In the medical community, it is thought a child is born with autism, although there is little understanding as to why many children on the spectrum develop in a “normal” manner until a certain age (usually between the age of 12-24 months) and then “develop” the visable symptomology associated with autism. Because of this, there are many schools of thoughts that support the idea of an outside cause (vaccinations is the biggest one) turning a child autistic.

As the mother of a child with autism and an active parent advocate, I strongly believe children with autism are born with autism and that, at a certain point in their development, a biological trigger (either too much or too little of a hormone or enzyme) is what causes the symptomology to surface. That is just my thoughts though.

Sorry you got such defensive and nasty answers to your question. It’s a fair question to ask. I personally don’t intend to have kids ever, and this is a big reason why (though certainly not the only reason). It seems like 50 percent of the people I know who have kids, have one with Autism, Asperger’s, or some other major issue. Then there are all the sanctimonious mothers and helicopter parents who spend 24/7 obsessing about being “perfect” mothers and criticizing everyone else for every choice they make. Why anyone would sign up for listening to such people’s judgmental opinions for the next 18 years is beyond me. I simply can’t see why having a child, with all the risk involved, and very little apparent joy, is worth it these days. It’s not like the world actually needs more kids. My personal opinion: if you have strong doubts, it may be better to spend the energy you WOULD have spent having a kid, trying to make the world a better place for the kids who are already here. People have been threatening me for decades that I would “regret” not having kids. Well, I never have regretted it. And what would have been MUCH worse is having kids and then regretting having them. It’s not like you can give them back.

This is a question no one knows the answer to, at this time it is thought that children are born with a predisposition to Autism and either some thing in their environment or health triggers the symptoms.

I have worked with children with Autism for about twenty years. I am very curious to the answer myself. When interviewing parents I very often hear these statements.

He was a wonderful baby and rarely cried.

He slept through the night at a very early age.

I remember thinking he always looked just past me as an infant, or was very fascinated by ceiling fans and other visual stimulation.

Parents often report that looking at pictures they see the light in their child’s eyes as infants but it disappeared somewhere around six to eight months.

All this makes me wonder, but all the research I have read shows no conclusive standing.

I also know the early one recognizes the behavioral symptoms and begin early intervention the more likely the child will talk, and develop social skills before school age.

Are You Born With Autism

They are not sure what happens that causes the development of autism most children develop normally and than around age 18 months to 3 years old their development changes and they start to change. There are the classical sysmptoms which usually are the child loses touch with other people, they find it difficult if not impossible to interact with other’s. They live in their own little world and they do things that are repeative like rocking themselves or playing with the same thing over and over again. They are not really sure if something goes wrong with in the brain structure or if it’s chemically induced. Alot of research will have to be done to determine what the actual cause is.

From all of my experience and reading… which is relatively limited… I mean I don’t have a degree or anything, I’m just a very concerned and active mom who tried to find out everything I could, and I am homeschooling my autistic child and providing the therapy myself… The easiest way I can think of to answer your question, is to give you a couple of quotes from my favorite book.

1. “Autism and related conditions are caused by genetic, neurological, anatomical, or biochemical differences in the brain…” The book goes on to list some scientific research and finding that are being found but that no one has a complete understanding of at this time. One of his main points though, and one that I want to stress – you didn’t cause your child to have autism. You didn’t hurt him in some way. Please remember that when you are laying in bed awake at night feeling horrible and guilty. Been there, done that.

2. In another section of the book… he describes the history of Autism. It was given it’s name in 1943, and at that time it was thought that “children with autism made a consious decision to withdraw from a hostile, unnurturing human world and were afflicted with a disorder similar to schizophrenia.” Obviously we now know better. However, he describes that in the early days of diagnosis children were removed from their families, and parents given psychotherapy. Unfortuantely, it seems to me, that some people still treat parents this way… I’m not trying to say that your pediatrician is, or that you are necessarily going to run into that, but I have…

I love this book though, it very clearly answered a lot of my questions. This is the first time that I have been on this yahoo answeres thingy, so I am going to put the souce in this post as well as the source list box. That way if you want to you can get the book too. And I hope this answer was somewhat helpful.

The Special-Needs Collection Second Edition

Children with Autsim A Parents’ Guide

Edited by Michael D. Powers, Psy.D.

ISBN 1-890627-04-6

This is tricky! I think things such as Rh factors need to be looked into. I have O- blood I was given Rhogam 3 times within a 9 mth period (before i got preg (miscarried) at 6 weeks then again at 7mths) This has thimersol in it I was never told. My son was healthy 9 # 10 oz 21 1/2 ” long…. on time. He was developing fine eating everything until about 1 week after his 12 mth shots when I noticed he wasnt eating enough I thought he was sick but he wasnt. The nurses gave him his 15 mth shots at the same time he got his 12 mth he had 5 shots they said it wouldnt hurt him one less time he would have to come back. I think between the rhogam and all the vaccine (mmr) did something to his brain function… Hes extremely smart and has a great memory but he has issues with routine and people space, talking. sorta like it short wired his brain into over drive.

I think my son was born with it. I say that only because after my son was diagnosed with autism, I noticed that a lot of his autistic traits are present in my husband, who has never been diagnosed with it. Even my husband has questioned if he might be on the spectrum. And many of the moms I know with children with autism say the same things about their husbands.

My 15 year old son is autistic. He almost died of failure to thrive when he was 2 weeks old. He was born without enzymes to digest his formula with He was put on nutramigen. He seemed to get better but he never hit the milestones on time . He is non verbal but does everything for himself. We found out later that his uncle was autistic and that 2 of my nephews are. I think autistics are born with a predisposition to it that can be triggered by a major illness in a child. But then I am not a doctor or researcher I,m just the mother of an autistic child

Causes of Autism

Everyone inherits certain traits from their parents. Genes are the biological mechanism through which we inherit these traits. At the same time, there are important environmental factors that influence how these biological traits are expressed. This complex interplay between our genes and our environment is known among researchers as the “nature versus nurture” debate. Traditionally, it has been difficult for researchers to design a research study that can determine how much of a trait is determined by what we inherit through our genes and how much of the trait is influenced by our environment. The decoding of the human genome at the beginning of the 21st century has ushered in a new era in research. Now that the entire human genome has been mapped, autism researchers are beginning to be able to design research that will help us understand the complex interplay between genes and the environment in determining autistic behavior.

Early Diagnosis

Until very recently, it was difficult to diagnose a child with autism before the age of 3; in the past, many children were not diagnosed until school age. In 1998, the NIH sponsored a conference to establish standardized assessment tools for the early diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders. There are now published studies that confirm that early diagnosis is vital to the future of children with autism, and assessment tools have been developed to help health care professionals make these diagnoses at younger ages.

Early Intervention

Related to early diagnosis is early intervention. According to a report from the National Research Council, prompt educational intervention is key to helping children with autism learn the skills needed for self-care, school success, and community functioning. There is, at present, some research to support early intervention based on the principles of Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA), but beyond this, the evaluation of intervention lacks scientific validation. On September 5−6, 2002, the NIH held a workshop in which the leading researchers in psychosocial interventions for autism

discussed their plan for conducting more rigorous scientific research into the best methods of early intervention.