, she's doing very well but i can't stop thinking about when it became noticable that she had ASD .

OK thanks.

Fellatio

I have always thought that ds2s chicken pox at about 12 months knocked him for six. Made it harder for him to cope when he got the mmr iyswim.
Poor little bugger

I'm aware that ASD is a developmental condition but I maintain that my son's behaviour changed dramatically following MMR. He never had the booster. He was, up to 12 months a "difficult" baby. At around 20 months he became impossible. He was in a little world of his own..... very difficult to engage with and had "terrible two's" tantrums from about then up to 6 or 7.

I'm not suggesting MMR caused my son's ASD. I still don't believe we know enough about this and I'd echo chinax's experience.....I've heard medical professionals cover themselves, in all kinds of situations (as an ex-nurse). It is the human condition, I think.

BTW Ellen Jane the Changeling theory is sadly fascinating and something I will be looking into because I'm interested in how people used myths and legends to explain various phenomena.

I think I came across the changeling theory in Lorna Wing's book, The Autistic Spectrum. But I've read so many, I couldn't be sure. But it sounds perfectly feasible, doesn't it?

Found a short article about it here

When I googled further though I was surprised to come across some people who are very anti the analogy, because of the implication that the 'changeling child' is somehow less than or not worthy of the same love and care as the 'stolen child'.

Personally, I think this is taking it too far, I don't think people make that connection - they generally refer to the folklore of changelings simply as a way of identifiying possible evidence for the existence of autism before things like MMR were around and from that point of view it is indeed very interesting.

Yes, your article references Lorna Wing as their source as well. I found her book a very depressing read on the whole, so while it's very informative, it wasn't very heart warming. Not a comfortable read when newly DX!

We knew from day 1 there was a problem with ds3, maybe even earlier. Even before he was born he had repetitive movements, obviously didn't think asd then. As soon as he was born he had massive sensory issues, he had to be swadled really tightly at all times, within weeks the repetitive movements started again. After a few months he was so placid I hardly knew he was there. DS sat at 5 months, crawled at 7 but didn't walk until he was 17 months. He could climb before he could walk and was lining things up at 15 months. Ds didn't wave until he was 2 and never babbled like other babies.
I also have those photos from Pixi and he looks so alert and attentive, but I know the sign's where there before then.