hypotonia & autism

[ings81]

Hi I have 4 sons aged 7,5 and twins 14mths not identical. My 5 yr old has receptive language delay. One of the twins has been diagnosed with benign infantile hypotonia and all his genetic testing came back normal.They were born at 36 wks and Noah was 6lb10oz and Elliot was6lb7oz. Noah is the one with hypotonia anyway Noah suffered respiratory distress syndrome when he was born and was on some machine he only needed help for 12 hours and he did well afterwards. At 5 mths Noah got really sick and spent a week in hospital on oxygen he had metapneumovirus and bacterial pneumonia it was after this I realised something was wrong. So hypotonia was diagnosed and i didn't receive any info and until a few mths ago i thought with a bit of physio he would be fine. to my horror this is a lifetime thing with it's own risk. Noah has some really odd behaviour patterns: extremely repetitive when playing he is obsessed with balls bouncing them in the bathroom on the tiles any object that spins he will just stare at it,he plays and does the same things everyday.Noah does not yet respond to his own name he squeals and says mama dada no babbling he bangs his head on things he self stimulates when in high chair he will turn his head side to side til he nods off or he taken out of chair he also does this when you change his nappy. Noah doesn't really interact with his brothers and is often on his own. Noah is affectionate and when he smiles it brightens your day. Since he was diagnosed with hypotonia my gut feeling has always been there is something else does anyone think i have a reason to be concerned or am i being bloody stupid? I really appreciate anything anyone has to say i need some help and advicex

[AustinHolly]

Has your child been looked at for mitochondrial dysfunction.  This is emerging as one very under diagnosed condition.  The mitochondria are not able to produce the energy needed by the cell and things go horribly awry for some and just a little off for others.  If you google mitochndria dysfunction and autism you will see that there are some good discussions and some good information emerging that this may very well be one of the etiologies of AUTISM.  Good luck

[888mom]

The developmental pediatrician's therapy evaluation team who assessed my daughter on her first visit wrote lots of things, one of  which was that she had mild hypotonia.  I read some about it, and it sure fit her.  Stuff like kids when they are picked up and held as smaller children, they feel heavier than they are because they don't help carry any of their weight.  Isn't hypotonia just poor muscle tone?  Anyways, I asked one of my daughters therapists through early intervention, and she said it is common with kids on the spectrum, and it is usually in combination with sensory issues.  THe therapist said just to try to keep my daughter physically active and get her active with things she likes to do and keep working on getting her stomach muscles stronger, trying to get her to not slouch down all the time, and a bunch of other things that are similar.  But the key is to keep the kids active with things they like to do and get them up and moving.  I do a lot of stuff with my daughter on a big medicine ball/Pilates ball... where I make her sit and do activities or try to sit up from a laying down on the back position on the ball.  The therapist showed me how to do some of these things, I didn't make them up myself.

[Sally44]

I think the memory loss could be down to autism.  They tend to have problems generalising information from one situation to another.  My son frequently forgets learnt information, which is very frustrating because it is holding him back because he cannot demonstrate he has learnt something because he cannot remember it or do it again.  There can also be problems with visual/verbal/auditory memory retrieval.  That is when the information is in there, but they cannot access it at the time they are asked to or need to.  You could ask his Educational Psychologist about that or his Occupational Therapist.  Both should be able to give you ideas of games you can play to improve these skills.
If there is any kind of food intolerance, of course it isn't going to make it any easier for them.  My son is gluten and casein free, and I do notice a difference if I let him have something he likes as a treat.  Try cutting out all junk food, and maybe let him have something once a week as a treat.  See if you notice an improvement.

[braxtonsmon]

my 6 year old son is autistic, high functioning type. He was diagnosed two years ago after extensive intervention with behavior modification. He has the social interaction withdraw and has the sensitivity of skin touching, taste difficulties....otherwise is doing excellent in school... he lives with his father after a long battle in court, and is not treated for this. during this summer, I am noticing his symptoms of loss of memory of recent learned objectives in school, confusion, this has happened in the past. Yet never so much.  He seems to become confused and his taste and sensory difficulties worsen. he now has alerigic reaction to  Dr. Pepper I believe,as his face breaks out on his cheeks. Is the memory loss autistic behavior, diet or something other?  



























































































































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[MJIthewriter]

This showed up on google. It's from donna williams blog.
http://blog.donnawilliams.net/2007/05/27/hypotonia-and-the-presumption-of-mental-retardation/

[MJIthewriter]

You aren't stupid, much less "bloody" stupid. We have a medhelp article for recognizing signs and symptoms of autism:
http://www.medhelp.org/health_pages/Autism-and-Aspergers/Behavioural-Characteristics-behind-the-Clinical-Diagnosis-of-Autism-ASDs/show/277?cid=73

As far as autism in relation to other medical things; it's rather common to have more than one thing going on. If it's the exact same combination with everyone, that is not the case. That being said, hypotonia does seem to occur with some autistic individuals.

I'm not familiar with "the land down under" but I'm sure there is something available as far as early intervention and behavior/physical therapies available.
I also did a google search on Hypotonia.  You can also check to make sure your son is not celiac. That can cause Hypotonia. But in your case I don't know.  I have read some resources about viral infections being a possible trigger, but I don't know if it is true. There is a lot of speculation about the "cause" of autism.