Accelerated Head Growth Early Symptom of Autism

Well looky what I found.

Accelerated Head Growth Can Predict Autism Before Behavioral Symptoms Start, Study Suggests
ScienceDaily (Jan. 31, 2008) — Children with autism have normal-size heads at birth but develop accelerated head growth between six and nine months of age, a period that precedes the onset of many behaviors that enable physicians to diagnose the developmental disorder, according to new research from the University of Washington's Autism Center.

So for all those that thought I was crazy, measuring Eric's head on a weekly basis for the first twelve months there ya go.

I wasn't seeing things.
I knew that 3 of my children's heads were exponentially bigger than the other three.

Wish I could afford to get MRI's for them. It would be interesting for me to compare the insides of their heads to their other siblings.

Now the most interesting thing in all this is.

Approx 3 months ago, it was a Saturday, I got out of bed and came into the kitchen.
Kathleen was sitting on the counter smiling at me and giving me some pretty good eye contact.
But, there was definitely something different about her.
I looked at her and she smiled away at me and I looked at her from a different angle and she just kept smiling away.

Then it hit me!

Her head was smaller.
It was the most bizarre thing.
I have a medical background and I figured, how could this be?

But, the more I looked at her, the more I was convinced that yes indeed it was smaller.
I went and got her favourite hat. The one I always have to tug on her head so that I could be objective as well as subjective and it plopped straight on.

Wow!

This was about the time that she had gone through a period of improvement and has since just taken off.
I think I can honestly say that she is not the same girl this month as she was last month.
I think I can honestly say that she is not the same girl this week as she was last week.

Now I don't understand how this happened but it did.
Eric's head has not grown and I remain hopeful.
Rachel and Sarah's heads are of a normal size and now so is Katy's.
John and Nathan's head are on the rather large size and disproportionate for their bodies although Nathan's doesn't look so bad because he is bigger.
Later.