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Autism Risk Higher With Closely-Spaced Pregnancies
Filed under: Medical Conditions, Research Reveals
The timing of pregnancies could affect autism odds. Credit: Getty Images
More fuel to throw on the burning autism debate: A new study says how closely together children are born may play a role.Second children who are conceived within a year of their older sibling's birth were more than three times more likely to be diagnosed with autism than those conceived more than three years after their older sibling was born, according to an article in the journal Pediatrics.
Researchers looked at records of babies born in California between 1992 and 2002 and examined the odds of autism in more than 660,000 second children. They found that the further apart pregnancies were, the lower the risk of autism in the second child, the article says. Compared to children conceived more than three years after their older sibling's birth, children conceived 12 to 23 months after a previous birth were twice as likely to have been diagnosed with autism, and children conceived after a 24- to 35-month gap were one and a quarter times more likely to have been given that diagnosis.
The study's authors don't know why pregnancy timing and autism are linked, but they suggested some factors that may be to blame, although they didn't test for them. Some of the possible culprits are depleted levels of nutrients, such as folate and iron, and higher stress levels, the article says. The results accounted for low birth weight, premature births and the age of the parents, the article says.
The finding is particularly important because the number of babies born within two years of their older sibling is on the rise, up from 11 percent in 1992 to 18 percent in 2002, the authors write.
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ReaderComments (Page 3 of 4)
1-10-2011 @ 9:16AM
GI said...More and more couples who cannot conceive naturally turn to invitro fertilization or artificial insemination, which involves steroids and artificial hormones. This could be one factor in as to why autism is on the rise, drastically.
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1-10-2011 @ 9:26AM
Janine said...My oldest and first born has been affected and my youngest who is 11 years apart from my first born and 9 from his other brother is Autistic and more severe. THIS IS BULL. I wish they would spend their money in HELPING these kids and not trying to pick them apart. Some of these studies are just not worth our tax dollars.
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1-10-2011 @ 11:01AM
askdal said...Wake Up People! Dope is the cause! Gene damage done to eggs or sperm by dope, smoked, shot up or ingested is the cause. Wake Up!
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1-10-2011 @ 3:22PM
Karen said...My youngest child, who has autism, is 5 1/2 years younger than the next youngest.
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1-10-2011 @ 9:52AM
Susie said...I'm a nurse practitioner in the maternal-child field, and we have always advocated that women space their babies at least 2 years apart for optimum health. Your body needs time to recover from the first pregnancy before you get pregnant again, especially if you breastfed the first baby.
I'm always amused when people believe their own personal anecdotes over scientifically designed studies that look at hundreds, maybe thousands of cases and try to find a statistically significant number (if you took statistics in college, you would know what that means).
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1-10-2011 @ 10:02AM
dee said...that is not true my grand children were 6 yrs a part try again
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1-10-2011 @ 9:56AM
Susie said...Not all scientific studies are funded with tax dollars - some of the money comes from private foundations that fund research, or it may be a private university. Some corporations fund research.
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1-10-2011 @ 10:10AM
Kelley said...More money wasted on a ridiculous research. As many of you have already noted, in the 50's and 60's, it was common to have children very close together. NOW, the huge rise in numbers of kids with autism. Not then ... but NOW. What is the difference now? I have three autistic children. Is it Tylenol? Is it microwave usage? Is it pesticides? Is it plastic? For my children, it was not vaccinations. We withheld them for the youngest two, and my sons are still autistic. Think this was a BWOM. Big Waste Of Money!!
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1-10-2011 @ 12:18PM
Stephanie said...Please have yours and your childrens vitamin D levels checked. The currently recommended levels are too low. New scientific findings are suggesting that our blood levels need to be upwards of 45-50. Vitamin D is vital during the development of the fetus. Women with less than 30 are considered deficient. Think about when we all started using sunscreen and keeping our kids inside these things coincide with the rise of autism. Good luck to you and your children, God bless.
