Hi, I have 4 children and 2 that are autistic. My sons Jordan is 5 yrs.old and Dillon is 3 1/2 yrs old. I have this question that I've always wondered but never knew who to ask. With all the talk over the years about mercury in fish, and not to eat tuna when pregnant, which I did not do, but about 9 years before my children came along I ate tuna everyday at work for at least a year or more. I mean every week day. Not knowing anything about mercury at the time and thinking I was eating something healthy. Anyway they say mercury never leaves your body, so I have always wondered if this may be the thing that caused or set off my boys autism. Has anyone else ever wondered this?
I just read the article on the triplet conn. web site "Panel cites Tuna Pregnancy risk" and it said that 8% of U.S. woman of childbearing age have enough mercury in their blood to be at risk of having babies with subtle learning disabilities. Eating seafood is considered the main source. I would appreciate any info or comments from other parents who maybe have had this concern.
Thanks JUlie

Julie

Julie,
I have a 2 year old son with autism.
I have thought about the tuna thing a lot too. When i was pregnant i was on WIC and they gave me free tuna. i ate it a lot because it was free, and it was protein, and it was oen of the few things that appealed. Of course now (and probably always) wonder if that had anything to do with my son's development.
At this point however, i have tried very hard to not focus on the 'why'. whats done is done and now i have to pour all my energies into finding the best treatments for him.
great question though, i hope someone posts some info.

Meg

Like you, I also ate a lot of tuna before I got pregnant. I ate about 1 can/week during pregnancy because I was told by my OB about the "tuna during pregnancy risk" and she said "no more than 1 can/week. Now I wonder if that was too much (I also have 2 children with autism). Most of the concern that I've read about with the autism population revolves around those children that received all of the vaccines before the thimerosal (ethyl mercury, used as a preservatitive) was removed. But mercury from seafood (especially tuna) and mercury from amalgam fillings are also being looked at as possible contributors to childhood autism. I really doubt it's the ONLY reason, but I really doubt that it helped! Anyway, if you want more info there is a yahoo group about mercury and autism. Just do a search for this group on yahoo. There is also a book about mercury poisoning, it's various sources, and how to reverse it. I haven't had a chance to read it yet, so I can't tell you much else about it. It's called Amalgam Illness: Diagnosis and Treatment by Dr. Andrew Hall Cutler. For a general over-view of mercury or "heavy-metal" poisoning relating to autism, and the removal of heavy metals from the body (called chelation) try this link:
http://www.danasview.net/chelate.htm
Good luck

Thank you both for answering me and for the info. I also feel that waht's done is done, but I also feel that if the reason why could be found out, maybe it would stop other children from being affected by autism.
a couple of years ago I knew another mom talking about trying to to remove the mercury from her son. I forget what the process whould be, but the more people I spoke to about this, it seemed a bad idea, because now the mercury has settled, but by trying to remove it, it moves around in your body and can couse more damage.
Anyway, thanks again. I just always wondered if there was any study done on the moms to see if they carried high amounts of mercury.
Bye Julie

Julie

Yes, if chelation or the process of removing heavy metals from the body, is done improperly, it can be dangerous. There has been more study into this in the last couple of years and the book that I mentioned actually talks about a different protocol than was used originally. It uses a different chelating agent and is administered with totally different timing. This was done in order to address the very problem that you sited, freeing up mercury into the blood stream. It is supposed to be MUCH safer than the old protocol and is designed to have the mercury un-bound, removed from the blood-stream and urinated out very quickly. There's more to it than that but that's as far as I've gotten on my research into this topic. I'll let you know if I find out any more on it. We are considering doing chelation with my daughter, who unfortunately received all of the thymerosol-containing vaccines and has all of the classic signs of mercury poisoning.

Hi, Thanks again for all the info. Your much more up on it thanI am. It's amazing how much you learn when you become a parent. Julie

Julie

Hi Julie,

I never liked tuna and have never been a big seafood eater and my son has moderate/severe autism. I think there are so many different organizations looking for a cause that it can drive all of us mothers crazy analyzing everything we have done in our lives that could have contributed to our childrens' problems. I know, I have done the same thing. I don't know why mothers always feel like they need to take blame for our children, but we do.

I read recently that we know so much more than we did about autism and that the myth that Leo Kanner perpetuated that autism was caused by parental behavior toward the child, particularly by the cold rejection of the mother or "refrigerator child". He also referrred to the "emotional frigidity in the typical autistic family" and to the "dramatically evident detachment, obsessiveness and coldness that is almost always universal feature of parents of autistic children". We have come a far way from these theories, but mothers still feel that they are somehow to blame.

I have always thought that my son's autism was caused by the fact that his growth slowed significantly during the last couple weeks of my pregnancy. I have always wondered if my boys were born earlier, if he would have this problem.

I keep trying to convince myself (mother's guilt still gets in the way) that there wasn't anything I or any other mother did to contribute to our children's problems. It is a neurological problem and we couldn't do anything to cause or prevent it from happening. I try to focus on working with my son and helping him manage and be mainstreamed into society.

So Julie, I guess what I'm saying is "no". I don't think eating tuna did not contribute to your son's autism.

Colleen

Colleen
Mom to Connor, Alec & Devon
5/10/2001

http://lilypie.com>

Perhaps you know about the Schafer Autism Report?

I really like this research based newsletter. It is complied by a parent of a child with autism and features all of the very latest autism research. There is a lot of information regarding mercury and vaccinations. Also, there is a lot of new information regarding genetic causes for autism. I am posting the Yahoo link. You can subsribe to the newsletter on the Yahoo opening page. You can also scan previously posted research/topics (many regarding mercury)under "messages". I highly recommend this newsletter if you do not already receive it.

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/-AuTeach/

An article regarding mercury and fish:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/07/06/financial0827EDT0021.DTL&type=health


Laurie

BBB triplets: Luke, Jonathan, Max: 34w6d, February 20,2004



See my boys:
http://hometown.aol.com/belize12/myhomepage/laqualia.html

Laurie

BBB
2/20/04
34.6 weeks