Premature Babies Have Higher Risk Of Autism

A brand new study, published in the journal 'Pediatrics', has established that premature babies are five times more likely to have autism compared to babies born at normal weight. Researchers advise they have now established a link between low birth weight and autism.

Autism experts based at America's University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing followed 862 young people over 21 years for the study. Lead author Jennifer Pinto-Martin said: 'As survival of the smallest and most immature babies improves impaired survivors represent an increasing public health challenge. Emerging studies suggest that low birth weight may be a risk factor for autism spectrum disorders, known as ASD's.

Links between low birth weights and and cognitive disorders have been confirmed by previous studies. But this latest study, which followed infants born between September 1984 and July 1987, some weighing just a pound at birth, is absolutely the first to establish the link to autism.

Dr Pinto-Martin advises that cognitive problems in children born prematurely may be masking underlying autism, and advises parents or are suspicious of autism, should ask for an evaluation of ASD.

' Early intervention improves long term outcome and can help those children both at school at home,' she added. Future studies carried out by the group will look at possible links between brain haemorrhage, a known complication of premature birth, and autism by examining scans taken of the children as newborns.

One in 100 Britons is estimated to be autistic. But just 20 years ago, scientists estimated that fewer than 1 in 1,000 people had the condition, indicating a dramatic increase. The higher rates in recent years have been attributed to various causes, including better detection, as well as genetic and environmental influences.

This study backs up an earlier study by researchers at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, which discovered one in four babies born prematurely could be at risk of developing autism.

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Autism Risk Trebles If You Conceive Again Within 12 Months

A new study by Dr Keely Cheslack-Postava, of Columbia University, New York, has shown that women who become pregnant again within a year of giving birth could be putting their next child at an increased risk of Autism.

Such babies are three more times likely to have the developmental disorder according to researchers, who state that women's bodies need time to recover from a pregnancy, with the result that children conceived too quickly after childbirth are more likely to be deprived of vital nutrients.

Based on a study of 600,000 California families, the results help prove that closely spaced pregnancies can be dangerous. British doctors, however state there is no reason to panic and stressed that the chances of any baby developing autism is very remote. But they have also advised mothers to leave a gap of at least a year in between having a baby and getting pregnant again.

Published in the respected medical journal Pediatrics, the study looked at the incidence of autism among 663,000 second born children in California born between 1992 and 2002. The results of this study suggest that children born after shorter intervals between pregnancies are at6 an increased risk of developing autism.

The highest risk was associated with pregnancies spaced less than one year apart. Second children conceived within a year of an older sibling's birth were 3.4 times more likely to have autism than a typical child of the same age.

Babies concieved 12 to 23 months after the first child were 1.9 times more likely to have autism, whilst a gap of two to three years between pregnancies increased the risk 1.2 times.

The overall reason for this, according to the study, is that closely spaced pregnancies increased the risk that a baby missed out on nutrients, particularly Folate, needed during pregnancy, in addition to other considerations such as maternal levels of iron, polyunsaturated fatty acids and stress.

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