How to prevent having a child with Autism

Wow, that sounds like such a heavy post. And I again want to put out the disclaimer, this is MY blog and MY opinion. I am not a doctor although I play one in my own home. These are my thoughts on what I would do if I were planning to have another child (or my first one) knowing what I know today. I recently reconnected with my very first best friend. I found her on Facebook and since then we have been communicating electronically. My blog feeds right in to Facebook and of course I post a lot about Autism. She is newly married and thinking of starting a family soon and she asked me how to prevent having a child with Autism. I thought the question was one I should answer for my blog friends as well.

When I moved to AZ I met a couple of women who also had young children. We all seemed to get pregnant with our second children about the same time. We all seemed to get diagnoses for our first borns (all boys) at about the same time. Two of us went on to have girls, 1 had another boy (and has since had a 3rd boy). We all seemed to face the same issues, maybe in different ways, with our first borns. I began to wonder if this could work the same way as Omega depletion does. When you are pregnant, your Omega stores are depleted as your developing baby uses them for brain development. If you do not replenish them, your subsequent children get less and less omega's which can often times mean less IQ/cognitive functioning. That is why it is so important to get your daily Omega dose since it is so critical for brain development and functioning. I began to wonder if the reverse were true as well, could our first borns also have gotten the bulk of our own toxicity? I mentioned my wacky theory to Dr. Woeller and he said there is a saying about the best way for a woman to detox is to get pregnant. Yikes. So here are some recommendations:

1) Get a good detox program started, NOW. See a naturopath or other health professional. I ask my doctors for them, I do not do my own combos, can't help anyone there!
2) Clean up your diet.
a) Get off MSG (all 200 forms - search my blog for MSG to find out all the ingredients that do the same thing to your brain and cells as MSG).
b) No trans-fats (hydrogenated oils) this includes CANOLA, dump it, now.
c) More raw fruits and veggies, get lots of them, start doing green smoothies (veggies and fruit) in the mornings, big salad with healthy dressing and then a sensible dinner.
d) Only organic meats and dairy (if you must consume dairy). Choose raw dairy if you can. Meats have very high levels of pesticides since the animals store them in their tissues (i.e. the meat we are eating). Biggest bang for your organic buck nutritionally is meat and dairy.
e) If you can, go organic on fruits and veggies, or at least the dirty dozen. There is a list (search the Internet and I think I posted on my blog too) that lists which fruits/veggies you should get organic. Think skin, if it has a thick skin/peel or you peel it, don't worry as much about going organic. Things with thin skins or things you don't peel, think about going organic. A must for organic in our house is strawberries, highest toxicity of fruits.
3) Clean up your environment. Get rid of bleach, pesticides and herbicides. Choose more natural remedies to clean and control pests. Don't use commercial shampoos/conditioners/body washes with things like sodium laurel sulphate, sodium laureth sulphate, etc. I have blogged about this before. We absorb through our skin so our washes and lotions should be as pure as possible.
4) No vaccines before 2 years of age if you choose to vaccinate. I have done enough talking about vaccines, you can search my blog if you want to know why or just do some internet research. Talk to a family who watched their perfectly healthy child fade into Autism after their shots, it could change your mind. And do your research on the immune system, that is going to help your child WAY more than any vaccine. Understanding and supporting immune function is key.
5) Increase your own sulfation and detox pathways. Take epsom salt baths or use epsom salt lotion.

Basically get the junk out and only put good stuff in. I had no clue about ANY of this before becoming a mom. Now I choose foods with the least amount of ingredients possible, and more often make everything my family eats. May seem like a lot of effort, you should try raising a child with Autism, it puts things in perspective. I understand toxicity and what we have done to our food supply. Fast food is crap and should be avoided. Make your own cakes and cookies, they are tasty and a lot healthier when made with REAL ingredients like flour, eggs, butter and milk. Avoid margerine and fake stuff like that. OK blog followers, what am I missing??? If I didn't cover something, speak up!! I live this daily so I could miss something!