Comments on: Autism and First Borns

By: j 41 shoes

j 41 shoes — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 09:48:36 +0000

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By: Laura

Laura — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 03:19:53 +0000

Couldn’t the firstborn bias be linked to toxic substances that are stored in the mother’s body? The mother has a lifetime (30+ years) to buildup the toxin and some fact about how fats are metabolized during pregnancy releases the bulk of the toxin, affecting the fetus. Siblings would be exposed to less, as there is usually 2- 5 years between births, and less toxin would have accumulated during that time.

By: John

John — Tue, 18 May 2010 10:58:04 +0000

My grandaughter was born to her 30 year old mother and father with no unusual birthing stress, or antibiotics in mom’s system. She was loved and stimulated from the beginning on, hated tummy time at 3 mos and was diagnosed with low muscle tone. By 9 mos, family members knew it was more than low muscle tone when Mia was already unverbal, and wouldnt look at herself in a mirror. She is 5 now and a classic case of autism,. She gets daily therapy and learning 1 word expression and some signing. Potty training is progressing slowly, as is bike riding and catching a ball. She is good natured, and trantrums are predictable.I’m inclined to believe the source of the problem is more chemical or environmental. I heard a theory of firstborns ingesting BPA from their mothers and wonder if this is a possibility. I dont think immunizations played a part. Also what about dads who smoked marijauna in their late 20s? There is some Attention Deficit Syn in family history- could it be genetic?
+1

By: Mary

Mary — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 04:03:03 +0000

My grandaughter was born to her 30 year old mother and father with no unusual birthing stress, or antibiotics in mom’s system. She was loved and stimulated from the beginning on, hated tummy time at 3 mos and was diagnosed with low muscle tone. By 9 mos, family members knew it was more than low muscle tone when Mia was already unverbal, and wouldnt look at herself in a mirror. She is 5 now and a classic case of autism,. She gets daily therapy and learning 1 word expression and some signing. Potty training is progressing slowly, as is bike riding and catching a ball. She is good natured, and trantrums are predictable.
I’m inclined to believe the source of the problem is more chemical or environmental. I heard a theory of firstborns ingesting BPA from their mothers and wonder if this is a possibility. I dont think immunizations played a part. Also what about dads who smoked marijauna in their late 20s? There is some Attention Deficit Syn in family history- could it be genetic?

By: andreT

andreT — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 17:21:00 +0000

Yeah, this is blowing my mind. The implications are numerous. I would predict that wealthier African Americans having one child when the parents are older would be a particularly vulnerable demographic. Bringing into the possible causes of autism are not only mother’s testosterone levels, immigrations from equatorial regions (influencing parent testosterone levels seasonally) and sexual selective selection practices but now birth order when there are fewer older siblings or other humans to engage theory of mind. I’ve talked about diet, rhythm, dance, touch and specific environmental stimuli as being relevant. I’d now add to that list whether the child is in physical contact with the mother through the night. What is astonishing me about Hrdy’s work is the connections between matrilineal social structure and human evolution, implying a number of ways that we are used to be treated as children, that we are not in most current societies.

By: Socrates

Socrates — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 17:01:29 +0000

288 words that for me generates about a dozen questions.

I won’t display my profound ignorance here by asking them – just keep on reading until I have a better grasp of the issues.