Simple checklist may spot signs of autism by age 1

[Keith Bee]

Source: MSNBC.com

WASHINGTON — A simple checklist that parents fill out in the waiting room may help doctors someday screen for warning signs of autism as early as a baby's first birthday.

San Diego pediatricians tested the tool with more than 10,000 babies at their 1-year checkups, looking for such things as how the tots babble, gesture and interact with others.

The research, being published Thursday, is a first step in the quest for earlier autism screening. It's not ready for routine use, as more work is needed to verify its accuracy. But it also may prove valuable in finding more at-risk babies to study what causes the developmental disorder.

"There are subtle signs of autism at one year if you just look for them," said neuroscientist Karen Pierce of the University of California, San Diego, who led the study. "Let's just get these kids detected early and treated early."

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42787858/ns/health-kids_and_parenting/

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Good idea, so long as they don't use God's Precious Stem Cells. :sarcasm:

[bananas]

1. "a first step in the quest for earlier autism screening"

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step - Lao-tse

One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind - Neil Armstrong

[Thor_MN]

2. Oh good, now 1 year checkups are going to be the cause of autism

[madrchsod]

3. you`re not to far off on that...

[Odin2005]

4. LOL!

[Bearware]

8. Why not do something to prevent it before or shortly after birth.

The following makes a pretty strong case for vitamin D3 deficiency as a significant cause of ASD.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1651-2227.2010.01883.x/pdf

It is common medical knowledge that nursing mothers do not produce enough vitamin D for their babies. However if nursing mothers are adequate doses of vitamin D3, as defined by vitamin D researchers - not clinicians, the common knowledge is no longer true. A one year old nursing baby whose mother's vitamin D is in the optimal range will likely not be selected by the 1 year checkup.

[Odin2005]

5. My parents knew I was "different" even when I was a baby.

[cbdo2007]

6. Doctors and Parents-as-Teachers people and day care providers

are trained to start looking for these signs starting at about 6 months.

[pitohui]

7. what is the purpose of this?

there is no treatment for autism that does anything but create profit for the sellers of the treatment, correct?

i was labeled as autistic as a child by the school system, at that time, there was no treatment, so it was just a label and i suppose it did no harm except to create a spiral of "she's different, and being different is a disease she has"

i really do not think any more than i could have done the things i have done and traveled the world, often solo, as i have done if i was autistic...i think there are too many professionals out there who profit from slapping labels on kids and it has gotten much worse since i was young

i've heard of parents being told to give prescription drugs of various kinds to "autistic" kids, there is no evidence i'm aware of that drugs help the autistic, although i'm sure that selling the drugs benefits the company share holders

i believe in "do no harm" and i'm not sure that snooping around for more ways to impoverish parents and transfer every penny they have to the medical industry is "do no harm," in fact, i think it does a lot of harm

there are plenty of others here who have been dx'd w. aspergers or high functioning autism, maybe they can explain how a drug or "treatment" helped them, if in fact it did

sure, i'm odd, perhaps i'm very odd, but i would love to see the evidence that if i'd been dx'd at age 12 months instead of a few years later that it would have magically made me any less odd -- i would also be curious to know why being odd is a disease that should be treated

i can't speak to severe autism, of course, but i think if the kid has severe autism (rather than asperger's/high functioning autism) it wouldn't be any mystery that they had a problem, they wouldn't need to WONDER and SEEK out a problem...

it's all very curious to me that being different, being odd, should somehow be a disease

i am sorry for parents who didn't know, before they had a baby, that there's always a risk that YOUR kid will be the oddball, but if you're not willing to take that risk, i'd suggest better birth control frankly -- very few babies are going to be prom queen and football captain, most babies are going to be either ordinary or a little strange/geeky/nerdy