Preemies + higher rates of autism

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090129/hl_ ... sm_birth_1

Hmm, it would have been nice if they waited until the children were 3 and could have made a definite diagnosis of autism or not.

Still, it's interesting. I wonder if that high-testosterone-in-the-womb theory would cause early births.

I was a preemie.

hm, I was born a month and a half early

This is me.

Premies don't get 'touched' enough or I know I didn't in that army hospital in 1953. The nurses jammed the bottle in my face, and my soul remembers that.

Well there's a link with a increase of kids with learning disabilities and premature birth as well.

I had a friend that had a premature baby that was also autistic and I remember her talking about the autism being caused by the premature delivery, that was 23 years ago, why are they putting this out there like it is new information? is it to distract from the news about mercury that has come out recently? or just a coincidence ?

This is just one study it means nothing except further research is needed confirm the original data.

I was full-term.

I have a cousin who was premature, and although he was developmentally delayed, he does not have autism in any form. I was born full-term, yet I have an official diagnosis of Aspergers.

Typically, cerebral palsy, not autism, is the disability most often associated with prematurity.

A key factor in the article is that they are looking at children born "more than three months prematurely", not just any preemie. I was born at 24 weeks gestation, so I fall into this category (and I have Asperger's). They also said that such children are "two to three times as likely to show signs of autism at age 2 ", not certain to be autistic, so it doesn't disprove the findings to say "I know a preemie who isn't autistic" or to say "I know an autistic who wasn't a preemie".