MRI?

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Our pediatric developmental neurologist wants Little Dude to have an MRI. When I asked why, he said that some people with Asperger's can have a particular brain malformation that would preclude contact sports. After surfing the internet, I deduced that he means a Chiari malformation. Does anyone know how common the Chiari malformation is? There isn't much info on it on the Internet.

Our neurologist seems very knowledgable, but his communication skills are a little iffy. It was SUCH a stressful day. Little Dude needed bloodwork done, which of course was horrendous.

Wrote about our experience in my blog today, if you're interested: http://www.starkravingmadmommy.com/2010 ... ville.html

I have never heard of it. My son is almost 5, and we took him to a neurologist when he was almost 2 because he was such a late walker (21 mos.) He had a few autistic traits, but not very many. The doctor recommended an MRI. It came back normal. At that time, I am not sure what they were looking for, but they did not find any abnormalities. He now has been diagnosed with PDD_NOS. He is walking fine and is getting stronger every day, but I do not think he would really ever play contact sports because he just does not like the chaos of it.

Personally, I was a wreck because I did not want to have my son sedated for the MRI. It all turned out fine, and I went through with it, because a friend of mine had me so concerned that he might have some sort of brain tumor, so I wanted to rule that out. From what I have heard, and maybe research has changed a bit in the last few years, is that nothing really different ever shows up on the brain of an autistic child. I would ask the doctor if this is something life threatening, and how necessary is this in his opinion.

Good luck with it all!

What are the odds that your AS child will ever wish to play contact sports?

I guess it would depend on how stressful it would be for your child to take the test, and who is going to be paying for it. Where those things fall on the scale will determine how strong a justification you'll need to agree to it.

My son has never had one done or recommended.

We've had them done at different times for different reasons and it was fine. Maybe you could wait until your child is older and understands better, if there is no immediate need to know.