AS/ASD & physical birth abnormalities

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My birth was troubled. I have no physical abnormalities but the birth itself could have killed me. The umbilical cord was wrapped around my throat and so was choking me. My father told me I was born with a "blue head". And the doctor held me upside down by my feet so the blood would rush to my head. Then apparently I was put in an incubator and could not have contact with anyone. I wonder if it gave me brain damage and whether that has been a factor in my AS.

answering on behalf of my youngest son. he is autistic, has an underbite, has vitiligo, and had surgery as an infant for pyloric stenosis. the interesting part is that he shares ALL of this with his autistic father, while his 6 yr old nt brother shares none of it (oldest brother has different father so does not apply).

I would like to add to my previous post on this thread that I had really bad allergies growing up (allergic to pollen, indoor pets, dust, etc.). My resistance was usually down, and I caught a lot of illnesses and viruses. The older I got, the less sick I got. Today, my allergies are better.

My oldest son, who definitely has autistic traits, was born with a blocked kidney. He had surgery about two months after he was born to correct the blockage.

Hmmm... The pyloric stenosis interests me greatly.
Anyone else have this? It's not what I had, but may be in the same family of issues.

Anyone who feels they'd rather not have their names associated with their answers can pm them to me; I'll tally them up on my own and note them, by organ system, en masse with no names. I believe in peoples' right to privacy and will uphold it.

Glider - was the kidney blocked by object/tissue flap/deformed tube/other?


Though I guess this thread so far indicates that there's no correlation between specific birth issues and ASDs, I fear I may be becoming fascinated with birth conditions in general... Likely triggered by my recent acquisition of my own childhood and infant records: I got a step by step (visceral!) detail of my own surgeries!

My condition's live-birth Odds: 1 in 5000.

the pyloric stenosis has some similarities to autism occurrences, as it runs in families and affects firstborn males at a ratio of about 4:1 to females, and the cause is suspected to be genetic but not known for certain.

i have seen a few other parents here on wp mention it, but cant recall who.

Both my father (who is not an Aspie) and me have Gitelman's syndrome. It can be inherited.

Gitelman's makes your kidneys flush out too much salt, which is then lost via the urine. This can lead to me being too low on certain salts, especially magnesium, which then in turn makes my muscles cramp up.

Usually I can keep this at bay by eating enough salt and when I have lost additional salt by sweating I can simply take a magnesium pill and everthing will be fine. By and large, Gitelman's is not a problem for me.

My daughter has what I believe to be Aspergers. It comes from my husband's side of the family. He suffers and so does his father, three of his four brothers, our daughter, 2 of my nephews and one niece. All undiagnosed ~ sad but true. All professional people, doctors, lawyers and highly intelligent. I know that for years we've known that something was "not normal" but no one seemed to discuss it. I finally started doing some research on my own and discovered Aspergers. I have one son that is NT. Highly energetic, happy and talkative~a mirror image of me as a child. Our daughter however I believe suffers from Aspergers. Some of things she has trouble with are terrible vision, poor depth perception, a small congenital lesion in the parietal lobe of her brain which causes seizures. The seizures are very well controlled with a small dose of anti-seizure meds ~ she only has one or two a year. They are simple partial focal seizures that she has had since birth which are a very mild form . . no loss of awareness just involuntary tick on the left side of her body that lasts a few minutes. Also, and quite possibly the most unique thing is blanket flipping. I believe from everything that I have read over the years that this is stimming? She has done this since she was old enough to pick up the blanket. She flips and flaps it in front of her face until she falls asleep. My husband has the same habit. We would watch her do it when she was little and he would say to me "How can you be born with the need to do that?" Well, now I understand why. She is highly intelligent. Taught her self the alphabet at the age of two. Straight A student ~ super organized and methodical and precise (not me at all). Loves art, drawing and writing stories. She is very empathetic and loves animals. She gets along very well with her NT brother and I thank God every day for him. He has helped her through a lot. Their friendship is absolutely essential for her. Unfortunately she has few friends. . . one of the drawbacks of this condition. But to the average person I don't believe they would ever suspect that she was anything other than shy. It is such a unique condition. I try very hard to stress with my husband that I don't look at it as a disability or even a disorder. I see it as a different way of approaching life. It can be a challenge for sure. But I think understanding the differences is the key to being able to live with it. If Aspgergers sufferers understand HOW they are different I think it can make a world of difference in how they adjust. My father in law spent his whole life suffereing with an extreme case of social fear and inadequacy. I think if he had known why it wouldn't have been such a stuggle for him. Of course these guys are all on the "mild" side of the spectrum and I cerainly understand that for others it may be much more severe. I don't speak to everyone with this condition but only for my family as I see them.

Several, mostly skeletal but with some organ issues as well.

I was wondering if there were more people experiencing ASD as part of a cluster. The poll is easier to respond because no one is giving up anonymity.

I was born with a skull fracture, but other than that, normal.

The most NT of my children had pyloric stenosis as a baby.

So did one of my siblings, who is staggeringly NT as well.

There are a few of us weirdies in the family, none of us had it, it has been confined to the normal ones.

I was born with very tiny ear canals, leading to being blocked from birth. I got that fixed when I was near 10 though. Also bone deformities in my chest, which interferes with the lungs. The biggest thing that annoys the hell out of me - I was born with something that's causing perpetual stimulation of the pain centre of the brain. They assume it may be some kind of vasoconstriction - if my ear passages were too small, maybe the veins in the centre of the brain are too. I'm impervious to many painkillers, including narcotics. Nothing shows up glaringly on CT though. Also the digestive tubes are too small, so have never been able to burp.

Born in severe neonatal distress, after term and too small for gestational age. Spent my first week in an incubator.
Shortly after birth respiratory trouble began which eventually developed into chronic bronchitis. It got much better at onset of puberty though.
I have mild Osler-Rendu-Weber syndrome, too.

You seem to be missing a lot of items. Metabolic issues come to mind. Hypoglycemia (and variations) would be particularly interesting to see.

Sorry if I missed those in the list somewhere.

I would also be curious to know if anyone has documented calcium ion channel mutations.

I had an umbilical hernia. Is that a defect or is it caused by some external factor?