In this case, immune attack in womb could be to blame
As a baby, Zachary “Herbie” White seemed like any other child.
At 15 months, he would blow kisses and wave goodbye to his grandparents. Soon, however, Herbie began losing many of these new toddler skills. He stopped waving goodbye. He didn’t talk or even look up when people entered the room.
Like one in 88 American children — and one in 54 boys — Herbie was diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder.
Yet research suggests that the roots of Herbie’s autism may have taken hold long before he began losing interest in the people around him. Though doctors may never be able to prove the cause of Herbie’s disorder with 100% certainty, research suggests his autism may be the result of an immune assault that occurred while he was still in the womb.
Research by scientist Judy Van de Water of UCDavis’ MIND Institute suggests that, in certain cases, mothers make antibodies — proteins that normally attack foreign invaders, such as germs — that attack proteins in their baby’s brain before birth. In a study of 316 children, she found these antibodies in 18% of the mothers of autistic kids — including Herbie’s — but none of the mothers of non-autistic children.
When she transferred the antibodies into pregnant monkeys, their offspring also showed signs of autism, Van de Water says. Van de Water can’t explain what causes mothers to make antibodies against their own children, or how such an immune attack might cause the communication and socializing problems that characterize autism.
“They won’t say this caused autism,” says Herbie’s father, Steven White, 54. “They’re being very cautious.”
White, of Haywood, Calif., says he’s glad he’s enrolled in Van de Water’s research, both in the hope of helping his son, who turns 5 in May, as well as other children. “It was a huge comfort to think I’m doing everything I can do.”