There seems to be an increase in Autism and spectrum disorders in the world...there is also a big increase in ADD, ADHD, Hyper kids, dyslexia, etc.

Is it because we are older when we have our first babies?
We are healthy physically but what about the 35-42 year old eggs?
Is this causing a big change in the baby brain? Are we birthing children who need to be taught a new way? Not autism but a new way of thinking and learning is developing and we need a different type of teaching for the new kids. Home schooling and private school will become a bigger thing, I think.

I am asking these questions to start a dialogue. I don't know the answers either.

When women got married at 18-25 and didn't wait to have kids, we didn't see all these issues. So what is going on?

Not too many years ago a woman who got pg after 40 was running a risk of a Down's syndrome child. But why is that condition more prevalent after 40? It must have something to do with the age of the eggs. Right???

I know that mothers are a lot older NOW when they have their first child ---a lot of successful, intelligent highly educated women, who waited til they had a career to have a family. Which means age 35, 38, or 42 and having a baby for the first time.

We may be advised to go back to having them before age 33...I was told this by a specialist over 20 years ago when my only child was 11. I wanted another baby and was having trouble staying pg.
My husband is 8 years older and the doc said "stop trying at 35 because the age of the eggs and the age of the sperm do matter...we have been noticing it and no one will admit it."

Not sure. I had my son when I was 26, so I would say I am wasn't that old. What are the statistics of the age of the mother of autistic children? That would be what you would need to look at. But I definitely understand what you are saying. My doctor said something similar to my husband and I about my eggs. You are born with your eggs and you don't get new ones, unlike men who reproduce new sperm.

I was 20 when my son was born, he has autism and i was 24 when my dtr, was born and she has adhd. so i don't know 20-24 is not old to have kids i don't think.

Yes, the reason Down Syndrome increases exponentially with increasing maternal age is because of the decreasing quality of the eggs. What happens is this: As the eggs age, their ability to properly undergo meiosis (cell division of gametic cells) is greatly impaired. Women are born with all of their eggs, yes, but these eggs are not actually mature in the typical sense. They are formed in the womb, but the eggs are "frozen," in a sense, until it is time for them to be released from the ovarian follicle. So, they do not completely undergo meiosis and they are stuck in a stage in the meiotic cycle.

When it's time for the egg to actually divide, the chromosomes must split. In meiosis, there are actually two sets of divisions. Sperm and eggs are, essentially, undergoing mitosis (somatic cell division) twice. This is to reduce the number of chromosomes into half- go from 46 to 23. It is an ingenious biological solution to stop the number of chromosomes from multiplying exponentially each time a zygote is created. (This is also how gender is determined- the sperm only have one of the sex chromosomes, either an "X" or a "Y," rather than both, like what is seen in their body cells. So, the sperm carrying a lone "X" chromosome in its 23 will create a female; the "Y" sperm will create a male.)

Anyway, with the older eggs, their ability to properly distribute the proper number of chromosomes is greatly disturbed. Sometimes, as the chromosomes are pulling apart, they simply don't pull apart. Thus, there are either too few or too many chromsomes in a cell. In the case of Down Syndrome, there are three copies of Chromosome 21, which is why Down Syndrome's "technical" name is "Trisomy 21." The three copies come from the fact that the mother's egg (usually- although, it could be a meiotic mishap from the father's sperm) didn't split apart its two copies of Chromosome 21, so the egg still had two copies, rather than one. Once the sperm fertilized the egg, the sperm's copy of Chromosome 21 brings the total to three copies. Normally, there would only be two copies- one from each parent.

And they are finding that autism may be linked to increasing paternal age. It seems ASD's are just more likely to be involved with the father. Simon Baron-Cohen's term of autism being an "extreme male brain" probably has something to do with it. And it usually is true. Most of the girl Aspies I know (myself included) aren't interested in typical "girl" things, like make-up, hair, clothes, and shopping. It may help explain why there is a 4:1 boy:girl ratio in ASD's. :angel:
-GatsbyLuvr1920-

This is a interesting topic. I 'm on board with "Gatsby," I think it is genetic in some form, but....... to add .... I think it is more prevelent today because children are be diagnosed more today. I think if you try to remember back when you were a child you can think of at least one kid who had "issues." Knowing what I know about Autism today I can name quite a few. Going back a generation.... my dad had a friend who's little brother could ONLY say plane and was totally obsessed......he's now a air-nautical engineer and has poor "people skills."
I think highly autistic kids were lumped in the mentally retarded category and the mild ones were considered weird.
They are calling Autism an "epidemic" I don't think it is. I think it has been here the whole time.