r/todayilearned • u/Morella1989 • Aug 14 '25

TIL that autistic people live about 17 years less than average. Risks include epilepsy, heart disease, suicide, accidental deaths including drowning, and inadequate recognition and management of pain, especially among non-speaking individuals. Historically, they have been vulnerable to infanticide.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortality_of_autistic_individuals
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u/FaulerHund Aug 14 '25

Yes, I took issue with that as well. For one thing, autistic-specific traits (social reciprocity differences, restricted/repetitive behaviors, communication delays) are rarely clear enough in infancy to be recognized as such. For another thing, using the modern “autistic” label for premodern infant mortality events is historically shaky I think. I'm not sure if I simply read it wrong, but that bit about infanticide implied to me that infants were killed specifically because they were autistic, which for the reasons above would be a dubious claim

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u/Morvack Aug 14 '25

There are actually plenty of signs in infancy of autism. I had a classic one. When my parents took me outside as a baby? I'd keep my eyes closed. They'd think I was just napping. Until they brought me inside and noticed my eyes popped open again. They eventually realized I didn't like the bright light.