Has anyone considered whether the proliferation of cell phones might be connected with the rise in autism? It's astounding how many people cart their small children around in strollers - sometimes 2 or 3 toddlers per stroller - while blathering away mindlessly on their cell phones, making no eye contact or other attempt to communicate with the children at all. Is it possible that this lack of parental interaction at such an early age might be responsible for the child's inability to develop basic social skills?

Oh, you can go farther than cell phones if you're going with this theory. Let's look at technology as a whole. How many people spend all evening watching tv/playing on the internet/playing video games, etc, rather than interact with their family members?

Or take a look at daycare. Is it really emotionally healthy for young children to spend more hours at daycare being raised by minimum wage workers than with their parents? In the 1940's a study was done on children raised in orphanages and it was found that they had very stunted social skills and problems with communication because they didn't have that much needed interaction and bond with a parental figure. It was theorized at the time that it could developmentally and socially harm small children to have them raised by impersonal low wage workers in a large group setting. What's really the difference between that and small children that are at daycare from 7:00 in the morning to 6:00 in the evening and only see their parents a couple of hours a day?

I doubt that Day Care per se, can be linked to autism. I will concede, however, that a parent who leaves her child (usually a boy) in Day care for any more than the minimum 40 hrs per week is debilitating the family structure which has, in the past, given undiagnosed autistic children means of compensating for the social disconnect these television-dominated Day Cares foster.

Though not a 'scientific' study, it stands to reason that allowing a child under five to watch 50-60 hours of television weekly, particularly the cartoon channels which tend to lacking in human emotion, might block their honest communication skills.

So the mother's cell phone usage contributes to the child's brain development? Rrrrriiiiight. Keep dreamin'.

Having been a "latchkey" kid for my youth, since both of my parents worked long hours with long commutes, I can understand where you'd get the impression that day care kids are not given enough attention, but you're completely wrong.

You say that the parents leave the kids 40+ hours a week in daycare, then allow them to watch TV 50-60 hours a week as well? How many hours do you think there are in a week? That means they're not eating, doing homework, playing outside, etc., because with 7-8 hours of sleep each day, you're telling us they have no time to do anything else. What is it, wake up, daycare, TV, bed? Lather rinse repeat?

It's not inattention that makes kids autistic. IT IS A BRAIN DISORDER. Yeah, leaving kids in daycare doesn't give them a lot of parental interaction time, but the interaction with other kids at daycare is certainly enough stimulation. Cell phones? ARE YOU SERIOUS??? Autism rates were climbing before widespread cell phone usage, folks. It ain't the phones!

Again, this is not about parental inattention to their kids. This is a developmental disorder, not an everyday occurrence at your local mall.

This speculation reminds me of the "refrigerator mother" theory of the early days.

I'm not saying that Day Care causes it, I'm saying that spending too long in Day Care prevents the compensations that were so often made in the past. That may account for the increase in diagnoses. Interactions with other kids may actually accentuate the autistic debilitation. Kids can be mean.

As for causation, I'd be looking at media influences since they're the easiest thing to control, diet (nitrites, HFCS, msg, hormone-laced meat, etc.), and genetics.

"Interactions with other kids may actually accentuate the autistic debilitation. Kids can be mean."

Interaction with other kids is not a trademark of the disorder...LESS interaction with others is. The fact that kids "can be mean" does not cause brain development loss. Sorry...that's just ludicrous.

Your "diet" idea is also ridiculous. Think of when a child is diagnosed with autism...are they really chowing down on "hormone-laced meat" or the nitrites in things like hot dogs? With what teeth??? To induce these brain cell deficiencies, you'd have to be eating tainted meat since birth, if your theory is true.

Secondly, how does a hormone (which is a PROTEIN) injected into a cow hurt you? When you ingest the beef, the proteins, whether they're normal cow proteins or these additional hormones, are broken down by the acid in your stomach and intestines. It's not like the body says, "oh, this is a foreign hormone, let's use it to hurt the brain." IT IS A PROTEIN. It's broken down into its amino acids, which we use to build our own proteins. When you eat ANYTHING, your stomach breaks it down. If you INJECT the cow hormones into your bloodstream, different story. But by just eating it, you do NOTHING. You're being led by questionable sources...you might want to investigate the bias in these sources before you believe everything they say.

As for "media influences", yes they're probably "easiest" to control. But that doesn't make them the root cause of a brain disorder.

Sharp rebuttal. Now do you have any solutions or just a finely honed stiletto?

Solutions? Yeah. LET SCIENTISTS FIGURE IT OUT, instead of wasting time discussing junk science studies.

90% of all research is conducted by the pharmaceutical industry (compared to 10% by university and gov't bodies). When people state that the pharma industry is evil, etc...they're trying to find a solution, not injure children. Autism is unlikely to be "cured" anytime soon, but that doesn't mean that companies are not trying to find a solution. Most likely, it'll be a biotech/genetic solution, as the disorder is probably a gene-based mutation that is triggered by the environment.

Instead of bashing companies, television, cell phones, parents, etc., let's 1) get help for the afflicted children and adults already living with the disorder, so that they can enter the mainstream and become working members of society; and 2) quit the blame game (suing people because your child's different) and 3) wait for REAL SCIENCE to come up with a cause and appropriate solution.

Until this happens, we're not getting anywhere by blaming others for our problems. Last time I checked, when someone goes to court, they don't "fix" their child's autism. Funneling money into education and mainstream initiatives would serve the public a lot better than clogging the courts with junk science debates.

Sounds good, Penguin. How do we sell this to the public?

Now you got me concerned, I'm going to pull my child out of daycare and not allow her to watch television any longer.

I certainly don't want her to catch the Autism...

If she catches Autism though, I can always bring her to swim with a dolphin (i hear that can cure it!)...What B/S.