A question about your infancy and autism...

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Just wondering: 1) How many people here had prenatal difficulties, like your mother was ill during her pregnancy with you or she experienced an extreme amount of stress or something of the like? How many had an abnormal birth, like c-section or birth complications like lacking oxygen for one reason or another? How many had early infantile infections or illnesses?


I shall answer for my own self:

1) Milk allergy discovered after birth. My mother basically only drank milk throughout her pregnancy with me. This might have had an negative effect on me in the womb due to a possible allergic reaction.

2) I was born via a c-section because I was too big a baby and my mother was too small. But otherwise I had a fairly normal birth and my APGAR scores were very high.

APGAR explanation: http://kidshealth.org/parent/pregnancy_ ... apgar.html

3) I had inner ear infections due to my milk allergy from age 4 months until age 2 years and only just avoided having tubes put in.

My mother told me that when I was a toddler I used to get "high fevers" and run up and down the halls screaming. Not sick, just fevers. ???

The only thing that went wrong during my mom's pregnancy is that I refused to come out, and after 10 months of being in the womb, the doctors had to come and get me . It wasn't a problem though, I just liked it in there, I guess.

My mother told me that she had preeclampsia (toxaemia) in the third trimester of her pregnancy of me. She was induced to give birth to me at 37 weeks gestation (which isn't that bad).

When I was an infant I became quite Ill (I don't know what it was due to). Then between three and five years of age, I had a series of flues and vomiting bugs, along with hives - due to an allergic reaction of unknown origin. Then at around seven I suddenly developed athsma. Then between seven and sixteen, I had a series of gastrointestinal problems.

I really don't know if my mom had any complications or illnesses during her pregnancy with me. She never alluded to any at any rate, though I do know that I was born a full month before I was supposed to be due.

Severe allergies (mold, pollen, house dust, animal dander, etc.) and asthma diagnosed at age 1.5 years, which destroyed my childhood and turned my mother into a housecleaning madwoman (Mom also had to give up all of her beloved feline friends, which I lament to this day). I routinely missed 45-50 days of school/year from grade school through most of high school, and had asthma attacks that were sometimes so sudden and violent that I had to be rushed to the ER for adrenalin shots...

I came out a month early, and I was a very quick birth, all of two hours. The nurse that delivered me was a rookie who was not use to things going that quick, and she was in a near state of panic becasue of it. As a result, birth was stressful on me and my mom.

I had jaundice becasue my liver was not yet fully functional, and I had to go "under the lights" to get the yellow out of my skin.

Up until the age of six, I got numerous ear infections. I remember getting sick a lot early on, but then after I started school, not getting sick at all.

My Mother had absolutely no difficulties/problems(besides the obvious ) when she had me. I know I was born aspie, it wasn't something in me that changed at some point later, because I was a very...strange baby. Apparently all the doctors and nurses commented on my oddities. Mom, of course, thought I was charming, till she got me home and tried to put me to sleep, a reoccuring difficulty through my childhood, as I need far less sleep than most people
Oh, I wasalmost a month past the "official" due date, but they estimated wrong in the first place.

My mother was very ill while she was pregnant with me. It wasn't toxemia or preeclampsia or anything, but her ankles swelled up more than is probably normal and she was miserable half the time.

Then I was born almost a month early. That was the only real complication; the birth itself was very very quick (especially for a first born) and I was just a little bit small. I also lost weight at first due to being unable to breastfeed.

As a baby and small child, I had terrible sensitivities to noise and got overwhelmed easily, which lent itself to my screaming for what appeared to be no reason. I didn't sleep through the night until I was two years old. I also had lots of ear infections.

Last edited by CleverCait on 31 Jul 2005, 11:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

The fact that my mother was a 15 year-old staying at friends' houses to avoid her mother's demands that she give me up for adoption made her pregnancy extremely stressful. I know I was born premature, although not exactly how early and my mother went home two weeks before I did. And this was in the time when mothers weren't pushed out the hospital right after popping out the baby so apparently, my stay was at least 3 weeks.

However, any clue there was anything else abnormal about me didn't surface until I was at the age I should've been walking and wasn't. My pediatrician diagnosed me with delayed motor skills, recommending my mother to a physical therapist to teach me how to walk.

i'm like mockingbird, in that i was the baby from hell - wouldn't sleep, wouldn't eat, spent most of the day screaming.

an enlightened paediatrician said i was bored (this was in the early 60s, remember). everyone laughed. then i became no problem at all, once i'd learned to walk and talk (6 months) and read (1 year).

my parents had tried for a baby for 12 years, after my older sister was born (a perfectly behaved baby), and my mum had to have major gynaecological surgery seven times in that period. and then they got me. my younger sister (by 20 months) was also a well-behaved baby. who knows?

oh, and i had dreadful excema as a baby (still have, when i'm stressed).

I was 2 days late, and was born by C-Section, I was also born in distress and spent 4 days in a humidicrib.
I have Asthma and had a serious attack when I was about 3.

But other than that, I haven't had many problems

GA

I was born 19 days late, my mother's EDD (Estimated Due Date) with me was Oct. 16th, 1973, I was born Nov. 2nd, 1973. My mother also had Toxemia/Eclampsia in pregnancy with me. She was at risk for issues with her organs and such because of it. The day my mother was supposed to have a c-section, I was born naturally. Now almost 32 years later a woman with eclampsia would never be allowed to get past her due date if not induced earlier than due date to prevent complications as the risk of having a stillborn itself rises after 40 wks and even further after 42 wks as the placenta starts to lose its effective function as it degrades.

As for pregnancy issues with my sons Dylan (Moderate HFA) and Brendon (NT):

Dylan was born 2 days past due date after 72 hours of labor (12 hours of which were induced with cytotec, a very dangerous drug that should never be used to induce), I had overlapping contractions and he had fetal distress that resulted in an emergency c-section with spinal block due to failure to progress and high risk for uterine rupture. During pregnancy, I started getting Braxton-Hicks contractions (practice contractions the uterus does to prepare for birth in 3rd trimester) at 16-17 wks after feeling his first movements at 14.5 wks. Had morning sickness between 6th to 13th week of pregnancy. I had several episodes of false labor and was on bedrest. Went into preterm labor around 31-32 wks and had to have steroid injections to help mature Dylan's lungs. But of course, he held out till past 40 wks thankfully. Dylan had some issues with breathing after birth (like most c-section babies). At 4 days of age we had to take him to trauma at the children's hospital because he'd stop breathing due to apnea. He spent his 4th to 7th day in the Intermediate Intensive Care Unit and was dehydrated despite my colostrum being in early, my milk was late (was breastfeeding). They feared he was going to end up in kidney failure but by 5th day my milk came in and things got better and we were released. He also had newborn jaundice (common to breastfed babies). He wasn't really put under bili lights or on a bili blanket as his levels weren't that high for bilirubin. His APGAR scores at birth were 8 at 1 minute and 9 at 5 minutes. He was blue when they brought him out, with big hands and feet but cried pretty quick. He was 7lbs 14oz and 20 inches long with a 13.75 head circumference at birth.

Brendon on the other hand was a planned c-section from the start, I have fibroids (benign tumors in uterus) that are a pain to deal with most times so we chose against a VBAC (Vaginal Birth After C-section) due to the fact that Dylan's head was also too big to fit down through birth canal. On later ultrasounds with Brendon, some dead patches were found in the placenta, later confirmed when I had my c-section at 38wks 4days by u/s dating. We were told that if we had waited till full term, he might not have survived seeing the amount of changes in functioning of the placenta. They gave him at most 37 wks for age at birth. With Brendon, I had a small period of bed rest around 24 wks like his big brother due to false labor. I had felt his first movements at late 12-early 13 wks, had Braxton-hicks contractions by 15 wks. Had morning sickness from 5th to 10th wk of pregnancy and again between 30th and 36th-37th wk of pregnancy. I had a lot of pain because of the fibroids irritating my uterus. He also had newborn jaundice (common to breastfed babies) but unlike his brother his bilirubin levels were much higher and we were supposed to go home when he was 3 days old but he had to spend another day in under double phototherapy (bili lights and bili blanket) to get his bilirubin levels down. The ob/gyn and neonatologist had feared before we got into the OR that we'd have to transfer Brendon up to the children's hospital for NICU due to the risk of possible issues with his lungs. Thankfully that wasn't a concern, before they even pulled him out, he was screaming. His APGAR scores were 9 at 1 minute and 10 at 5 minutes. He was 8lbs 5oz and 20 inches long with a 13.75 head circumference at birth.

I had an allergic reaction to my Triple Antigen injection when I was an infant, and I am allergic to live vaccines. My mother told me that it was after this allergic reaction that she realized something was wrong with me. She connected the two, and was a fervent believer in an autism-vaccine link. Most of her children haven't been vaccinated except for the important ones.

Pre-eclampsia, then induced labor, then feeding difficulties and food allergies (unrelated to each other) after birth.

The important ones? She has children more important than the others?

Or did you mean the important vaccines? (which IMO would be ALL of them)

GA