Valley doctor says moms can help prevent autism before and during pregnancy
In an interview on ABC 15 News,Dr. Cindy Schneider, mother of two autistic children, stated what she believes to be the reasons for autism and how to decrease the chances of your child being diagnosed ASD.
You can watch the interview below. I agree that some of what she says mya sound logical, but it's also misleading. She states that she believes that genetics and envvironmental factors cause autism. She goes on to suggest that moms take cerain precautions before and during pregnancy. I think some of what she says is frustratingly erroneous.
I have one autistic child and one that isn't. I did the same things with both pregnancies. Granted, I was under less stress with my second, but that is the only difference. I was around the same weight at the beginning of both pregnancies. I may have actually weighed a little less prior to my first pregnancy, which was my autistic son.
Now, with this doctor going on air with a respected news station, I'm afraid people may start blaming moms for their child being autistic. We walk a delicate tightrope and we need everyone to be careful what they sat to the media. The media also needs to start giving a more balanced account of all interviews. I would have felt better if the reporter had stressed that what was said was the doctor's opinin and not proven medical fact.
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2 comments:
Another theory in the long row.
Or should I say it's not a theory at all.
Because all she says is: ne healthy.
It bothers me that she doesn't tell women that they should take folic acid. It doesn't have anything to do with autism, but research has proven that it prevents neurological damage.
The mercury idea has been researched and it has nothing to do with autism.
I have 6 kids. 4 with autism, 2 without. All pregnancies were screened for vitamin, etc levels, as I was taking part in a research project about epilepsy in pregnancy.
I was screened every week!!
They were able to take the data and compare the autism pregnancies with the normal ones and there was no difference.
When you consider that the autism diagnosis here in The Netherlands is more strict and made by a multidisciplenary team, you can state that vitamin status in pregnancy is not the cause. Nor is mercury.
Need I say more?
I do agree with her, I believe it is genetics and the enviroment. But, not to blame the parents. That is the point of genetics. You had two different pregnancies. Even doing the exact same thing for each, each child was different genetically. One child had the genes for autism, the other didn't. I think that scientifically, this is the way to go. If they can discover the genomes for autism, than they can find out what causes it.
I think the enviromental arena comes into play by what you are exposed to. They are learning more about BPA, than they ever knew before. What if that was contributing to it? What if by discovering it was a direct cause of it, it was banned, so no one would be exposed to it anymore?
Part of the problem, most parents of autistic children are very sensitive about this. I was myself, I think it is a natural reaction. But, it shouldn't be about blaming the parents, it should be about discovering what causes autism.
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