Autism Are we facing an epidemic?

I am a new member to ATS and have never posted anything before, but I have read a great deal of your threads and have decided to jump in and get your thoughts, tips, etc.

I have an autistic grandson, and I have to say that I'm overwhelmed with the rapid incline of this horrible disorder. Why?

My grandson is 6 years old and was diagnosed at age 3. He is currently enrolled in speech and occupational therapy. His verbal skills are very limited as well as his social skills.

Dispite his developmental problems, he is a wonderful child. He is very loving and is very capable of expressing what he feels whether good or bad, contratray to sterotypical norms of what we know autism to be. For instance: he has excellent eye contact, he handles hugs, kisses and touching, no problems. But he becomes combative and screems relentlessly when mad or frustrated.

Anyone out there that who can help, or who is living with someone with this disorder, I would greatly appreciate any advise, or just conversation to share. Again, I would greatly appreciate anything you might be able to offer.

thanks

Well, my nephew is high functioning autistic and so is my best friend's son.

I think part of the increase in autism is simply due to better screening techniques. There have always been autistic kids, and always will be, they're just getting better at recognizing it.

Some of it is genetic, but I personally think a lot of it has to do with environmental issues. What the mother is exposed to in her diet and in her surroundings during pregnancy probably has a much larger impact than genetics alone.

I know a couple people online who have autistic children, and for many of them, their symptoms are made worse by diet. One woman has a son that loses his speech if he eats anything commercially processed. She grows a lot of her own food with organic methods to keep this under control.

Red dye #40 is a big culprit in increasing autistic behaviors, as well as ADD/ADHD and related disorders. Some kids show autistic behaviors because of allergies.

There are some interesting pages on food-related autism:

www.fedupwithfoodadditives.info...

www.healthcentral.com...

www.betterhealthusa.com...

There's plenty more to see if you Google "food + autism"

It's my own personal belief that what they are doing to our food causes a lot of our health issues in this country, including obesity, cancer, certain auto-immune disorders, etc.

You could try putting your grandson on a specialized diet and see if that doesn't help him. It doesn't do the trick in all autism cases, but it's worth a shot.