Oh [laughs]. That’s quite a question. Definitely biomedical things. There are definite links there to the sensory things, to allergies. Again these couple of mums that I am particularly friendly with, we have brainstormed and discussed, we would like to do a wee survey locally amongst mums to see what we can find out. There is definitely genetics and it is definite because you can look back to other members of the family and see traits. And people who maybe 30, 40 years ago should have got a diagnosis, now they would. So there is that line definitely, biomedical. Andrews has never had any jabs but that is because my sister and had horrific allergic reactions to jabs when we were younger, particularly the rubella jab we were very ill after that.

So I made a decision and the doctors backed me up and now that they are back in the town, this is where my sister and I grew up anyway, the doctors are absolutely okay with that because they saw the reaction that we had but one of my friends is absolutely convinced that her wee boy was okay till he had it. And whether it has then triggered all the biomedical things, but Andrew definitely had the biomedical things from birth. He definitely had a digestive problems, sleep problems, although at one point looking back on old video tapes at one point he did have a few words. About a year he did have a few words, but by the time he was two and he was diagnosed he had none. So I can see why people say there is regression.

And as a baby the reason they didn’t… they weren’t terribly concerned – the health visitor and the GP – when he was a baby was, he was advanced. He walked quicker, he sat up quicker, he moved quicker, he could do things, he could do jigsaws, he could do shape sorters, like in two seconds, so he appeared advanced. So I can see where the regression thing comes in. Why people definitely feel that because their child seemed clever, bright, alert, advanced and then whoosh, come eighteen months two everything goes backwards and I think with some children it is, the jabs are just thing that just trips them over the edge.

Whether it sets up an allergy thing. I used to be a member of Allergy Induced Autism. They now don’t exist any more but there is definitely an allergy link and there is a big family history on my side of side of the family of allergies, asthma, migraines, skin allergies, reactions to foods. So that is definitely, definitely part of it. It is almost as if with Andrew all these things sort of fit and then sometimes I wonder why was it him and not the girls? And somebody said maybe it is something going back to his birth and who knows. Who knows because he was blue when he was born and he had to get oxygen straight away and the girls didn’t. Was it stress related? There was a lot of family stress at the time and I was on crutches with Andrew as well, but then I was on crutches with Hannah and she is okay. It is really very hard to pinpoint what is the exact but I can see why some of the charities have a jigsaw as logo because it is almost like all these pieces. I don’t think there is any one thing.

We did some hair tests with Andrew three years ago now and where some children with autism it is high levels of mercury or aluminium, he had high levels of tin, which that took a bit of working out but when Andrew was born we were in brand new house and the copper pipes had tin solder and a lot of it. The plumbing work wasn’t terribly well done, that is how we can remember because we remember my Dad inspecting the work and thinking they have made a right mess of this. And they had used a lot of tin solder on the copper pipes. So maybe because then as a baby he was exposed to that. Rachel was already old enough and then we moved from that house before Hannah was born. Maybe

I have thought long and hard about the causes of autism and I have read a lot about it. I think the causes are maybe quite complex. I think, I mean I did everything I could possibly have done right in my pregnancy. I don’t drink. I have never smoked. I have never drank since I was 18. I ate very healthily when I was pregnant, if a bit too much. And I can’t say that I didn’t do anything different in my pregnancy with him then I did with my daughter. They were both 7lb 10 ozs [laughs] though my son was born a little bit early, only about eleven days I didn’t do anything different I didn’t feel him move around as much as my daughter but that might have been to do with the position of the placenta because it was at the front rather than at the back.

It is not surprising she turned into a very good swimmer because she had plenty of practice before she was born, she was very, very active. Robert was not very active and that did worry me a bit when I was pregnant because I couldn’t understand why I wasn’t feeling this baby as much as the previous one, but then he stays pretty much, stays pretty still in bed whereas she is all over the place, so may be it is just different children. The birth was easier, my daughter put me through days upon days of torture with the birth and I had a much more straight forward birth with him. I think there is a genetic link, there may be some sort of environment link. They were both born in Yorkshire there was no difference around that. I was taking antibiotics just before I was pregnant with him. I don’t know whether that was a factor, I had had a chest infection and I was struggling to get over it, whether that played a part, I don’t know whether that was a factor in it but I think there is probably some sort of genetic link there. I can’t say for definite but I think there is some type of genetic link.

