Association Between Maternal Obesity, Diabetes And Autism, Other Developmental Disorders

More early nutritional child abuse.

A major study of the relationships between maternal metabolic conditions and the risk that a child will be born with a neurodevelopmental disorder has found strong links between maternal diabetes and obesity and the likelihood of having a child with autism or another developmental disability.

Conducted by researchers affiliated with the UC Davis MIND Institute, the study found that mothers who were obese were 1-2/3 times more likely to have a child with autism as normal-weight mothers without diabetes or hypertension, and were more than twice as likely to have a child with another developmental disorder.

Mothers with diabetes were found to have nearly 2-1/3 times the chance of having a child with developmental delays as healthy mothers. However, the proportion of mothers with diabetes who had a child with autism was higher than in healthy mothers but did not reach statistical significance.

The study also found that the autistic children of diabetic mothers were more disabled -- had greater deficits in language comprehension and production and adaptive communication -- than were the children with autism born to healthy mothers.

Hold the parents accountable.