Autistic kids grow normally despite limited diet
(Reuters Health) – Children with autism tend to be picky eaters, but a new study suggests that their growth may not be impaired because of it.
The study, which followed 79 UK children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and nearly 13,000 autism-free children to the age of 7, found that although children with ASDs were more often rated as picky eaters by their parents, their average intake of calories and major nutrients was similar to their peers’.
Moreover, there were no differences in the two groups’ weight and height attainment, researchers report in the journal Pediatrics.
“We think that these are reassuring findings, and that in general, parents of children with ASD symptoms need not worry that their children will not grow properly,” Dr. Pauline Emmett, a senior research fellow at the University of Bristol in the UK, told Reuters Health in an email.
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Autism gene discovery could lead to early treatment
By Peter Russell
WebMD Health News
Reviewed by Dr Rob Hicks
9th June 2010 -International team of researchers report breakthrough in understanding the genetic causes of autism and predict earlier diagnosis of the condition.
The prospect of more effective treatments for people with autism has been raised after researchers said they had made a breakthrough in discovering how genes play a part in autism spectrum disorders (ASDs).
ASDs are a group of conditions in which people may have difficulties with social interaction and communication, and display restricted and repetitive behaviour.
The autism genes have been discovered by an international team of researchers and their findings appear in the latest edition of the journal Nature.
‘Unique’ genetic variations
They analysed genetic variations of 996 people with ASD and compared them with a control sample of 1,287 people without autism. The researchers found that those with autism have a higher number of rare copy number variants (CNVs) in their DNA. CNVs occur when copies of genes appear in more or fewer than two genes per genome.
Stephen Scherer of The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, in Canada told a UK news conference that some of the CNVs appeared to be inherited while others were considered new because they were found in those with autism but not in their parents. “The results will lead to a paradigm shift when it comes to our understanding of the root causes of autism,” Scherer predicted.
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Parents Try Alternative Treatments for Autism
Research Shows Gluten-Free and Casein-Free Diets Are Among Treatments for Kids’ Autism
By Denise Mann
WebMD Health News
Reviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD
May 3, 2010 — Many families are turning toward to special diets and/or psychotropic medications to help better manage autism spectrum disorder and its symptoms in their children, two new studies show.
The CDC estimates that about one in 110 children in the U.S. have an autism spectrum disorder, the umbrella name given to a group of disorders that can range from the mild to the severe that often affect social and communication abilities.
One study shows that 21% of children with autism spectrum disorder are using complementary and alternative medical therapies. Of these, 17% were on special diets, most commonly a gluten-free or casein-fee diet.
Another study shows that more than one-quarter of children with autism spectrum disorder receive at least one psychotropic medication to treat some of their behavioral symptoms such as hyperactivity or irritability.
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Today is U.N.-declared World Autism Awareness Day! Get the latest updates on Autism research here!
By Madison Park
CNNhealth.com writer/producer
April 2 is U.N.-declared World Autism Awareness Day. A life touched by autism is one forever in search of new information, and answers to the questions “Why did this happen?” and “How can I help my child?” Here’s a brief wrap of some of the latest headlines about the mysterious neurological disorder, which affects as many as 1 in 110 children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In March, a federal court ruled that the evidence supporting an alleged link between autism and a mercury-containing preservative in vaccines was not persuasive, and that the families of children who have autism were not entitled to compensation. Vaccine court finds no link to autism
In February, a notorious study that linked the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to autism and digestive disorders, was retracted 12 years after it was published. Its lead author Dr. Andrew Wakefield was found to have acted unethically in conducting the research by the British entity that oversees doctors. Medical journal retracts study linking autism to vaccine
As research indicates that the rates of autism are increasing and that about 1 percent of the children in the United States have the disorder, there is an increasing body of science looking into causes and contributing factors to the mysterious condition.
Here are some major findings according to Autism Speaks, a leading advocacy and education organization.
1) Two major studies using different methodologies reached similar conclusions: autism is on the rise. Four years earlier, autism spectrum disorder was found to affect 1 out of 150 children, but more recent data suggest it’s closer to 1 in 91 or 1 in 110 children, depending on the study. Research also found that autism is four times more common in boys than girls.
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10 sites worth checking out if your child has autism
(CNN) — Like many parents, Shannon Kinninger spends a lot of time chauffeuring her children around town.
“We are always on the go,” says Kinninger.
