My Dilemma

I have been thinking a lot lately about the choice of whether or not to have another child. Over the past year I have really wanted to have another one but the timing just was not right. The other day it was brought up in conversation during dinner but quickly died there. Before, the choice was simple. Yes I wanted another child. Now it is not quite that easy.

Almost every day I see some article or video about how autism is likely to occur in future siblings. All of the sources report different statistics so this makes my struggle with the decision even harder. Some sources say that,

          “Autism is much more common in boys than girls; overall, the chance of having a boy on the autistic spectrum is about 1 in 50. This increases to one in five if the boy is born to a couple who already has an autistic child.”

 Not liking those odds. Then there is this one,

        “Autism (and its entire spectrum of disorders) is actually pretty common 1 in 166 people have it. If you have one child with autism, the risk for the next child is only 2-6%.”

 Well, that is a little better but as you can see my dilemma, those statistics are drastically different. While I understand not all sources are worth the same in the creditworthiness department, it is still difficult to take all of this information in. With this decision comes some very important considerations that affect not only me and daddy but also Silas and (if) potential child.

 

I just don’t know…

 

 If you feel like reading here are a few links. 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2619619/Autism-risk-ten-times-worse-child-disorder-reveals-study-two-million-children.html

 http://genetics.thetech.org/original_news/news49

 http://www.autismsupportnetwork.com/news/should-parents-autistic-child-have-second-child-39928333

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/autism/detail_autism.htm