Personal experience with high fever alleviating AS symptoms?

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I was just reading Scientific American's article about autism the other night, and for the first time I read something that verified what I have experienced in the past with my asperger's son -- that when he has a high fever, some of his worst symptoms of being on the spectrum are alleviated. For example, in the past, when he would have a high fever, he would make complete sense when having a conversation, whereas without the high fever his conversational topics and ability to make sense going from one comment to the next is hampered.

Have you had this same experience of some of your child's symptoms being alleviated when they have a high fever? If so, please tell us what the experience was.

Kris

haven't heard of this....fascinating, though!

No kidding - that is fascinating! The last time my son had a relatively high fever he was younger and feeling so awful that he didn't really speak much at all. Since then his fevers haven't been much more than a few degrees above normal, and we've never noticed a difference from that. How high a fever are we talking? How recent an issue of SA? I'd love to find the article... I know they've run several interesting ones about mirror neurons and other autism topics, but I haven't taken the time to track them all down yet.

I have noticed that my daughter has fewer signs of AS when she is sick in general. She doesn't get sick often, but my theory is that her senses are little dulled (as all of ours are) when we are sick so she isn't as reactive and prickly as usual. She's much more mellow and willing to go with the flow, even when she isn't taking any type of medication for the illness.

My son is like this. Allergies trigger communication blocks and impulse-control problems and all-around sensory issues ("make him more autistic" for lack of a more precise description). Illness accompanied by a fever makes him more clear and calm. One day his teacher went on and on about how "perfect" he was at school, within hours we had him at the doctor, diagnosed with pneumonia.

I'm the opposite, fevers make me really nutters and weepy.

I've actually heard many parents say this about their kids. I don't know if it's true about me, though. I've had about seven fevers my whole life. If I get a fever, I'm REALLY sick. My temperature is usually lower than 98.6, so 99.9 is a fever for me...
-OddDuckNash99-

I have been noticing the same thing with my AS son for quite some time. One mother at my local support group said that research was being done into what the causes were. Let's hope they find the link. What I remember quite vividly was how coherent he was when he had a fever. I could ask him anything and he would respond without the slightest delay. It was such a joy. Shame the fever had to come with it.

Well as far as using this as a cure... f**k THAT s**t!

Ahayes, all of us parents know there isn't a cure, and we know that we don't want to change our kids.

But, if there was a way to help a little guy talk to us and make sense to us so that he can tell us how he feels and what he needs, we are all for it! We don't want a cure, but we do want to be able to understand.

Kris

I wonder why exactly this happens - when a fever+higher temperature happens, I'm guessing the body would heat up the blood (so then the blood can heat up the rest of the body) and try to get blood in more places (more hot liquid heats up something more than less liquid obviously). Maybe the fever causes bloodflow to get into certain parts of the brain it usually can't?

It wouldn't take much - if you were to guess that there was some specific part of the brain controlling social-related thinking, maybe in people with Autism (and related things, like AS) not enough blood gets there normally, but during a fever, the body's response to it forces it everywhere?

PenitentSpark, I definitely think you have the right idea.

I know that I've seen research that talks about the fact that in MRI's, people with aspergers don't show as much blood flow in the areas of the brain that deal with emotions [for example, the amygdala]. Maybe a fever is the only thing thing that can pump enough blood flow to the areas of an aspergers brain to allow the connection of certain parts that deal with emotional reasoning, etc.

I would love to know what research is going on in this area.

Kris

I'm surprised no one else here seems to know about this. There are a number of people that believe there is a connection between autism and Lyme disease and various viruses. This came about when autie kids would behave better after a round of antibiotics or a fever that would reduce the viral load. Interestingly I have Aspergers and also test positive for Lyme, HHV6, HHV7 and EBV. Many auties do test positive on these infections. Do some googling with Lyme + autism and you will find a number of parent groups that are treating their auties for infection.

This has been true for us as well. My oldest son, an aspie rarely gets sick, but my youngest, an autie, who was nonverbal up until the past year has also just gotten to the point where he can be sick without being hospitalized. We used to have very little communication between us, and on New Year's Day of 05 he had a fever of 101. While we were at the hospital his eye contact was constant, and he made many verbal attempts, and he wouldn't let go of his dad's hand. It was so great, but I hated that he had to be sick to be that way. Very interesting.

I had read about this in several books. Kris, you should check out AutismResearchInstitute.com, they do a lot of research, and if you fill out their E-2 form, I believe that is actually something they ask about.

I've never been able to figure out why it happens, but it does with my 5yo. PenitentSpark has a really good theory. I bet it does have something to do with blood flow to the brain.


Ticker, that was interesting about Lyme disease and Autism, I never knew that.

Also, my 5yo and I also have lower than normal body temperatures- we actually are usually at 96 degrees. My other son and husband have higher than average temps. usually 99 degrees.

One of the most amazing discoveries recently about fevers is that they are not caused by the infection, but are in fact part of the body's defense mechanism against an infection. When a virus or other infection occurs, it needs specific conditions to sustain itself. The body upsets that condition by changing it's internal temperature so that conditions are not hospitable for the virus.

Now how that compares to what you all are experiencing in your kids I'm not sure of, but I imagine it may have something to do with the way the body raises it's temperature. It's done through increasing metabolism, and enlarging blood vessels, and then shutting down cooling mechanisms.