Preventing autism during pregnancy?

[ELP]

I came across a thread about this on another baby site I use, babyandbump, and wanted to post it here as it crosses into diet and things which we have some knowledgeable ladies here on.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/op...me&ref=general

As a boy swayer I will be interested in all thoughts on this subject in general as it affects more boys than girls.

My main concern for me atm is that it mentions that mothers diagnosed with allergies and asthma in the 2nd tri increases her childs risk, I am due to see a Dr this month to see if I have asthma since Ive been very coughy and wheezy since December, luckily this was the start of 3rd tri for me with Davey.

The article goes onto mention that a probiotic during pregnancy could help keep a good anti inflammatory balance inside so helping protect baby. Also the ladies on the bnb site mentioned that avoiding processed sugars and breads also may help to keep the body balanced, I know that bread especially does affect me during pregnancy.

Any thoughts from anyone able to understand the wording of the article better than myself or anyone with experience, views on this subject, greatly appreciated!!

[Mum23boys]

Non of it applied to NE yet my eldest has autism dyspraxia hyper mobility asthma the lot !!! One thing I find frustrating is I did everything by the book and yet he got all this, with my others I ate what I wanted didn't avoid anything, had a few drinks, and they are in perfect health and are never ill unlike my poor first son who gets every illness going. I think being too careful can sometimes do more harm than good to little ones immunity

[nuthinbutpink]

The two articles I've recently read talked about the mother's weight and having kids within a year of one another increases your odds. I hadn't seen what you posted.

[ELP]

Non of it applied to NE yet my eldest has autism dyspraxia hyper mobility asthma the lot !!! One thing I find frustrating is I did everything by the book and yet he got all this, with my others I ate what I wanted didn't avoid anything, had a few drinks, and they are in perfect health and are never ill unlike my poor first son who gets every illness going. I think being too careful can sometimes do more harm than good to little ones immunity

Thanks for sharing Mum23boys I spoke to a paedatrician yesterday on a different subject about peanuts and breastfeeding and he said he was on the fence as to whether avoiding certain things was a good or bad thing sometimes.

[ELP]

The two articles I've recently read talked about the mother's weight and having kids within a year of one another increases your odds. I hadn't seen what you posted.

This article mentions weight aswell, I wonder how the weight may be affecting things inside?? Luckily the weight is ok for me, but the close together thing is something I will look into, I dont suppose you could post a link when you grab a minute

[Mrs_P]

Same for me, my son has same condition - only thing i did wrong was take a really really high strength vitamin (i had health issues and was from doc - lots of vit a in it) before getting pregnant (we weren't trying) and he assured me that could not have caused it either. Otherwise preganancies were identical to the others and they are both fine. Ds1 picked up everything as a baby was on anitbiotics at least once a month after i stopped breast feeding him at 10 months (was fine before). Can't pinpoint illness to anything i did everything by the book (i was adamant i got it right from the beginning as i was sooo worried being a young mom to (23) that i'd screw things up for him and he was soo precious to me).

The thing to remember is anyone can have a child with these sorts of conditions and whilst it may sound scary they are your child and you never know them any different you adjust and cope and its a very wide spectrum some children at the one end its barely noticeable.

[Rosie85]

Non of it applied to NE yet my eldest has autism dyspraxia hyper mobility asthma the lot !!! One thing I find frustrating is I did everything by the book and yet he got all this, with my others I ate what I wanted didn't avoid anything, had a few drinks, and they are in perfect health and are never ill unlike my poor first son who gets every illness going. I think being too careful can sometimes do more harm than good to little ones immunity

I have the same exact situation. With my first I followed every "rule" to a T. I ate super healthy did nothing wrong at all except take some anti-depressants at the very end and DS1 has autism. I do think I believe I know what could be to blame for his situation but it's not my diet that's for sure. With my second I ate tons of junk food, DS2 is neurotyical--at least as far as we can tell.

[Rosie85]

hmmm okay I read the article now, haha. The theory sounds like is has some backing but then like they said in the developing world where infection is rampant autism is less prevalent. How interesting....

I do not recall having an infection of any kind with DS1 other than a head cold at the very beginning but I also had that with DS2. I should look up an article I recently read on Tylenol. They have discovered taking it during pregnancy and giving it to babies especially while vaccinating could be putting them at risk for autism.

I suddenly feel the need to take a pro-biotic though......

[BeadinMom]

Not really related, but I wanted to mention it anyway.
My DS2 has a peanut allergy & severe tree nut allergy. My other 2 boys do not. He's the only one I craved peanutbutter during pregnancy for. I've seen conflicting reports about whether or not that could have caused it, but I do know this...if God blessed us with another baby, I will NEVER eat nuts during my pregnancy again. Never.

[michaela]

Weight causes inflammation in the body. Grains and sugar cause inflammation in the body. I believe there is a link between autism and grains but I don't know that for sure. I do know that a child psychologist that was on IG sent me a message once about there being a link between elevated cytokines in the body and autism but I don't remember exactly the info she sent me. Anyway, Paleo/Primal is a grain and sugar free diet and this is an incredible story. Of course this is just one story but I know there are others out there. Google Paleo and Autism if you are interested. I could try and explain the cytokines things but not sure if people are interested.

Real life testimonial: Scarlet’s turnaround (Autism & Paleo)