Obese mothers are 60 percent more likely to have a child with autism, a new study has found. Researchers from the University of California, Davis and Vanderbilt University studied over 1000 children aged two to five, some of whom had autism or other developmental disorders. Related: The joys and challenges of raising an autistic child […]

Kathy Lette talks for the first time about the painful day she was told her son, Julius, had Asperger’s and how she’s coped with his eccentric view of life and his dark days. Kathy Lette sat in stunned silence in a London doctor’s office as he told her that her son, Julius Robertson, then just […]

According to a study by researchers from Melbourne’s Swinburne University, published in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, a family history of ‘pink disease’ is a strong risk factor for developing autism. Never heard of pink disease? Its official name is infantile acrodynia, and it was a form of mercury poisoning that was quite […]

The jury remains out on the exact causes of autism, although most experts agree that inherited tendencies play a significant role, including the presence of a genetic variation which upsets the mother’s ability to correctly utilise folic acid, which is essential for correct foetal development. The finger has also been pointed at a variety of […]

When Julie Hawkins’ third child was born, she and her husband thought they had “struck gold”. Unlike her two older siblings, baby Sarah was quiet, laid-back and had no problem sleeping for hours on end. But as their “perfect child” started to grow up, Julie began to notice that something might be wrong. In pictures: […]