What is % of more than one child being diagnosed?

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My first child was diagnosed with autism. Does anyone know if there are any medical statistics of the chance another child in the same family may be autistic as well? And how many of you have siblings that are also autistic? If there is more than one sibling that is autistic in your family do you think it makes it more difficult for each autistic person more than if there was one of you that did not have autism?

The chances of having a second child with autism is estimated to be around 5-10%.

In my family... my Mom has aspie traits, my Dad had aspie traits and 3 of their 4 kids together have aspie traits. My son is the first one to have an official diagnosis of autism.

EDIT- I never talk about (or to) my brother, but he does have some major aspie traits. But I thought it was kind of relevant.

Last edited by BeautyWithin on 12 Feb 2007, 11:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I should add... we all had completely different interests and abilities. My brother knew his 27x multiplication tables when he was age 6. I on the other hand have my strongest abilities with language.

What was hard for my Mom though was that she'd have to make 3 or more separate dishes at mealtime because none of us would eat the same foods.

We all got our own personal space and we even had our separate phone lines. (That way we didn't have to interact with each other's friends). We all assumed it was just that we were all quirky. So, in that sense, it gave us a sense of belonging too.

Though if the kids are twins, the chances are something like 58% or somewhere thereabouts (I forget the exact number but it was just over 50).

I asked because the I am due to have another child (a son) next month. Do you know where you got the 5-10% statistic?

Here are some links:

http://www.usatoday.com/life/2004-01-12 ... main_x.htm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/544055.stm

http://depts.washington.edu/uwautism/giving/

I wonder if parents spread aspie traits on not threw genes but reither threw socialization. Parents are every childs (well almost every childs) first agent of socialization, maybe they just act goofy so their kids act goofy. Does that make sense?

Do you mean nature vs nurture?

I honestly don't think that parents acting goofy leads their children to mimic that sort of behaviour. In cases of low functioning autism- no one models that behaviour for them. Even with my family... we all act very differently. I remember my many, many collections as a child (I had a few bug collections) and no one else in my family did that. My sisters actually used to run in the opposite direction because they knew i'd have bugs with me and they were terrified of all insects.

My girls screamed non-stop for the first three months of their lives, and only mellowed very gradually over the first couple of years. Sometimes, I wonder if all we did to get them to SHUT UP (lots of white noise, swaddling, letting them zone out to Baby Einstein videos) affected their socialization and bonding.

My gut is that, no - they were born autistic, and we were reacting to them. Still, the ghost of the 'refridgerator mother' still lurks in the dark corners of my sub-concious, and I wonder if we could have impaired their development with all of the things we did to grab ourselves a moment's peace.

I know a woman who has 4 kids. One was NT, two have Aspergers and one is low spectrum autistic.

My son was born autistic. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind.
I did everything possible to interact with him and comfort him. Every time he cried, I would hold him. I even carried him around in a snugli when my arms were too tired to hold him. Nothing I did could comfort him. He only wanted his blankie and his thumb and then he'd be fine.

All I can conclude is that he got the right combination of genes. He's such a sweetheart... I wouldn't want him any other way.

i heard from a psychologist today that there are many studies being done but at this time there is a 30-70% chance that another child of the same family will develop autism.