Gestational Diabetes and Autism

[taffywelsh]

Hi there,
I am new at this forum, but I really like it.
I was wondering about gestational diabetes and autism. Has anyone had GD with a previous pregnancy, and did your child have autism? Does anyone have it now, and how are you regulating it?
Thanks so much
Taffy

[MaerynPearl]

Not myself but my SIL has pretty bad diabetes in general (and the study says it does not just have to be GD but any form of diabetes) and my nephew does not show a single sign of autism but rather the complete opposite of every sign.

[AllyRae]

I have a child with autism and my blood sugar was perfectly normal...

[umsami]

I've never seen anything linking the two. (Or Type 2 or Type 1 diabetes and autism.) I haven't seen anything linking the genes associated with diabetes with autism either. They do suspect that there are environmental aspects to developing autism... possibly in-utero... but as of yet, I have not seen anything linking it to GD. Here's an interesting article on genes and autism... and some of the research that is going on now:
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jun...genes-20100621


As an aside, three GD pregnancies--none of my kids are on the autism spectrum.

There are plenty of reasons to manage your blood glucose levels during pregnancy, especially if you do have GD... but I don't believe that fear of developing autism is one of them currently.

[MaerynPearl]

Originally Posted by umsami

I've never seen anything linking the two. (Or Type 2 or Type 1 diabetes and autism.) I haven't seen anything linking the genes associated with diabetes with autism either. They do suspect that there are environmental aspects to developing autism... possibly in-utero... but as of yet, I have not seen anything linking it to GD. Here's an interesting article on genes and autism... and some of the research that is going on now:
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jun...genes-20100621


As an aside, three GD pregnancies--none of my kids are on the autism spectrum.

There are plenty of reasons to manage your blood glucose levels during pregnancy, especially if you do have GD... but I don't believe that fear of developing autism is one of them currently.

A 2009 study linked it to it.

(Im trying to find the study but I also have to run out and do errands so if someone gets a link to it before me feel free to post)

[umsami]

Originally Posted by MaerynPearl

A 2009 study linked it to it.

(Im trying to find the study but I also have to run out and do errands so if someone gets a link to it before me feel free to post)

Thanks.. found it. Doesn't look like a strong correlation... and could be related more to maternal age IMHO.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19567888

The factors associated with autism risk in the meta-analysis were advanced parental age at birth, maternal prenatal medication use, bleeding, gestational diabetes, being first born v. third or later, and having a mother born abroad. The factors with the strongest evidence against a role in autism risk included previous fetal loss and maternal hypertension, proteinuria, pre-eclampsia and swelling. CONCLUSIONS: There is insufficient evidence to implicate any one prenatal factor in autism aetiology, although there is some evidence to suggest that exposure to pregnancy complications may increase the risk.

[MyFullHouse]

"The factors associated with autism risk in the meta-analysis were advanced parental age at birth, maternal prenatal medication use, bleeding, gestational diabetes, being first born v. third or later, and having a mother born abroad. The factors with the strongest evidence against a role in autism risk included previous fetal loss and maternal hypertension, proteinuria, pre-eclampsia and swelling."

My oldest is on the autism spectrum. The only factor above that would apply is the fact that he's my oldest. Outside of that, his father's family is full of undiagnosed ASDs, and I have some traits of my own.