Clarity received and appreciated. Day-um, how many kids you got? Busy lady...
I have eight kids, five boys and three girls. I have four boys (what a surprise!) that I could have "labelled," and one of the girls.
Now, it's possible that there's been an increase in genuine autism cases. Vaccines might be an issue; I don't find the evidence for or against that possibility to be sufficient.
Additionally, television and video games, institutional child care, and other factors may contribute to some symptoms.
However, when you read the criteria used for "diagnosing" autism and ADD, you find that any male over the age of one could be "diagnosed" with one or the other. Doesn't want to sit silently in a chair for six hours? ADD! Learns some subjects more easily than others? Autistic!