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Mountain Goat
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14 Jul 2020, 9:36 am

My Mum nearly threw me out the window when I was a baby as I would not stop crying no matter what she would do to try to stop me. She tried everything.
My nieces and nephews. They seemed quite content when they were babies. They did not cry much unless they were hurt or needed some attention.
Someone mentioned crying (Which with me could easily last for hours (Sorry Mum!)) could have something to do with autism as it is not normal? By the time I was around 4 years old I grew out of it. But I also remember not being able to breathe while crying, and my Mum said I often would go blue not being ble to draw breath, and my Mum or Dad would have to hit me to get me to breathe as the shock of being hit (Not hard) would make me draw breath.

I did not know I was any different and neither did my Mum or Dad. The visiting nurse would just say I would grow out of it which I eventually did.

But I do have lots of early memories. Only now I am thinking that maybe I was not an average child? I do remember that I kept repeating certain phrazes which made no sense to anyone else but made sense to me and I would become frustrated because they made no sense to anyone else. Communication when young was very frustrating! I remember that! Yet, my first words I remember saying them and I copied them from the TV. I spoke them at only a few months old. I remember my Dad making such a fuss that I went quiet and I did not try to speak again until about the average age... Though even today I use simple words. My vocabulary is blinkered. Many words others assume I know and they speak daily, I don't know what they mean and I don't use them.



usagibryan
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14 Jul 2020, 9:40 am

I don't have many memories that young but I'm told I never cried, apparently I just stared off into space. I'm glad your mom didn't throw you out the window.



Mountain Goat
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14 Jul 2020, 9:41 am

usagibryan wrote:
I don't have many memories that young but I'm told I never cried, apparently I just stared off into space. I'm glad your mom didn't throw you out the window.

So am I. Haha.



jimmy m
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14 Jul 2020, 9:56 am

The condition you are discussing is called Breath-holding Spell

A spell that involves holding the breath, then turning blue and passing out

Symptoms of a Breath-Holding Spell

* An upsetting event happens right before the spell. A common trigger is being angry about parents setting limits (temper tantrums). Another is getting scared. Some spells are triggered by a sudden injury, such as falling down.
* The child gives out 1 or 2 long cries
* Then holds his breath until the lips and face become bluish
* Then passes out and falls to the floor
* Then often becomes stiff. May also have a few muscle jerks.
* Normal breathing starts again in less than 1 minute. Becomes fully alert in less than 2 minutes.
* Only happens when child is awake, never when asleep

Cause

* A reflex response to strong feelings. This reflex allows some children to hold their breath long enough to pass out. Spells do not happen on purpose.
* This happens in 5% of healthy children. Breath-holding spells can run in families.
* Starts between 6 months and 2 years of age. Goes away by age 6.
* Many young children hold their breath when upset, turn blue, but don't pass out. This is common and normal.
* Frequent spells can happen in children who have anemia (low red blood count). This can happen if your child doesn't eat enough foods with iron. If your child is a picky eater, your doctor may order a blood test.

Source: Breath-holding Spell

"Could [it] have something to do with autism as it is not normal?"
Perhaps. Autism is primarily genetics. But it may be genetics + something else. That is why some families have children who are fairly normal but others that display autistic characteristics.
IMHO the something else is early trauma that involves oxygen starvation. This can often occur at birth when the umbilical cord is wrapped around the infants neck during the birthing process. In your case it might have been breath holding spells. But that is only an opinion.

It might even be that you were a picky eater and avoided eating foods rich in iron. That caused you to become anemic which then produced an abnormally high number of breath holding spells.


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HeroOfHyrule
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14 Jul 2020, 12:48 pm

I haven't been told a lot about my behaviour as an infant, but one thing I know is that I apparently didn't cry often at all, and that when I was a newborn my parents even had to wake me up to feed me at night because I wouldn't tell them I was hungry. I also remember that as a toddler I was relatively independent/aloof and wouldn't usually cry to my parents about things or ask for things, so maybe in my case I just never had enough drive to get them to tend to my needs?



magz
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14 Jul 2020, 1:40 pm

My mother remembers I cried a lot, really loud, furiously, hysterically, until I turned blue and fainted... which, unfortunately, triggered her own childhood traumas and made her freak out at me.
I didn't "grow out of it", I learned to conceal my "hysteria" instead - which took me decades and ended with mental breakdown.

Geez, I'm so glad it's been sorted out since then.


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14 Jul 2020, 1:42 pm

I think I cried alot as a baby but am not to sure.


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Joe90
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14 Jul 2020, 5:18 pm

I think I was just average with crying as a baby. Some babies just cry more than others. I don't think it's normal for a baby to lack oxygen and turn blue from crying too much though.


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Mountain Goat
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14 Jul 2020, 5:21 pm

magz wrote:
My mother remembers I cried a lot, really loud, furiously, hysterically, until I turned blue and fainted... which, unfortunately, triggered her own childhood traumas and made her freak out at me.
I didn't "grow out of it", I learned to conceal my "hysteria" instead - which took me decades and ended with mental breakdown.

Geez, I'm so glad it's been sorted out since then.


