Board index › General Discussion › General Autism Discussion

are old parents more likely to give birth to autistic kids?

Page 2 of 2 [ 25 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2

Previous topic | Next topic

liloleme
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 8 Jun 2008
Age: 57
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,762
Location: France

06 May 2010, 2:39 pm

I have a nephew who died of Hypoplastic left heart syndrome (No lower left chamber in his heart) they tried surgery but it didnt work. He only lived 7 days....very hard on my brother and his wife as it was their first child. They would have been happy if he would have had Autism instead of something fatal. My Mom always said after we lost him that she wanted to walk up to everyone that she saw with a baby and say "Do you know how lucky you are?"
I had my first child (boy) at 19 (bi polar with autism), my second (daughter) at 22 who is NT with some LD's, my third *oops my third is also a daughter* (son, I mean daughter) at 24 with Aspergers, my fourth (a son) at 34 also Aspergers, and my fifth (daughter) at 37 with Autism.
In my family there is a strong genetic link. My younger brother is certainly an Aspie but he is fine with his life so we dont talk about it. My older brother has many aspects of AS but has very few social issues. My Mom is a Free Range Aspie....We think that both my grandparents on my Moms side were Aspie.



Last edited by liloleme on 06 May 2010, 5:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.

willaful
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 18 Mar 2010
Gender: Female
Posts: 788

06 May 2010, 3:04 pm

Kiley wrote:
I had my kids a little on the late side, in my mid to late thirties. I think that the research at Duke explains their Asperger's better. On my side of the family there are a lot of high achieving people. My mom's an art historian, my bio-dad's a doctor. My aunts, uncles and cousins are engineers, scientists, doctors and so on. My sister is a social worker. My maternal grandmother was a child prodigy and would today be considered profoundly gifted. My ex husband, and the father of my three children, has a lot of mental illness in his family. There is both bi-polar and schizophrenia. He has BPD himself. Apparently that combination of traits in a family leads to a high incidence of Asperger's Syndrome.


How interesting. My father is very probably bi-polar. His mother was institutionalized for Schizophrenia. (Though in those days, it could have been anything, really.)


_________________
Sharing the spectrum with my awesome daughter.


petitesouris
Deinonychus
Deinonychus

User avatar

Joined: 13 Feb 2010
Age: 34
Gender: Female
Posts: 371

06 May 2010, 3:31 pm

liloleme wrote:
I have a nephew who died of Hypoplastic left heart syndrome (No lower left chamber in his heart) they tried surgery but it didnt work. He only lived 7 days....very hard on my brother and his wife as it was their first child. They would have been happy if he would have had Autism instead of something fatal. My Mom always said after we lost him that she wanted to walk up to everyone that she saw with a baby and say "Do you know how lucky you are?"
I had my first child (boy) at 19 (bi polar with autism), my second (daughter) at 22 who is NT with some LD's, my third (son) at 24 with Aspergers, my fourth at 34 also Aspergers, and my fifth (daughter) at 37 with Autism.
In my family there is a strong genetic link. My younger brother is certainly an Aspie but he is fine with his life so we dont talk about it. My older brother has many aspects of AS but has very few social issues. My Mom is a Free Range Aspie....We think that both my grandparents on my Moms side were Aspie.


sounds like you have gone through a lot. i do not have children, but it sounds like losing a baby is awful, especially after the comittment that pregnant mothers make.

there are also a lot of people on my dad's side who have asd traits, even the ones whose parents had them when they were young, suggesting that asd could be hereditary.



angelbear
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 11 Sep 2009
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,219

06 May 2010, 4:15 pm

I did not get married until I was 39, so I gave birth to my son who has ASD at 40. I definitely wanted children earlier, but it did not happen that way. I posted this same thread on the parents forum, and got answers all over the board. I am not really sure that it is the connection. I have many friends who have had children in their late 30s and even in early 40's (one was 44) and all of their children are NT. I think it has more to do with genetics than age.



Kiley
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 26 Apr 2010
Age: 61
Gender: Female
Posts: 879

06 May 2010, 4:33 pm

willaful wrote:
Kiley wrote:
I had my kids a little on the late side, in my mid to late thirties. I think that the research at Duke explains their Asperger's better. On my side of the family there are a lot of high achieving people. My mom's an art historian, my bio-dad's a doctor. My aunts, uncles and cousins are engineers, scientists, doctors and so on. My sister is a social worker. My maternal grandmother was a child prodigy and would today be considered profoundly gifted. My ex husband, and the father of my three children, has a lot of mental illness in his family. There is both bi-polar and schizophrenia. He has BPD himself. Apparently that combination of traits in a family leads to a high incidence of Asperger's Syndrome.


How interesting. My father is very probably bi-polar. His mother was institutionalized for Schizophrenia. (Though in those days, it could have been anything, really.)


From what I read the connection is to Asperger's not to ASDs in general. I think the current research is pointing more to ASDs and Asperger's haveing different genetic and neurological components, but because there are functional similarities they are grouped. Then again, there is still way to much that isn't understood to be sure about any of it.



makuranososhi
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 12 May 2008
Age: 48
Gender: Male
Posts: 5,805
Location: Banned by Alex

06 May 2010, 5:59 pm

When my son was born, I was 21 and his mother 20; he has been officially dx'd as HFA. When I was born, my parents were both in their mid-thirties. I don't know that it has a direct relation, given the variance I have seen in students and in research.


M.


_________________
My thanks to all the wonderful members here; I will miss the opportunity to continue to learn and work with you.

For those who seek an alternative, it is coming.

So long, and thanks for all the fish!


matt
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 20 Dec 2007
Gender: Male
Posts: 916

06 May 2010, 6:15 pm

If there is a correlation, that doesn't necessarily indicate that a parent's age influences whether their child will be born autistic.

If autism is genetic, a parent's own genetic autism may increase both the age at which they have children and the possibility of their children being autistic.



PunkyKat
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 14 May 2008
Age: 37
Gender: Female
Posts: 3,492
Location: Kalahari Desert

06 May 2010, 9:02 pm

From what I hear, my biological mother was quite young when she had me; but then she had autism as well.


_________________
I'm not weird, you're just too normal.


Kraichgauer
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 12 Apr 2010
Gender: Male
Posts: 48,660
Location: Spokane area, Washington state.

06 May 2010, 10:33 pm

I've heard this sort of thing before. I personally believe there is no real correlation between age and autism. Rather, people with Asperger's, like myself, only learn to socialize later in adulthood. And so marry and have children later than most people. I equate my daughter's PDD-NOS with the same genetic predisposition I have which gave me Asperger's.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer