Recipe for Creating Autism in a Child

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Perhaps I missed that part...

When I saw the part blaming society's ills on TV and video games, well... screw her.

Well duh, obviously too much of anything is harmful to one's mental/physical health, especially during the developmental phases. But I have found often times that films or games will actually stimulate my imagination and inspire me, especially thought provoking works.

My point is that we just can't just conform to the masses and chant the anti-video game mantra. We have to look critically at what is causing psychological harm with a critical and skeptical eye instead of drawing the specious conclusion violent video games = violence in real life.

I'm sure they play a big part for some people... but it's too big a thing ('society's ills) to be able to pinpoint any one cause.

I was more saying it was brilliant for pointing out the good that can come from encouraging kids to play with simple wooden 'natural' toys and use their imaginations and play with each other, rather than giving them computer games and 'screens' and surrounding them with blipping, beeping, colourful, flashing, noisy toys or leaving them in front of a TV babysitter for hours at a time, as some unfortunately do.

Many Toys Contain Dangerous Chemicals
Written by Associated Press, on 12-05-2007 00:00

Tests on 1,200 children's items revealed that more than one-third contained lead and other potentially dangerous chemicals such as mercury, cadmium and arsenic.

The study, directed by the Environmental Health Project of the Ecology Center in Michigan, also found that jewelry products were the most likely to contain high levels of lead.

Other items, such as bedroom slippers, bath toys and card-game cases were also tainted, some with as much as five times the standard safety level of lead. One Hannah Montana card-game case, for instance, had lead levels of 3,056 parts per million.

The study was conducted to spur government officials to take action against tainted toys. Millions of toys, most of them made in China, have already been recalled in 2007.


Lead was supposedly banned for use in U.S. products marketed to children in 1978, but that doesn't stop U.S. companies from importing lead-laced toys and selling them with fervor. Up to 80 percent of toys sold in the United States are manufactured in China.

Meanwhile, there is a loophole in the ban that still allows lead to legally exist in your child's toys -- even those made here in the United States -- and that is plastic.

The use of lead in plastics has not been banned. This may explain the high levels of lead found in children's jewelry.

As children are well known for putting anything and everything into their mouths, their toys simply must be pure. Children are more susceptible to lead absorption than adults, and even low levels of lead exposure have been linked to:

Decreased intelligence

Impaired neurobehavioral development

Decreased stature and growth

Impaired hearing acuity

Yet, lead is not the only chemical that you need to worry about contaminating your children's toys. Other toxins found in toys include:
Mercury: A known neurotoxin that can harm your child's developing brain.

Cadmium: A known carcinogenic. Long-term exposure to low levels of cadmium can contribute to kidney disease, lung damage and fragile bones, and animal studies also suggest that it may lead to liver disease, high blood pressure, and nerve or brain damage.

Arsenic: Long-term exposure to arsenic has been linked to cancer. Exposure to low levels of arsenic can cause nausea and vomiting, decreased production of red and white blood cells, abnormal heart rhythm, damage to blood vessels, and a sensation of "pins and needles" in hands and feet, and over the long term can cause darkening of the skin and the appearance of small "corns" or "warts" on the palms, soles, and torso.

Phthalates: Used in soft plastic toys and baby bottles, these chemicals can mimic or block sex hormones, causing disruption of your endocrine system and early puberty in children.


How to Find Safe Toys for Your Kids

The good thing about all of the media coverage on this issue is that many parents are becoming very choosy about the toys they buy.

Here are some tips to help make sure the toys your children play with are safe.
Seek out toy-making companies that still maintain quality and safety in their products. Be sure to ask questions about their toys, such as what types of chemicals are used in their production.

Look for organic and "green" environmentally friendly toys that use beeswax-based coatings, natural vegetable dyes and organic, chemical-free fabrics and materials (such as wool, cotton and bamboo).

Support companies that use third-party testing of their products for lead and other heavy metals.

Toys that are painted should always be labeled as having "lead-free paint," but still avoid buying painted toys made outside of the United States or Europe.

Get creative. Books, sports equipment, music, and even cardboard boxes that can be turned into forts make great, safe alternatives to traditional "toys."


How Do You Know if You Have Lead Poisoning?

With the recent media coverage about numerous lead tainted toys and other products, it would serve you well to get acquainted with some of the most common symptoms of lead poisoning, so you can put a stop to the damage as soon as possible.Signs and symptoms of lead poisoning include:

Fatigue, lethargy, or sometimes hyperactivity

Headaches

Weight loss

Insomnia

Constipation

Bluish line along the gums (Burton's line). This is less common in children.

Irritability

Metallic taste in your mouth

Nausea, abdominal pain

Poor appetite

Reduced cognitive abilities

Reproductive problems

Although many of these symptoms could be indicative of a number of health problems, don't hesitate to see your doctor if you have a number of these symptoms and think you may have been exposed to unsafe levels of lead.


Lead is a very dangerous substance, and exposure should be minimized as much as possible. Unfortunately, lead poisoning is estimated to affect about 1 million children in the U.S.

Although lead levels have dropped since 1978 -- when the substance was banned for use in house paint, on products marketed to children, and in dishes and cookware -- children can still develop lead poisoning after exposure to paint chips in older homes, drinking water from old plumbing that has been soldered with lead, or from imported toys.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lead may still be used in two aspects of toy manufacturing.

Paint: Lead is still widely used in other countries and can therefore still be found on imported toys. It may also be found on older toys made in the United States before the ban.

Plastic: The use of lead in plastics has not been banned. It softens the plastic and makes it more flexible so that it can go back to its original shape. It may also be used in plastic toys to stabilize molecules from heat. When the plastic is exposed to substances such as sunlight, air, and detergents the chemical bond between the lead and plastics breaks down and forms a dust.

I recommend that, if you have children, you pay close attention to any toy recalls due to lead contamination, because children are notorious for putting things into their mouths, virtually guaranteeing some lead absorption into their small bodies.

Even low levels of lead are harmful, and are associated with:
Decreased intelligence

Impaired neurobehavioral development

Decreased stature and growth

Impaired hearing acuity

There is also plenty of evidence that lead may have some causal effect in relation to ADHD. One author of a previous study states:

Similar to the effects observed in children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), experimental animals exposed to lead (Pb) exhibit behaviors attributed to "impulsivity" and 'inability to inhibit inappropriate responding.'" (Pharmacol Biochem Behav 1998 Jun;60(2):545-52)

Another study examined the lead concentrations in children's hair samples and compared them the attention-deficit behaviors. The authors state:

The striking dose-response relationship between levels of lead and negative teacher ratings remained significant... An even stronger relationship existed between physician-diagnosed attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and hair lead... There was no apparent 'safe' threshold for lead. Scalp hair should be considered a useful clinical and epidemiologic approach for the measurement of chronic low-level lead exposure in children. (Arch Environ Health 1996 May-Jun;51(3):214-20).

Making the possibility of lead poisoning even worse are the studies showing that fluoridated water supplies can increase children's absorption of lead, and, when lead is introduced into your body in sufficient quantities, it displaces zinc, which disrupts brain cell growth.

A chelating process called DMSA can help extract not only lead, but also mercury, cadmium, arsenic, antimony, and may other heavy metalsfrom your body. Heavy metals suppress the effect of a number of enzymes, some of which can be easily tested to see if you may be suffering from an excess of these heavy metals. For more in-depth information about this process, I recommend reading the Mercury Detox Autism Protocol.

But whether you suffer from any of these lead poisoning symptoms or not, you can give your body the best chance to fight the ravages of heavy metals, such as lead, if you maintain a healthy diet based on your biochemical makeup, and exercise regularly.



Related news items
Faulty Crib Case Highlights Problems with Recalls -07/12/2007
Testing Toys for Lead -06/12/2007
Many Toxic Toys Still for Sale This Holiday -05/12/2007
China-Made Recall: Boppy Pillow SlipCovers Due to Lead and Choking Hazard -22/11/2007
Lead Toy Recall List Grows, Again -09/11/2007
Toy Activists Gather at Toys 'R' Us Stores -25/10/2007
Baby seats recalled due to head injuries -25/10/2007
Moms Protest Toys "R" Us and Toxic Greed -15/10/2007
1 million Chinese-made cribs recalled -21/09/2007





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Tammy Lynn is great writer. I love her poetry too. And she sounds like an awesome mama.

It is brilliant. That's why I posted it.

If you don't agree with issues that pertain to the health and lives of children you and others can start your own threads about all the goodness and joy to be found in ingesting heavy metals and living vicariously through glass screens. Please feel free to do so. But that will never change the FACTS as they are right now, and people will continue to speak UP to stop the poisonings - and that is also a FACT.

You aren't a two year old kid. At least, I hope you aren't.

Also, I thought I cleared up that I wasn't talking about the violence thing AT ALL.

Oh, dear me. It's not a fact, actually, the rates of autism rose in Denmark after they ceased administering vaccines with thimerosol. But I guess that's big-business/government propaganda, huh?

On the subject of our wonderful little blog post, I thought it was annoying when Jack Thompson goes on his little tangents about this matter. At least he's "brilliant" enough to capitalize his letters when necessary.

But whatever. I may disagree with your viewpoint, but at least people like Zendell listen to the opposing arguements instead of blindly denying. Adios!

I didn't understand any of what you wrote but take care.

Both my parents were breastfed, and I have Aspergers. My daughter was breastfed on demand, and has it, too. She breastfed til a few days short of her second birthday, when she self-weaned.

I'm a huge champion of breast over artificial baby milk unless medically necessary.

But I don't think it has anything to do with autism. Obesity, yes.

Okay, cool, I'll break it down next time. Cya!

No, being breastfed or not is not a sole indicator. But a vaccinated mother could possibily pass mercury to the fetus during gestation or later through her milk.

The links provided can shed some light on the subject.

http://www.whale.to/a/pringle.html
http://www.drgreene.org/body.cfm?id=21& ... l&ref=1891
http://www.vaccinetruth.org/passes_to_the_fetus.htm
http://www.cfspages.com/bernie.html
http://www.bio.net/bionet/mm/toxicology ... 02884.html

Agreed.

I think there really is a correlation between seeing certain kinds of violence, and becoming more violent or angry or irritable in real life, whether the violence was seen in real life or not. Our brains have not developed a separate category for "this is just a video game" or "this is just TV", so we process it a certain way.

But that doesn't mean that video games and TV are all-out bad and should never be watched or used or anything. It just means you have to be careful, and be aware that these things will affect you on some level whether you know it or not.

But at the same time there can be good things learned, and these things can be important while convalescing and the like as well. (Because it can be the only thing a really sick person is able to pay attention to, and keeps a person from mind-numbing boredom which isn't healthy either. Just like I wouldn't generally clicker-train a cat, but I think my local Humane Society uses it to great effect in cats who have to live in small cages where they're bored to death, and in feral cats to get used to human contact and associate it with something good.)

And they're another form of art. Not everyone treats it as an art, but it can be an art. And art conveys messages, not all of them pleasant.

So I think the dangers are real but that moderation and learning about the effects is the answer, rather than them simply not existing. (Although a lot of television strikes me as total propagandistic crap, of course I live in the USA so this is probably doubly true.)

Plus, if you completely don't let a kid do a thing, and are constantly harping on about how bad it is, they'll get more curious about it. This is where the Just Say No campaign breaks down, and it's also why my brother used to turn on violent cartoons when our parents were gone. It's in people's nature to be curious about the completely forbidden.

If you want to create an autistic child, get a man and a woman of breeding age (and fertile!! you have to remember fertile....) together. Make sure one or both of them have autistic traits carried in the appropriate gene loci.

Mix vigorously. (hint... THIS is the fun part!)

Wait 40 weeks, take baby (aka "the bun") out of oven. Either perform a complete genetic assay or wait until developmental clues surface (approx. 6 months).

Depending on the man and woman's genetic structure, a percentage of their offspring will inherit autistic traits under the easily understood formulas derived by Gregor Mendel with his pea plants.

Hmmmm... note to self: Check good biography of Gregor Mendel to see if he demonstrated autistic traits.....

Repeat as necessary. Please.... the world NEEDS more smart people....

AspieDave, I like the way you think!

This is non-issue in homes where the parents homeschool their kids and a TV never even enters the equation. The psyche is affected by all stimuli whether conscious or un. The brain registers EVERYTHING - and that everything trickles down into nerve responses which then trigger the variants - heart beat, temp, pulse, glandular activity etc. If the experience via an act of violence is witnessed, there is contraction - as a primitive reflex in self-preservation. Then there is a release of cortisole, adrenaline and others that rev up the system in order to flee a dangerous situation.

Some people, at some point, are so addicted to this rush, they no longer get a regular buzz from watching mere violence, but the need becomes one of being pro-active - seeking out life-threatening activities - for the rush - watching violent porn, creating arguments, hostilities and may even act out in domestic violence, road rage and meltdowns to get a dose of adrenaline - that funnily enough calms them.

The nervous system becomes topsey turvy, up is down and down is up. Good is bad and bad is good. And it's just a hop, skip and jump to prison, a hospital, a dealer, gang or other morgue from there because the human heart and brain can take only so much before they crack.

Last edited by jjstar on 16 Jan 2008, 9:34 am, edited 1 time in total.