Nancy Williams and Lisa Marasco, Personal and anecdotal: My son, now ten, was born five weeks early and was sensory defensive from day one. At first I thought it was because of all the invasive procedures. If your first experiences were all negative: needles in your scalp, your cord loped off, tubes threaded through your blood vessels, tubes down your throat, etc, ad nauseum, how comforted would you be by human touch? He wanted nothing near his mouth. In 1986 all the preemies were given pacifiers. He hated it. He wouldn't keep it in his mouth. They considered taping it to his face. He didn't want to be held, either. He first latched at eight days. In a quiet room with dim lights. I believe that breastfeeding helped him tremendously. His diagnosis is Asperger's Syndrome--a high-functioning, verbal Pervasive Developmental Disorder like autism. It's a neurological condition. I strongly believe that the rhythmic suck-swallow-breathe and other actions specific to breastfeeding made a difference in his development. I'm not saying the breastmilk, but the physical act of breastfeeding. He had to be flexed and wrapped at first. It also meant that there were times he was comfortable being held: when breastfeeding. When he was very fussy, I fed him in the bathtub in the dark. And here we are ten years later. He still likes being wrapped up snugly. He likes beanbag chairs and lying on his tummy on the floor. He needs a lot of tactile stimulation and support. He wears tinted glasses. He likes soft earplugs when we go to busy, noisy places. I'd find an OT familiar with SD children. Find someone trained in Sensory Integration. My son had OT help and auditory training. It decreased his toddler tantrums significantly. Early intervention makes a difference. I wonder how much worse the outcome would be if I had bottlefed him--even if it was EBM. I could've propped a bottle. I know he would've preferred this. I wouldn't have had to hold him as closely. I wonder if this would've made him more distant and solitary. Neurologically, without the rhythmic breastfeeding, would he have not developed as well? Maybe his diagnosis would've been autism without the breastfeeding. If anyone out there has any info re: autism and breastfeeding, I'd be interested. Any experiences? Any research to support or refute my suspicions? Elizabeth