Autistic Spectrum.......

Autism Awareness

I saw this little child all of 2yrs 2 m, who was reffered for lack of "speech". It dint take long to see that he demonstrated features of Autism (apparantly mild). tHe reason i am mentioning it here, is because this child has a history of G6- PD deficient anemia, when he was a few months old. Though health wise he is now better, i was wondering if the features of autism were in anyway linked to the genetic disorder. According to wikipedia, Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency is an X-linked recessive hereditary disease characterised by abnormally low levels of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (abbreviated G6PD or G6PDH), a metabolic enzyme involved in the pentose phosphate pathway, especially important in red blood cell metabolism. G6PD deficiency is the most common human enzyme defect.^[1] Individuals with the disease may exhibit nonimmune hemolytic anemia in response to a number of causes, most commonly infection or exposure to certain medications or chemicals.

But what is important now is Immediate commence ment of Sensori integration (occupational ) therapy, Followed a little later by Speech-language therapy. Ideally he should progress well. But only time will tell. In this case it is also vital that proper genetic counselling be done particularly if the parents wish to go in for a second issue.
Good luc to the kiddo.
(pic courtesy: Parenting4tomorrow.com)