They were both, my children were breast fed, my daughter till she was nearly two, Robert until he was two and a quarter because he had eczema as a baby he had hardly any cows milk at all. He had soya milk and soya yoghurts and things like that when he was a baby and it was only when he was getting towards three that I started letting him have a bit of ice cream with his sister and a bit of like, he used to like Babybels because he liked to unwrap them, so when he was sort of two and half, three, I started letting him have a bit of stuff like that. Not very much because I didn’t want the eczema to come back, but because I had it more or less under control with the allergenics cream I just sort of thought oh well I will just let him have a little bit and see what happens, but the autism aggression started kicking in when he was about three.

Whether that has got any links to dairy products, I just really don’t know but he has been brought up vegetarian, although he does eat fish. He is picky and fussy now in some respects with his food. But when he was a baby he wasn’t and really he has always been quite a healthy boy. He has obviously had colds and he has had, you know, chicken pox and things like that. I wouldn’t let him have the MMR. I was ironically, I was determined he wouldn’t have the MMR because I was worried about autism and then low and behold he has autism so I don’t understand that one [laughs]. And I read all the information from Jabs and all the vaccination campaign groups, I read all of that, I wouldn’t let him have the MMR, his sister didn’t have the booster but he did have the baby vaccines when he was like six eight weeks old. I don’t know whether that played a factor. But I just don’t know. His sister had the MMR and she is neurotypical. I don’t understand it. I wish I did understand it.

My… for a long time I was veering towards the MMR but now I am not so sure. I think there might be a little bit of that still lurking in my brain, but I think it is genetic. And my own opinion and I am not a scientist, is that genes and chromosomes mix that shouldn’t mix. You have got me and Andy and what I am saying is I think our genes and our chromosomes are not compatible and as a result of that is autism, ADHD, whatever disability. Like chemistry, you put certain compounds together whoosh. So I think the same theory with genes and chromosomes and stuff. That is what I really do believe and then if that is true or something alone them lines is true, then there is no, we have got no control over that because how would we know.

And then if I go back to the MMR theory which I have still got a little percentage in my head is the same thing. That you are given all these chemicals and jabs and then in certain peoples bodies they have a reaction that might not happen in somebody elses body thus is autism, ADHD, whatever you want to call, this is the reaction of chemicals mixing together. They are saying not, but I have got a little bit of about 10% of me thinks that is a possibility but the majority is genetic I think, genes and chromosomes that don’t mix.

What do you think causes Asperger’s syndrome.

I definitely think there is a genetic influence. My ex husband’s behaviour is quite rigid, is one way of putting it. He doesn’t like any alterations to any arrangements. If we arrange to meet at such and such a time at such and such a place then I have to be there. I have had phone calls when I have been travelling on the train from here down to [town] to meet him, saying You are late, hurry up and get her, and I have said But I am on the train. I can’t make the train driver drive any faster And he gets quite aggressive if things change.

My grandmother was apparently a very difficult character. I’m you know, I could read by the age of three, as I say I was a telecommunications engineer, so I have obviously got that kind of you know, brain. I am left handed, Nicole is left handed. So I think there has been a combination of factors. You know, I had a very good pregnancy. I was very well, very healthy. You know did all the right things so I don’t think there was any impact there.

She was born with Asperger’s. I mean when she was born I had quite a long labour and when she was born the midwife who wrapped her up in a blanket, said, Oh she has just given me a filthy look She said, This one has been here before And she was. She was a very intense baby. She frowned a lot and she stared a lot and she wasn’t I mean my younger daughter, [sister], was really giggly and smiley and laughed a lot, whereas Nicole was a lot more serious. A lot more intense.

We stuck coloured dots on the side of her Moses basket because she just used to lay staring at the side of her Moses bases, so we thought we would give her something to look at so we stuck these coloured spots on the side of the basket. She was definitely born with Asperger’s syndrome. You know she is an aspy through and through and I definitely think there is a genetic component to it.

Well I have a personal vendetta, in as much that I actually blame the MMR needle for his condition because he was probably, he was the quickest of my four children to walk and crawl. He actually walked before he was one. All my other kids were one plus. So in terms of development he was probably the quickest of the four. So there was no worries there. He was okay. But then when he got to about two and a half he had the initial MMR and then you get a booster. And when he had the booster that is when it sort of seemed to stop. He was a normal, smiley, happy kid. Mummy, daddy, cat, dog, blue, green. He could actually work the video. My wife can’t work the video now but he could do it when he was two so he was quite sort of advanced. But then it just sort of slowly. You have got to live with the child, but you can see your own child not … taking up sweets, you know, instead of asking for a drink.

He just stopped. He just stopped. He just put the glass, and I thought he was just being a bit lazy. So it was sort of between two and a half and three we noticed it.