When I recently read the article that I am providing the link for below about how some kids diagnosed as autistic may be receiving an inaccurate diagnosis, I started reflecting on the skyrocketing rates of an autism diagnosis in children.
I remember attending a training on autism several years ago with an impressive pediatrician, Dr. Diane Cullinane, at Pasadena Child Development Institute, and I asked her what she thought the reason was for the increasing rates. She said what I know to be the truth - that we don't really know yet - but she also hypothesized that the factor may be something so omnipresent in our culture that we don't see it as harmless, and we would never guess its true effect on neurological development. For example, she asked, "Could it somehow be, say, from the plastic in water bottles?" That always stuck with me. The pediatrician was not suggesting that water bottles were the true guilty culprit, but her overall point was that we may need to think way outside of the box when conducting studies to figure out what is leading to an increase in autism.
Check out the article here about how some children may be misdiagnosed as autistic: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130918090845.htm.
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