On Mondays, Kinninger takes her son Justin to gymnastics. Every week, the Fayetteville, Georgia, fourth-grader trains one-on-one with his coach, Rob Chontos.
“I like the balance beam,” says Justin, 9.
Chontos encourages Justin to stretch his lower back muscles and build his upper body strength. For Justin, gymnastics is not only fun, it’s also therapeutic.
The Empowered Patient first introduced readers to Justin Kinninger two years ago. Justin has autism. From his earliest months, Kinninger believed something was different about her son.
“When he was supposed to be sitting up, he wasn’t sitting up … when he was supposed to be rolling over, he wasn’t rolling over,” says Kinninger, a nurse.
The pediatrician told Kinninger that Justin was just developing late because he’s a boy. But Kinninger knew something wasn’t right. Finally, when he was 4, Justin was diagnosed with autism.
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Autism signs appear in babies’ first year, but parents don’t notice, study finds
The social disengagement that is the hallmark of autism-spectrum disorders begins to appear in the second half of a baby’s first year of life, according to a new study. But California researchers found that parents typically do not notice the decline in their child’s behavior until well into his or her second year.
The study, published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, is among the first to glean the pattern of autism’s emergence in very young children by following babies from the age of 6 months. At that age, babies who would go on to be diagnosed as autistic and babies who would develop typically showed no significant differences in social behaviors, including smiling, making eye contact and vocalizing responsively.
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Hormone-infused nasal spray found to help people with autism
By Rob Stein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
A nasal spray containing a hormone that is known to make women more maternal and men less shy apparently can help those with autism make eye contact and interact better with others, according to a provocative study released Monday.
The study, involving 13 adults with either a high-functioning form of autism or Asperger syndrome, a mild form of the disorder, found that when the subjects inhaled the hormone oxytocin, they scored significantly better on a test that involved recognizing faces and performed much better in a game that involved tossing a ball with others.
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Cancer, Autism Push By Obama to Spur New Medicines
By Pat Wechsler
Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama proposed increasing the National Institutes of Health budget by $1 billion, or 3.2 percent, in fiscal 2011, earmarking $6 billion for cancer research and $222 million for work in autism.
The proposed $32.1 billion budget for the year beginning Oct. 1 falls short of the $36 billion the federal agency was able to spend in fiscal 2010 because of money from the government’s economic stimulus effort.
The cancer funding will help initiate 30 new drug trials in 2011 and a doubling of the number of novel compounds in clinical trials by 2016, according to budget documents. The autism push will help define genetic and environmental factors contributing to the disease.
“In this current economy, we have to applaud the president for recognizing the value of biomedical research,” Mark Lively, president of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, said today. “While it could have been much worse, we also have to recognize that it’s less than what NIH had to spend this year.”
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L.A. Confidential: Seeking Reasons for Autism’s Rise
Why is a child born in northwest Los Angeles four times as likely to be diagnosed with autism as a child born elsewhere in California?
Medical experts have pondered for years why autism rates have soared nationwide, and why the disorder appears to be much more prevalent in certain communities than in others. Now, some recent studies that zero in on California may shed some light on these baffling questions.
Researchers from Columbia University, in a study published in the current Journal of Health & Place, identified an area including West Hollywood, Beverly Hills and some less posh neighborhoods that accounted for 3% of the state’s new cases of autism every year from 1993 to 2001, even though it had only 1% of the population.
Another recent study, from the University of California, Davis, published in Autism Research, also found high rates of autism in children born around Los Angeles, as well as nine other California locations. Autism, usually diagnosed before a child is 3 years old, is a developmental disorder characterized by impaired social interaction and communication and repetitive behavior.
Both of the California-based studies suggest that local environmental or social factors are driving the high autism-diagnosis rates. And they conclude that childhood vaccinations—which some people fear is a factor behind rising autism—are not to blame. Otherwise, diagnoses of the disorder would be more evenly dispersed, they say.
The studies also disagree on some points. According to the UC Davis study, greater concentrations of autism occur in communities where parents are highly educated, which could mean they have more awareness of autism and access to treatment. By contrast, the Columbia researchers discount the role of educational levels. They believe that social influences, such as shared information about diagnoses, doctors and services, are largely responsible for the high rates they found in parts of Los Angeles.
In Los Angeles itself, residents have a variety of explanations for the high autism rates, ranging from a family’s affluence and the activity of autism-advocacy groups to past air and water pollution.
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