Thanks Rainbow, very kind words and much appreciated.

Hi to Maureen. Your post is interesting. Last summer I had suspected my son may actually have Bipolar as well as autism so I took him along to a consultant psychiatrist and he ruled out BP. Then I get my own diagnosis this summer!! I was actually misdiagnosed a few years ago as well by a psychiatrist who said I had an enormously stressful life with my son and I wasnt BP!

Damn, based on this suspicion with my son I did buy the Bipolar Child book but I cannot find it anywhere in my house now.......

I certainly know, and there is evidence, that having an autistic child one and/or both of the parents are at a higher risk of mental health disorders - not surprising when these children are so very complex and have many difficulties. My son has severe sensory integration problems with touch, taste (limited diet), anger outbursts, tells us to shut up and go away, gets extremely hypersensitive and cries very easily. He also has "episodes" almost like an epileptic fit (quite common in autism) where he rocks and rolls his eyes and opens his mouth wide and makes wailing noises - these can last for up to a few minutes several times a day. My son has been identified as having moderate learning difficulties due to his autism.

With regard to your nephew. Its difficult this one as I had a friend who was in complete denial with her son and they alienated themselves so much from everyone else - it was very sad to see. Indeed he was eventually diagnosed with autism.

With regard to age of the parents. I was 30 when I had my son and my husband was 34 - I had heard about this older parent stuff somewhere but cannot think where though, sorry. I do know for a fact that there is also a higher incidence of asperger/autistic traits in the father of an autistic or asperger child as predominantly autism is seen more in males than females. Certainly my husband has some autistic traits but not enough for a diagnosis of any kind or a psychiatric evaluation.

You should say to your brother that if he is willing to get a diagnosis for his son then he should get an assessment done - are you in the US? I don't know how you would go about it there, I am in the UK. My health visitor referred my son at age 3, he is now 10.

PM me if you require any more info, it would be good to keep in touch.

take care