Heading into the Autism debate

We've all heard the media reports. We've all heard other parents views (educated or not) and we all have our own views on why our child may have autism. In my first post in this blog I present my view on what contributed to Harry's autism - wether this is correct or not is pure speculation. We have heard that originally it was a childs 18 month immunisation. Then this was disproved with the revealing truth that the data was incorrect and skewed to present results that have become very damaging. Now we are hearing that actually, this may be correct, and it may contribute. BUT only in children who are predisposed to having autism. With no way of knowing if your child is predisposed do we immunise or not? My personal view is that I will always immunise my child. Seeing the effects of diseases that could be erradicated and seeing them in my child would be too much to bear. I will not rely on herd immunity.

On meeting Harry's clinical psychologist his view was very different and it made sense. He enlightened us about a process children go through when they are 12-24 months old. As they learn such a huge amount of information in such a small period of time and then they need to learn things like walking, talking, eating and socialising. An infants brain will 'temorarily' lose (or forget) information such as the colour red or what a spoon is. He says when a child is learning to walk it is quite normal for them to stop talking for a while as their brain is focused on the walking part. His view is that a 'normal' child will quickly relearn these things and it is never an issue but an autistic child's brain will lose too much information and not be able to regain it. Harry has required quite intense early intervention, speech therapy and occupational therapy to talk. His speech is still poor but we are lucky he continues to learn more all the time.

I watched a program on tv called 'The brain that changes itself", it is also a book by Norman Doidge. Basically it is about the brain's neuroplasticity especially young childrens and that scientists have believed that different parts of the brain are responsible for different things. Through rehabilitation of brain injury victims he has seen that this is not the case, the brain can relearn new things in different parts of the brain even if the original part of the brain has been damaged. He believes children with ASD have the potential to alter their condition and change the way their brain works. Very interesting reading. I guess I have seen some of this with Harry's early intervention and therapy. Whether this is a result of his brain changing or just helping it to learn is open to interpretation. He also talked about his belief that children with ASD have brains which are more maleable and are more elastic and stretchy so they actually process so much information at one time and this is why they can go into sensory overload. This also helps to explain why some children with ASD are classified as savants. They have an amazing ability to excel in a certain area, more than children without ASD. Their brains work differently and in some areas better. Is this the brains own mechanism to counteract the parts of the brain that are not working at their desired potential? Alot more research I am sure will be done in this area!



One thing we as parents need to make sure we take other peoples views with a grain of salt unless they have experienced it themselves. I have had so many friends and family tell me what will 'fix' Harry. Most of these people are highly uneducated in the area and barely understand what Autism is. Not that this is a huge problem if once explained they try and gain an understanding. Stick to the professionals they are here for a reason. Keep talking to friends who are going through what you are, if they have advice listen to it but only use what you are comfortable with. For example I have recently started going 'organic'. Yes its the current buzz word, but I do believe it will more healthy for our family. The only problem is Harry eats no fruit, vegies or meat! Harry cannot go on this journey with us. Not yet anyway. We tried once when pressured by family to not offer the more 'junky' foods he prefered. Harry went nearly 2 weeks without eating. He drank only small amounts of milk. In future I will listen to my mother instinct. I don't believe food, preservatives or additives gave Harry autism, therefore I am not going to stress that he is sometimes eating them. I will just continue to show appropriate eating and hope that as he gets older he will eat better foods. We can only get better from here.