Preventing Autism?

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What is the deal with all of these books I pass by in the bookstore that instruct parents how to "prevent autism"?

Last edited by fiddlerpianist on 15 Jun 2009, 11:47 am, edited 1 time in total.

Anti-vaccine books or other ways? Good luck to whoever buys those books (sarcasm). Nothing can prevent autism yet.
I suppose the author just wants to make money off the fears of potential mothers.

There appears to be some thought around the mother's diet during pregnancy contributing to autism. Such theories are, at best, unproven, yet this one book was passing it off practically as fact. The subtitle was something along the lines of "Dealing with Autism and Ways to Prevent It."

perhaps if we try hard we can breed brilliance right out of the human race.

Yeah there's a way to prevent it: genetic resequencing.
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I'll ask my friends Data and Crusher to get right on it. I'm sure they can figure it out.

I like that statement.

Well... there are all sorts of people in the World: totalitarian politicians, clergy, dishonest businessman; who would like nothing better than to have a whole planet populated with mediocre conformists without an original thought of their own. That'd be interesting to see actually. It'd be like Atlas Shrugged, wouldn't it?

Nikola Tesla was autistic. Imagine if he wasn't around and the World's standard electric current were DC? A power station every few miles? Tee-hee.

Abstinence is the only way to prevent autism. Or a few well aimed nukes...

Persuade everyone to be conformist and you'd be stuck at an early 21st level of technology when the sun goes nova.

They could always send everyone non conformist off planet? Then we reinvade Terra and take it back, using our 24th century level of technology.

I have read somewhere that certain types of injuries have resulted in autism-like symptoms. So people can prevent autistic symptoms by not dropping babies on their heads.

Most autistics are born autistic, though, so the best preventative measure for autism is contraception.

Simple - Stop making babies.

I guess the new fad for autism "prevention" is to eat well during pregnancy and eliminate toxins from the environment for the first few years of a child's life. While it's hard to argue that these are bad things to do, people are kidding themselves if they think it will help prevent autism in their children.

As far as I know, there is no scientific correlation between increased toxins and autism. It just seems like a convenient thing to blame.

Ugh. My mum's friend was one of those (idiotic) people who believed that the MMR jab caused autism, so she wouldn't let any of her children have the vaccine.

...Ironically, her youngest son is autistic.

Last edited by Hala on 15 Jun 2009, 1:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

My dad dropped me when I was a baby. I wasn't injured though. I just find it funny, because when people act dumb or crazy people sometimes joke "Were you dropped on your head as a baby?" and I can say "Yes."

Autism is thought to be genetic, it runs in families. So if you've got an autistic kid, and want to 'prevent autism', don't have any more kids.

I've never really got over learning that just because something is published in a book doesn't mean it's true, and that people publish books full of bull**** with completely made up facts.

It sounds like the wet dream of virtually every single controlling person who ever lived. Actually, it sounds like some Mormon communities, especially the polygamist ones, where if you don't obey the prophet's every commandment and/or have The Spirit 24/7 you are tossed out or even killed ("blood atonement", the idea that the sinner must spill his own blood to atone for his sin, dreamed up by Brigham Young), leaving a society of very dull people, people who have astronomical numbers of deformed babies from eugenic practices. Mormons are incredibly gullible; if the bishop's son endorses a scheme, it's ok, then they wonder how he could spend it all on a mansion and a Bentley.

Also, the Japanese tried building a DC power grid, but ultimately gave up. It simply didn't work. That's why Japanese AC runs on 100v, it was intended for DC. It's likely that we'd still be stuck in the 19th century, and you would squat in a sit down tub to wash yourself, then your servants would carry the full tub upstairs to bathe the kids. And the tubs were IRON! We'd still get around on horses or maybe bicycles. Only the rich would have cars, since Henry Ford, the autistic inventor of the mass produced, cheap car, would never have lived. There might be a few trains and such. It would be a tough life. Most people would be small farmers, toiling in the soil all their lives for food. Without electricity, the marvels of the modern world would not exist. They depend on AC power, which was invented by Tesla. Take Tesla out of history and you end up with a VERY different 2009.

Hey, I just remembered, I fell on my head too -- in fact, I bumped my head so many times as a toddler that I became used to being stitched up and I have several scars and minor skull deformities. Maybe all this headbanging was actually a good idea after all, and people should probably see to it that their children get bumps on the head more often, because I turned out top of my class.