1-10-2011 @ 10:14AM
Debbie said...It is all bull. My oldest daughter who has Autism is 18 months older then her brother he doesn't have Autism and is a Honor Student and I have another daughter that was born 5 years after her brother and also does not have Autism. I do believe some Autism's were caused by shot's...I took my daughter for 12 month check up and was told to bring her back in when she's 15 month's old for the mmr shot. She was fine before that. My other 2 children got their's too when they were 15 months old. Everyone react's differently to medicine's and vitamin's. There is way too many cases of Autism now....something is just not right....is it the shot's, the food we eat, the air we breathe...Please we need to find a cure!
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1-10-2011 @ 10:36AM
Amanda said...One thing to keep in mind here is that they are not saying 100% of children born less than 3 years apart will have Autism, they are saying that since 92 the percentage has grown from 11% to 18%. I know I feel blessed when I go home and have a healthy typically developing child. These are things that I take into consideration when having a second child. No one can nail down a cause, but 10 of the 12 doctors who initially blamed vaccinations as a cause have changed their mind on the matter. Genetics is key here.
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1-10-2011 @ 10:53AM
Mom of Special Needs kids too said...Remember, autism has a genetic component. So if you have closely-spaced, but healthy kids, congrats-you don't have "autism genes". I find this intriguing, as it points to factors that the mom can control, as spina bifida was wiped out once we understood the role of folic acid. I personally blame aspartame for the increase, which many women drink during pregnancy. But there could be several factors, each turning on a different gene. If there is no autism in your family, you don't have a basis for commenting-leave it to those of us with parents (mine was born in 1926), siblings (mine was born in 1954), and other relatives who are on the spectrum.
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1-10-2011 @ 11:27AM
Ann said...There is something to blame on the rise of autism Years ago you heard of a few cased os this dissease but now its everywhere so some thing is causing it or doctors are mis diagonsing just like they do with add.
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1-10-2011 @ 11:55AM
Paul said...I wonder if anyone has thought of genetics ( familial). With increasing population there is more chance of that. These "doctors" are just guessing. On an unrelated anecdotal my wife's family, she is one of eight, had four and maybe more children who were gay. If that is not familial I don't know what is. My side of the family had none.
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1-10-2011 @ 12:01PM
azjohnny said...my guess is the biggest risk parents can take in preventing autism is listening to politically motivated and clueless liberals and their brethren, oh so caring hollywood actors.
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1-10-2011 @ 12:08PM
Stephanie said...Hi everyone, I just want to add the fact that vitamin D deficiency is likely causing autism. All women of child bearing age should get their blood levels checked and maintain higher than the currently recommended levels. Talk to your doctor and have this simple blood test. Higher rates of autism are found in higher latitudes. People with dark pigmented skin living at higher latitudes have more autistic births. Now this new study supports the idea of nutrient depletion of the mother.
Please have your vitamin D levels checked.
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1-10-2011 @ 12:23PM
dee said...maybe they should check for history of Diabetes in the family tree. there could be a link there. i have 2 grandchildren by different daughters and there father has history of diabetes in the family
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1-10-2011 @ 12:38PM
smiachba said...Everyone I know that has a child that is autistic conceived that child through some form IVF. I would like to see some research regarding this. If you think about the increase in statistics and the increase in uses of artificial means to conceive, there is a strong correlation.
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1-10-2011 @ 12:37PM
Dugan Dean said...In this argument, it seems that everyone can find the exception that disproves the theory. Even the medical community seems to do this. "My kids had vaccinations and they're fine....." means that there's no connection between vaccinations and autism. It's like saying (and I heard this alot during the 1960s) "My grandmother smoked two packs of cigarettes a day and lived to be 90." That must mean that smoking is good for you. I've been dealing with autism since 1985. The only large scale research ever attempted was by a dentist named Bernard Rimland. He found very small correlations between vaccinations and autism. He also found correlations with the use of some drugs during pregnancy. But always ALWAYS most people had no problems at all. The simple truth is that we have no better theory of the causes of autism than we did 25 years ago.
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1-10-2011 @ 12:47PM
mrsvonii said...Could it be, gasp, that the parents did drugs in their youth? No, that can't be it...
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