Interesting story. I, fortunately, do not have children with autism. However, I know several parents who do and I truly wish them well. I am highly concerned about the neurotoxins that we spray all over our food and thus pay attention to autism stories.
There are several things that are interesting in this story and the first is that 0.7% of the babies were subsequently diagnosed with autism. This is vastly different than the one in ten number that I saw recently in the news. This is 7 out of a thousand which is incredibly high from a genetic standpoint but nowhere near one in ten.!!! Science editors: Start getting your information correct! What you publish is important to people.
Another interesting point is that statements like “twofold”, “twice as likely”, may not be very relevant at all but it sounds impressive.
The third thing that I find very intriguing is the fact that women who took chemical seratonin inhibitors like Prozac and Zoloft were much more likely to have a child diagnosed with autism. I fuss repeatedly about giving our children brain-chemistry altering drugs! And there is so much neurotoxic insecticide residue in the environment. We know very little about how the neurology of the brain develops particularly in children, and yet we want to alter the basic chemistry all of their brains with poisons and drugs. What in the world makes you think that Dow Chemical is more moral than Phillip Morris?
And I think doctors who treat pregnant women should be careful about prescribing drugs that alter brain chemistry ! Arrrrrrrrrrg, I can’t find a good auto mechanic for my car — why in the world would I want to have someone who got a C in biology to be prescribing drugs for me.
I think in most cases giving drugs that affect brain chemistry to anyone under 21, or pregnant women, should require two separate completely unconnected doctors to agree so there is additional oversight. Bob