With full understanding that anecdote does not equal data...

I have an 18 year old son on the autism spectrum (high functioning,
Aspergers Syndrome, who just graduated on Friday from high
school--hallelujah).  He was breastfed for 19 months.  My daughters (now 16
and 14) were on the breast for 21 and 43 months.  They are absolutely, 100%
neurotypical.  No autism, ADD, ADHD, or developmental delays of any kind and
they had more breastmilk than my son did.  My son, however, has a full gamut
of psychiatric alphabet soup.

I do believe that the nurturing at the breast far outweighs concerns about
the environmental toxins that are surrounding us.

In addition to being the parent of a young adult with autism, I am a special
education teacher.   I certainly have not read everything published on
autism, but I have read a lot and have never seen this connection mentioned.
I feel for this mom as when you have a child with a disability of unknown
etiology, you want answers, reasons, explanations.  

Autism is still largely a mystery, with only one known cause (Fragile X
Syndrome).  While there are many suspected links (genetic susceptibility,
environment, neurological issues) and I have seen several families with more
than one child with autism which certainly suggests a genetic link, usually
the cause is not known.  The vaccination link has been disproved several
times, but I, personally, am not convinced, although my son's autism clearly
has a genetic or neurological foundation.  I do not believe it is
environmental.

This perhaps does not help the mom in question, but my gut reaction (which
is truly that, not based in research) is that she might be better off at
this point focusing her energy on early intervention for her children which
*has* been shown to be very effective at mediating the impact of autism.

Kathy

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