Warning to parents over autism as link between eight common health issues discovered

Children who breathe through their mouth, snore, fiddle with their ears and have worse hearing during a cold are more likely to be autistic, according to a new study.Experts say they found a link between common ear, nose and throat issues with high scores on key autism traits, and with a diagnosis of autism.The health issues, which also include rarely listening, going red, pus or sticky mucus discharge from ears, were linked with the developmental disorder and poor coherent speech.However, the team stressed that their study, published in the journal BMJ Open, does not prove these conditions cause autism, or that children with autism are more likely to suffer these illnesses.Previous studies have also suggested a link between these sorts of infections and autism.Dr Amanda Hall, honorary senior research fellow at Bristol Medical School and senior lecturer in audiology at Aston University, told the PA news agency: “I think the type of study design doesn’t allow us to say whether it has a causal influence or not.“I think what it does do is it adds to the pattern of results that have been reported in the literature for a long time that children with autism have different early history than children who aren’t autistic.“Early medical history – so ear infections and more broadly – is different in autistic children compared with children who don’t have autism.”She said the team found that common ear and upper respiratory symptoms appear to be more common in children with a subsequent diagnosis of autism or high levels of autism traits.“However, it is also important to note that these ENT (ear, nose and throat) symptoms are very common in childhood and most children who experience these signs and symptoms do not go on to be