You have been through a lot.



magz
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15 Jul 2020, 6:29 am

Mountain Goat wrote:
magz wrote:
My mother remembers I cried a lot, really loud, furiously, hysterically, until I turned blue and fainted... which, unfortunately, triggered her own childhood traumas and made her freak out at me.
I didn't "grow out of it", I learned to conceal my "hysteria" instead - which took me decades and ended with mental breakdown.

Geez, I'm so glad it's been sorted out since then.
You have been through a lot.

C-PTSD can run for generations and that's my current theory of what has been happening between me, my mother and my grandmother.
As I didn't "grow out of it" even until adulthood, I can tell what was causing my eruptions of crying. Learning the term "sensory overload" changed my whole self-understanding and made me finally able to deal with this mysterious pain-like sensation that I was always told I was only imagining.


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Dear_one
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16 Jul 2020, 2:31 am

My AS mother just put me in quarantine until I got over any strong feelings. She didn't like noise.



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16 Jul 2020, 3:48 am

Yup, nearly 4 decades later my extended family still recount their memories of it, or rather their antics in trying to sooth me. Typical story: think early 80s, a pram, a long handled broom for pushing and a string attached to the handle for pulling and a rota for the family, bless them.
I cried almost constantly as an infant.

Thanks for the breath holding spell info Jimmy.
My birth was an emergency c section, due to foetal distress and I've always been borderline anemic lol. On the note of trauma, the first experience happened in the first trimester with a vanishing twin miscarriage.


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16 Jul 2020, 4:16 am

As a baby, I supposed to not cry more or less than any child according to my mom and my relatives' account.

As a toddler, I also supposed not to cry more or less than any child, yet memory tells me I cried more than I would.
People around me aren't too uptight on emotions, yet I seem to...

As a young child, I cried more than most children and definitely more than I ever would.
I've spent most of my life fighting myself since that point.
From my point of view, it's what I want -- not anyone else's -- I want to control myself, it's just the body and mind I occupy is betraying me.

.. Eventually, I became more explosive and difficult...
Age expectations made me less and less tolerable...


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jimmy m
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16 Jul 2020, 8:07 am

Another piece of the puzzle is trauma during the birth process. One form of trauma stands out; that of asphyxiation. Birth asphyxia occurs when a baby doesn't receive enough oxygen before, during or just after birth. There are many reasons that birth asphyxia may occur.

Some of the causes of decreased oxygen before or during the birth process may include:

* Inadequate oxygen levels in the mother's blood due to heart or respiratory problems or lowered respirations caused by anesthesia.
* Low blood pressure in the mother.
* Inadequate relaxation of the uterus during labor that prevents oxygen circulation to the placenta.
* Early separation of the placenta from the uterus, called placental abruption.
* Compression of the umbilical cord that decreases blood flow.
* Poor placenta function that may occur with high blood pressure or in post-term pregnancies, particularly those past 42 weeks.

Perinatal asphyxia results from compromised placental or pulmonary gas exchange. This disorder can lead to hypoxia (lack of oxygen) and hypercarbia (increased carbon dioxide levels) in the blood. Severe hypoxia results in anaerobic glycolysis and lactic acid production first in the peripheral tissues (muscle and heart) and then in the brain. Ischemia (lack of sufficient blood flow to all or part of an organ) is both a cause and a result of hypoxia. Hypoxia and acidosis can depress myocardial function, leading to hypotension and ischemia. Ischemia can impair oxygen delivery, causing further compromise, as well as disrupt delivery of substrate and removal of metabolic and respiratory by-products (e.g., lactic acid, carbon dioxide).

Asphyxia can occur before, during, or after birth. Based on a review of multiple studies that have examined the temporal relationship between obstetric events and neonatal outcomes, predominantly hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy in term infants, the proportion of conditions that occurs in each time period can be estimated.

Antepartum events (occurring not long before childbirth), such as maternal hypotension or trauma, account for 4 to 20 percent of cases. Intrapartum events (occurring in the time period spanning childbirth, from the onset of labor through delivery of the placenta), such as placental abruption or umbilical cord prolapse [such as a pinched umbilical cord during delivery], are seen in 56 to 80 percent. Evidence of intrapartum disturbance (e.g., meconium-stained amniotic fluid or severe fetal heart rate abnormalities) occurs in 10 to 35 percent, usually in association with an antenatal risk factor, such as diabetes mellitus, preeclampsia, or intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR). In approximately 10 percent of cases, a postnatal insult occurs, usually caused by severe cardiopulmonary abnormalities or associated with prematurity.

Neonatal encephalopathy following perinatal asphyxia is considered an important cause of later neurodevelopmental impairment in infants born at term. A few studies suggest:

* Elevated rates of hyperactivity in children with moderate neonatal encephalopathy.
* Autism in children with moderate and severe neonatal encephalopathy.

So it seems plausible from my perspective that autism arrises primarily due to our genes structure combined with early trauma caused by oxygen starvation.


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17 Jul 2020, 3:39 am

I didn't cry any more than my twin did but my cry was like a newborn's for a much longer time than was normal. My mum tells me that even strangers commented on it.

I've never heard of this happening to anyone else.



livingwithautism
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17 Jul 2020, 10:45 am

My mom said that when I was a baby my crying sounded noticeably different than the other babies.