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The Cause Of Autism

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When I was young and in school autism was something that I didn’t really think about. The closest I got to knowing someone with autism was watching Rain Man. But in 2007 I started to listen more about autism. I was 24 years old and I was pregnant with my first child. I read all I could about autism in my subscription to Parent magazine and talked with my doctor about the laundry list of questions that I had. She assured me that there was nothing to be concerned about and not to stress myself out. There was nothing that I could do to prevent my unborn child from having autism.
I did further research about the disability and the more that I read the more I promised myself I would do whatever possible to ensure that my child did not get autism. …show more content…

D started to look for a cause to his son’s Autism. At first, he thought that it may have been caused by the MMR vaccination like many others. Then he remembered how sick his son became after the shot and the amount of acetaminophen he gave him. Could it be that commonly known over the counter drug that was causing this disability? Acetaminophen rapidly gained traction as a great suspect. First, Schultz found that the rise in autism corresponded to the rise in acetaminophen use(Parker). He remembered two cases of deadly poisonings in which drugs containing acetaminophen were tampered with, first in 1982 and then in 1986. These two events caused temporary declines in the use of acetaminophen. Schultz explained, “I saw that children born during both of these acetaminophen poisoning episodes were less likely to have autism. And I knew. Acetaminophen use was linked to the rise in autism rates.” He continued, “Children who used acetaminophen at age 12 to 18 months were more than eight times as likely to be in the autism group when all children were considered and more than 20 times as likely to be in the autism group when limiting cases to children with regression.” These same kinds of affects where not seen with use of …show more content…

At the end of the day though no one really knows the true cause of autism, similar to cancer. It is reasonable though to say that genetics has a part to play in the disability. The cause could be from a mutation that comes from the male sperm, the genetic mix of both partners or the age of the parents. Like many other disabilities, it is likely to happen more in boys then in girls. But if a girl has autism the symptoms are more severe.
It is also easy to see that everything that people are exposed to or ingest can have effects on them or even their unborn child. I think it is very important to know what you are buying in the grocery store and in house hold cleaners and goods. If your child puts it in their mouth you should know what it is made of. Not saying that is going to prevent autism but that is a good over all rule of thumb to keep them safe. In the end autism is the same as a lot of other diseases and disabilities only time and extensive research can lead to the true cause of autism. There is no easy answer and more than likely it is not going to be a quick turnaround in lowering the numbers. But with continued research it seems clear that there is something in the world around us and who we are in our human DNA that is causing this growing epidemic. As a parent of a child with autism I will do everything possible to make this a better world for the

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