Are we born as apies?

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From all my mom remembers, I behaved in atypical ways as a baby already.

I knew on day 3 after my son's birth there was something very different about him. I have two older children, one 16 years older then him and one 11 years older then him plus I ran an in-home daycare for 8 years and had ongoing classes and training in early child development.

So I was very aware of how a child 'should' be and mine was anything but the norm.

Def. born with it and like your personality the characteristics will show up right away.

born wonderful, btw!

I always thought we were, but now I'm not so sure with me. I was a typical baby and toddler, did not have any odd traits what worried my parents, reached all milestones at average ages, was an averagely sociable baby, made normal eye contact, interacted well at preschool (a little bit shy but a lot of toddlers are), and was just assumed that I was ordinary and so my parents were happy to send me straight to mainstream school in September (5 months after I turned 4). On the first day of school all my traits all came out at once, I couldn't handle school at all and wouldn't go near any other children for the first week or so. I did calm down after that, but that was only because I got a lot of help, because, well, I had to - the teachers didn't know what else to do and my parents were worried and also surprised. Even now, looking back, my mum said I was a typical baby. I have lots of photos of me as a baby, and in most of the pictures I was smiling happily and you wouldn't think that this baby was on the Autism spectrum, because I don't think any Aspies on WP have ever said that they smiled or paid any attention to the camera in photos when they were babies.

So maybe I banged my head really hard on the day before I started school and it f****d my poor NT brain up. But my mum has got in one of her diaries that after I had the MMR injection, I cried a lot, every day for the rest of that year. I know all babies and toddlers cry, it is normal, but before I had the injection I didn't cry as much, and then straight after I had the injection I cried more than I typically did before. I'm not saying crying means Autism, but it's the way I changed from a happier baby to a miserable grizzly baby right after the injection sounds a little more than a coincidence to me. It might just be genuine because babies do change, but to change after a day like that seems a little suspicious to me.....

My mom also says that I changed significantly after getting this shot as a small child as well. She said I acted pretty normal up until right after this. I also ended up getting a terrible reaction from it that gave me a fever of 105 degrees along with my arm being badly swollen. To this day she swears that this is what caused my AS. I have no idea if that's true but it's a possibility.

MMR vaccinations do not cause autism.

It is fairly normal for people with AS to not have any symptoms identified until they go to school.

AS babies look normal, Joe.

Yes, we are born autistic. My mother told me that I did not behave like a normal baby, e.g. not responding to people looking at me or playing with me over my crib.

I did not get the MMR vaccine until I was 8 years old. Even without the hindsighted signs of autism in infancy, I was obviously autistic in real-time by the age of 2.

Did I say that?

You seem very confused.

same here

I don't believe in Aspies having different physical features, so I don't think I've said anywhere about looking different.

I'm not sure why you find the idea difficult or impossible to accept, since autism is apparently primarily genetic, and has at least been associated with statistically significant higher occurrence of particular physical features.

That doesn't mean that every physical feature someone thinks is related to being autistic is, but it doesn't mean that there's no truth to it either. A black or white, it must either be THIS or THAT isn't necessary to be skeptical.

Also, autism is associated with certain kinds of visible behavior, such as stimming, flat affect (no facial expression), odd gait and posture and such that even if you don't have any physical features associated with autism, you're likely to be visibly identifiable unless you lack most or all of those traits (entirely possible) or have learned to conceal them (entirely possible).

I meant in behaviour. You can't really diagnose Aspergers before 2 years old. Joe, look at your parents and other relatives. Might any of them be undiagnosed aspies?

Right.
But I'm just saying that if there are any physical features, they aren't be unique to Autism because they seem common in the general population, for example, big eyes. I don't have big eyes myself, but I know a lot of NTs with big eyes. I've got 4 people in my family with big eyes and they're all NTs. And also with earlobes, mine aren't right attached to my head, but everybody's earlobes are different anyway. Some stick out, others are more attached, others are just in between.

If I looked at somebody with Down's Syndrome, I know right away that they have Down's Syndrome by their physical look. But if I met another Aspie, I probably wouldn't know just by looking at them, unless they stimmed or something. There's a boy who gets on my bus, and every time he gets on he almost runs to his seat, and sometimes I think that perhaps he's on the spectrum, but then I sometimes get doubts. He might not be. I don't know him. But he could be, judging the way he kind of moves, but there's still a chance he might not be. He might have some other disorder, or might just be that way.

I believe you are born with it.

I agree.I would speculate that most AS pres-school children live happily in their own littleworlds and their socialworld is much more flexible.Once school starts ,the party is over and one is forced to endure a very structured social environment in which socially awkward children are at a significant disadvantage.