Taking Prenatal Vitamins in First Month of Pregnancy Can Reduce Autism Risk, Study Finds

Funny you should mention this. With my first I took prenatals everyday. With my second not so much. Guess which one has Austim. My first.

I agree with you. I took prenatals vitamins during all 3 of my pregnancies and I have 2 out of 3 children affected by autism. This study is off by a long shot.

I Agree, 4 children took vitamins with all only one with Autism! And only one with that wonderful 18 month series of 7 vaccinations at once,, that would be the one with Autism. Try again

So ...here again, it is the MOM's fault? First it was "refrigerator mommy" NOW it is the MOM not taking her vitamins?
Can be ANYTHING about the environment or the contaminants like mercury in the air and water? The mercury content in TUNA which they used to RECOMMEND to pregnant women is now on the Don't eat list due to the MERCURY content in Tuna. Hmmm...

BTW...I took prenatals while we tried to get pregnant, and guess what? Yep. He is autistic. POOF!
Did they even ASK any parents of autistic kids about their prenatal vitamin intake in this study? Or just like a hundred or so and extrapolated from that data? They need a larger data set!

maybe rnntexas is on to something. i hate fish and seafood, i never eat it. i have 3 kids and none of them have autism. just sayin..

Sharon, that 35% in 1970 was classified as Mentally Retarded. If you look a the graphs the increase of Autism mirrors the decrease in Mental Retardation.

My doctor told me 50 yrs. ago that if I ate a well balanced diet, I didn't need vitamins. I'm 73 yrs. old & my mother didn't take vitamins & she nursed her 4 children (which was during the depression when just putting 3 meals on the table was no small feat). I would only take a vitamin if I were told by a doctor I had a deficiency & it was causing a problem.

I work in a 5-6 middle school in an affluent community. The number of kids identified on the spectrum has significantly increased in my 18 year tenure, but the two key words here are identified and spectrum. More kids are being identified and placed within a wide spectrum. Autism takes on many complicated characteristics, but as we learn more we are better at addressing an individual's needs. It's tough to be sure, but more kids are being helped instead of being allowed to fall through the cracks. I think people with the varying degrees of autism have always been among us just not identified.

I resent your comment about bad parenting. I have 4 kids, took prenatals with all of them, stayed at home to raise them. We discipline them, demand respect from them and expect them to to follow the rules we established in our house. Our third child had significant delays in his speech and social skills, which had nothing to do with the way we raised him. Your ignorance to what consitutes autism is a sad statement on our society.

Until you walk in the shoes of an autistic parent or child...you know nothing. I dare you speak of bad parenting. I have 2 children...1 with autism and the other typical and gifted. Those who deal with this everyday need people to upbuild them ...not tear them down. Help find a solution, we have enough blame.

I did take prenatal vitamins with both. Not sure about this suggestion.

NOPE!!! My son is 24 years old and I took vitamins, rested, did everythng right and boom at 22 months-AUTISM...Wasn't lack of prenatal anything. Please don't do this to the mom's. "Refrigerator Mothers"was disspelled years ago. Let's not go there!

baloney! have you ever SEEN an autistic child? My child minds me just fine. He understands everything I say. Everything said ABOUT him, too by mean spirted people who say it is just a parenting problem or bad behavior on the part of the parent. The child cannot speak clearly. Cannot form sentences verbally. He can communciate on a keyboard, but his attention span is very limited, and he can be very impulsive and self abusive. He was like 6 before he ever said I love you mommy.
So tell me, how EXACTLY did I contribute to that? Don't you think that I would have LOVED to hear " I love you mommy " WAAAY before then? Don't you think that I would LOVE to have his life, and MY life so much different? Have a NORMAL conversation with my 10 yr old? How is that a PARENTING error?
Ignorance is rampant and you are right in the crowd there!

In response to all of the presumptuous and snide replies, you self righteous snobs don’t know me nor what I deal with in life, yes I do deal with children on the "autism spectrum" in the family and I can tell you FOR A FACT that these kids "on the autism spectrum" are completely different when they are not around their parents! When their parents are around they have all sorts of behavioral issues, etc. when the parents are away and they are around adults that refuse to excuse every behavior as "being ok because they are autistic" the children seem to be miraculously healed and act completely different! So do not tell me that you know oh so much more than me, as one comment here noted, you don’t know unless you walk in my shoes either so get over yourself!

How little you have learned. Every autistic child is different ...as you should know. (having one on the spectrum, as you say). So I can say "you have not walked in my shoes" or any other parents shoes for that matter. They acted different in many situations. My child acts better for me because he knows i expect more from him. They are very smart about what they do and adapts to the people around them. So again, you can't lump everyone into your experiences.