what do you think causes ASD??

[sleepyhorse]

Just wondered if anyone knows as I can't seem to find any website that pinpoints the causes. Is it unknown?

dont know the causes of asd .
I dont think its pregnancy related , perhaps birth related.

DD4 AND DS4 are twins. Born 4 weeks early .
DS4 is bright ,nt boy...5lb 4 at birth , healthy and strong.Born first , ventous then forceps, with doctor not midwife
DD4 was undersided , small for dates, racing heartbeat, unable to breath by herself , had to be tube fed and was very ill for weeks. she was very distressed in labour and was born breach in sac. Shes lucky to be alive at all tbh. She has GDD , hypermobility , eye problems (squint , long sighted , her glasses are like milk bottles,tires easily ,diet issues , bowel issues and asd , although they cant tell exactly where on the asd scale she is (she has to be retested at 7 yrs).

I did everything i could to ensure a healty pregnancy , took the prenatel vitamins , ate healthy , ate enough for twin pregnancy.

i am convinced it is the birth. DD4 has had every test tyroid, dna , microarray ect everything came back "normal" . As of yet shes not had an mri.

It seems likely that we will end up with what goblinchild said at the start of the thread "we pooled all our information and ended up with the mother having size 4 feet, liking the colour green for soft furnishings, knowing the words to I will survive and having eaten potatoes during pregnancy."

The hormone Oxytocin plays a huge role during the birth. It is also the hormone most closely involved in social empathy and skills.

starlight , i dont know about oxytocin .. i had the O drip with 3 of the labours /births ,( including twin birth). Only one of my children has dx asd.

I think Gobblinchild is right too .

both my girls (son too) have large heads. DD2 had extra fluid on the brain but no treatment. its in DD1 notes that she has a familial large head.

DD2 is getting assessed for ASD and im worried about DD1 too :(

leonie Do you mean that dc with asd have less immunity/reduced immunity???

That is certainly the case with ds1

DD also has very poor immunity.

Yes. Very interesting.

Dd1 has - IMO - reduced immunity since birth due to issues during pg, and dreadful neonatal care, (he nutripenia and thrombocitopenia - sp?) but his paed - who admits there "may be some underlying immunity issue" does not feel its enough to do a blood test for but is quite happy to prescribe ABs every winter all winter due to ds1's repeated upper respitory tract infections!!!! argh!!!

Beccaroo, is your DD my DD?!?!?!?! Or their consultants must just be lazy useless old gits like minded.

mummy he is a ds!!!

Am getting pretty cheesed off with his asthma paed tbh...am waiting til his next appt in oct - when, no doubt the problems will start again and I am going to INSIST on bloods being done. I will stage a sit in if I have to!

leonie IGA???....

That is my feeling too mumslife I am so glad your dd recovered...as did my FIL.

Thanks for the info leonie I will certainly be mentioning it to my sons paed at his next appt!

I found a couple of interesting research papers lurking in my Autism research paper collection, both of which include a "What is Autism?" section
"Autism: a review of the state of the science for pediatric primary health care clinicians."
and
"Autism: A review for family physicians"
they may help explain some of the issues raised on this thread

mumslife When he had his diptheria vaccine as a baby he had a severe reaction to it and was hospitalised for a time....this was not long after his father had been killed in action in WW2.

I cannot imagine how his mother coped

He recovered fully