Of every child born in the United States, one of eighty eight is diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. Pregnancy is already a very scary place. Your body is doing so many things and there are so many forms of information flying at you. Everyone has an opinion and no one holds back. Even your doctor can be borderline pushy when it comes to your pregnancy and how you should handle it. Now, studies have found a new pregnancy danger that you absolutely need to know about.
The study that suggests there is a direct relationship between Autism and augmented birth
Published in August of 2013, the JAMA Pediatric study went over 625,042 live births that were linked to school records and examined over 5500 children’s records who were diagnosed with an Autism spectrum disorder.
The results very clearly suggest that augmented birth carries a significantly higher risk of developing Autism in comparison to natural birth.
What symptoms do children with Autism exhibit?
The first and most important note to make is that every case of Autism is different and there are a “range” of symptoms. Below are some of the symptoms observed, but not every autistic child has ever symptom. This list has been adapted from WebMD.
- General difficulty with communicating verbally. In particular, trouble with using and understanding language.
- Distinct inability to participate in normal conversation; even when the ability to use language is present.
- Trouble with gestures, facial expressions, and other non-verbal communication cues.
- Trouble making connections to the world around them (this impacts social relationships greatly)
- General preference to play alone due to difficulty maintaining relationships.
- Struggle getting used to variations in routine or accustomed surroundings, or an irrational insistence on following routines thoroughly.
- Repetitive and unusual body movements, and patterns of behavior, such as hand flapping, spinning, and head banging.
Why is this important, can you cure Autism?
To date, there is no known cure for Autism spectrum disorders. There are various treatments that attend to some of the behavioral issues associated with Autism but little has been found in terms of concrete and proven methods of curing the disorder.
That said, there have been interesting cases reported in which children have been completely relieved of symptoms reported to have been caused by Autism by making dietary and lifestyle changes. Though there has not been any conclusive evidence to support this, parents with Autistic children are the first to report that the possibility of improvement for their child’s quality of life is more than enough to prompt them to try these lifestyle changes.
