I'd truly love to have these types of productive conversations more often and definitely appreciate getting the chance to do so with you.

As I understand it, there isn't consensus about regressive autism - studies are split between whether or not it truly is different from the early-onset type, but I can tell you that one day I had one child and the next day I had an entirely different one, as if someone had flipped a light switch. It was an incredibly dramatic and almost instantanious difference. Anectodally, the kids I know who have the most severe disability from autism also had the same experience. And correlation isn't causation, which is why I'd like to see this continue to be studied and investigated without a lot of the rhetoric that now surrounds it. But both the former head of NIH and Temple Grandin have expressed that we need to give more study to regressive autism, in particular. I completely agree. There's definitely a genetic component, but something pulled the trigger in my son's case I believe, and I don't think that is uncommon, although not universal.

No, we definitely don't know enough yet. That's why I'd like to see it continue to be explored without the angry "nothing's wrong with us" attitude of some.