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GRANITE BAY, Calif. - Belting out a song while playing his keyboard, Elijah, 9, (pictured) appears to be like any other active boy. But with a diagnosis of autism, Elijah and his pregnant mother may uncover some important clues to the disorder that affects 1 in 100 children.
Julie Fry is 11 weeks pregnant with her second child who has a 1 in 10 chance of being diagnosed with autism. By documenting the foods she eats and the products she uses, her blood and urine samples may reveal exposures to chemicals or pesticides that play an environmental role in the development of autism.
"Hair color, nail polish, sunscreen, perfume, insect repellent," said Fry, who added that she tries to eat organic food. "It seems that they're looking for a connection to pesticides."
UC Davis researcher Irva Hertz-Picciotto is leading the study called "MARBLES," which stands for Markers of Autism Risk in Babies - Learning Early Signs.
"Autism is very clearly not a single cause type of condition. It's got to be multiple factors," said Hertz-Picciotto, who hopes her study will reveal environmental factors that combined with genetics can trigger autism.
"We expect to find a number of different exposures that affect neurodevelopment and may be related to autism mildly, small increments of risk, for each exposure, but there may be multiple exposures," said Hertz-Picciotto.
The study has 100 women enrolled so far and 59 babies. The children will be followed for three years with blood samples withdrawn at regular intervals. Because the children have a higher risk of developing autism, they will also be closely monitored for signs of the disorder.
"Whether or not it helps with our family or families to come or maybe my grandchildren, I don't know. But I do hope that it will at some point bring answers," said Fry.
Beth Haller, Ph.D., is Co-Director of the Global Alliance for Disability in Media and Entertainment (www.gadim.org). A former print journalist, she is a member of the Advisory Board for the National Center on Disability and Journalism (https://ncdj.org/). Haller is Professor Emerita in the Department of Mass Communication at Towson University in Maryland, USA. Haller is co-editor of the 2020 "Routledge Companion to Disability and Media" (with Gerard Goggin of University of Sydney & Katie Ellis of Curtin University, Australia). She is author of "Representing Disability in an Ableist World: Essays on Mass Media" (Advocado Press, 2010) and the author/editor of Byline of Hope: Collected Newspaper and Magazine Writing of Helen Keller (Advocado Press, 2015). She has been researching disability representation in mass media for 30+ years. She is adjunct faculty in the Disability Studies programs at the City University of New York (CUNY) and the University of Texas-Arlington.
From News 10 in Sacramento:
