Autism Signs

I have done lots of research and irrespective of the title ie characteristics of autism,symptoms of autism, autism symptoms checklist,early symptoms of autism.They all come under the same banner of characteristics of autism.

IS MY CHILD SHOWING SIGNS OF AUTISM

As a parent our child is beautiful and perfect and then we start to look further. Is my child doing what other children do. Is he/she as good as other children. Of course they are, until we notice the subtle differences, The Signs of Autism - My child does not acknowledge me when I smile at them. He/she does not like me holding or cuddling him/she. Why does my child not play with toys imaginatively or point to things or have eye contact with me. Why doesn't my child "coo" or babble or reach out for me.

Here is a lovely soft teddy, please cuddle it "no please don't scream its soft and cuddly" why is my child screaming this is a lovely soft toy.

Unfortunately children with autism do not react the way parents would expect them to. Nobody knows what is going through the mind of a child with autism. If we did it could be cured. As a parent we must love the child and cope as best we can.

Each child is an individual whether austistic or not and we must remember this.

Autism is not usually diagnosed until a child is between 24 and 36 months.By detecting autism at the earliest age possible children can be helped.Autism checklist Early symptoms to watch out for are not smiling by the age of 6 months, not babbling or making gestures or pointing by the age of 12 months and not making two word phrases by the age of two. These are just three of the many various symptoms to look out for, but as I said earlier it is usually not until a child reaches the age of two to three before they are diagnosed Autistic.

Whilst diagnosing autism is difficult in infants as the child becomes older so the signs become more obvious. These signs manifest themselves more as behavioural problems. The child may appear Restless, hyperactive,destructive,forgetfull,inattentive,develop severe mood swings and impulsive behaviour.Also the child may develop unusual sleep patterns and a strong resistance to change.

This article came to my attention I hope it helps.

Probiotics and Autism - 2007
John Scott reports and Professor Glen Gibson comments of the research.

It is well known that autistic children often suffer from gastrointestinal discomfort, bloating and diarrhoea or constipation, and it has been discovered recently that the intestines of autistic children tend to contain a higher number of the Clostridium histolyticum group of bacteria than is found in healthy children.

Clostridia are well-known producers of toxins, including neurotoxins, which may contribute to gut disfunction, may also have a systemic effect and could potentially be a contributory factor in the development of autism.

Researchers at the Food Microbiology Sciences Unit at Reading University have developed a probiotic specifically to reduce the levels of clostridia and promote 'friendly' bacteria instead, and they recently mounted a trial to assess precisely what effects this would have on autistic children.

Forty children, aged 4 to 8 were selected and half were given Lactobacillus plantanum in a powder, once a day, whilst the rest received a sham 'probiotic'.

As this was a 'blind' study, none of the participants knew which product they were getting, but it appears that the reduction of autistic symptoms in the children who were taking the L. plantanum was so remarkable to their parents that, when the time came in the study for the groups to switch and for those who had been taking the real probiotic to begin taking the sham product, the parents refused to accept anything other than the genuine probiotic!

Inevitably, the trial collapsed due to the large number of drop-outs and no firm conclusions could be drawn in a 'scientific' sense, although a very clear 'result' may be obvious to many!

A new trial is to be mounted that should answer some of the remaining questions, such as whether the obvious improvement in both concentration and behaviour was due simply to the fact that the children felt better, and were therefore more able to concentrate and behave more normally, or whether this was due to some other change brought about by the probiotic.

Source: The Scotsman, 5 September 2006

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