How many kids in America have autism?

Answer 1

Approximately 1 in 150 children have autism, that is approx. 73 a day, and approx. 26,767 children a year are born with autism in the US.

Numbers are up from 1 in 10,000 a generation ago, and 3-4 generations ago, autism was practically unknown.

Reasons for the increase may include:

- Increased numbers of pregnant women on medication during pregnancy. For example, the anticonvulsant drug sodium valproate (epilim/depakote) is proven in studies to cause a 10% risk of autism when unborn babies are exposed to it.

- Various other anticonvulsant drugs and hormonal drugs are also suspect, and under investigation for causing increased risk of autism.

- Increased diagnosis. More children at the "softer" end of the spectrum are now obtaining diagnosis.

- Environmental genetic damage. It is generally accepted that certain chemicals in our environment cause genetic damage. This may be associated with the increase in autism rates.

- Older parental ages. Women are having children when older. Genetic damage is more likely to occur in eggs from older women, and in sperm cells from older men.

Unknown but possible candidates for autism rate increase include:

- foetal ultrasound, which has never been tested for human safety yet is now universal

- vaccine overload, where too many vaccines create an immune response overload in young children / babies

- general environmental pollution, including lead and Mercury, plus a host of other damaging chemicals and poisons.

Answer 2

* The current prevalence in children is roughly .6% or one in 165 children. (Fombonne E, Zakarian R, Bennett A, Meng L, McLean-Heywood D. Pervasive developmental disorders in Montreal, Quebec, Canada: prevalence and links with immunizations. Pediatrics. 2006 Jul;118(1):e139-50).

Answer 3

The CDC put diagnosis at around 1 in 68, however this only accounts for children who have been diagnosed - Autism is under-diagnosed in girls and minority groups such as African-American children. We simply have no way of knowing how many Autistic children there are in America.