The invisible link between autism and anorexia

[1monster]

13. Damn! I could have told them that thirty-five years ago IF the many

psychiatrists, psychologists, pediatricians, family doctors, licensed clinical therapists, and social workers had ever connected the ELEVEN markers for autism with autism. (For the record, these days seven markers are all that are needed for a diagnosis of full autism.) Not knowing anything about autism, I finally figured out that he fell somewhere under the autism umbrella when he was 20 years old. He wasn't officially diagnosed until he was 35.

My stepson was always seriously underweight, refused to eat -- had to be bribed, sung too, tricked, given appetite stimulating drugs, and otherwise coaxed into eating. Even as a newborn infant, it was difficult to feed him... His mother used to squeeze formula into his mouth and then blow on his face to get him to swallow.