fevers and autism

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My two year old just recently had a 104 degree fever for about 9 days. It did go down when we gave him ibuprofen. We took him to the doctors 3 times, the ER and a GI specialist. Anyways, he is still not eating and has been lethargic. Based on my neighbors comments (has a girl with aspergers), I decided to look up fever and autism - I doubted they were connected but decided to look. She thinks that fevers can trigger Autism. I don't really agree but who knows.

I googled it and up popped many articles on how fevers can improve some Autism symptom. There are many theories regarding this reason - I have found about three. Very interesting stuff.

This brought me back to the time my five year old (on the spectrum) was having a wonderful day at school. He is easily distracted but there was one day where he was the first one to complete all academic work with a lot of time to spare. On that day, he far exceeded the other kids. When the teacher went up to him in disbelief, she noted that he had a temp. He went to the office where they found that he had a 102.5 degree temp. So very strange.

I just can't believe that he wasn't distracted and was able to complete the school work that quickly. He is very smart but his distractibility both internally and externally really impedes his ability to show what he knows most days. He also gets frustrated with himself.

I wonder if the same is true for ADHDers?? I am one and don't remember doing better. Perhaps I should pay more attention next time.

Just thought I would share.

I don't know about fevers specifically, but I can tell you my son (AS) has always been calm and well behaved when he's sick. And i don't mean in a lethargic not feeling well kind of way, but he's seems "normal". And then he'll puke and something and I realize he's sick. (Because he doesn't tell me all the time).

Ok that's just weird. My daughter is rarely sick so I didn't think about this until you posted. But she was sick in May. eally bad fever with lethargy. She just wanted to lie on the couch and watch TV. That's to be expected. As she got better she got up off the couch and started doing things, although somewhat less energetically than usual. Something I noticed as she was in that phase is that she was suddenly very flexible about her routines. It was ok if things were a little different. It was ok if we went off schedule. It was ok if something unpredictable happened. I marveled at this but chalked it up to lingering lethargy. After all, it does take a lot of energy to be inflexible. But she honestly seemed OK with flexibility, not exhaustedly resigned. I thought nothing of it at the time (and she resumed inflexibility later), but now I wonder...


What was the most plausible theory that you found?

My 4 yo has AS and we've always had quite the opposite reactions. He gets sick fairly often and we can tell it's coming about 2 days before symptoms show up. He melts down over the tiniest things and almost goes into a bit of a depression. He's actually getting over a very nasty flu now and has had an on and off fever for the past week. My boy is usually pretty happy and agreeable, but when he's sick, it's misery x 10!

Heating up the brain changes your instincts and feelings, the chemical reactions that make up life depend heavily on temperature. It's so simple and obvious. Our children's children are gonna laugh at us for not noticing something so important.

Now what if there was a way to heat up the brain 24/7 without inducing a fever? Psychological engineering!! !

Oops I just saw this thread. I posted what I recalled reading about fevers and reduction of autism symptoms on the other thread about the effect of a spider bite on a child. I really think there is something to fevers/injury and improved symptoms. Hopefully we'll learn more about this with ongoing research!

The spiderbite kid is mine and he did have a fairly bad infection from the bite. So even thow there is now easy way to takes Jake's temp I'm sure he had one at the time of the first post.

I've thought this about fevers and autism for over eight years now -- it has ALWAYS seemed like both of my sons were more "typical" whenever they had fevers. I specifically noticed this in my son who is more strongly affected by being on the spectrum -- and much more so when he was younger.

I often wished that somebody would figure out a way to "heat up the brain" without inducing a fever -- it sure seems like this improves these kid's abilities to cope with life.

My son is much calmer when he has a fever, more "normal," but he also shuts down some of the best parts of himself, like his creativity. I don't think he'd want to always to be in that thought state. While he finds it hard to control his jumping brain, he also loves it for the creativity it brings him.

Now, I don't have a child who will sit down and do homework or anything else productive while mildly sick, so the potential benefit I'm reading really isn't there for him as it might be for others.

Yes it is very interesting to read this , I've often thought my son is much more calm coherent and well behaved when ill, he is also less interested in things and less joyful at these times. Sometimes I thought to myself its just because he has less energy from the illness but then I looked at even typical conversations with him just go much 'smoother'..I'm not the most observant person or good at explaining though but my general 'feeling' is that its more of a change than would be usual from illness.
I'm not sure if it always involved a fever though but certainly has on several occasions.
I do wonder if my behaviour changes how I am viewing him or how he is being though as I am very anxious when hes ill in any way. From experience I leap to worse case scenarios at the first sign of any illness and perhaps this affects him also.

Have to add I prefer him just to be his usual self and feel well, happy and excited about his usual interests but it is interesting to read that others have noticed differences too at these times in their children.