Why Obese Mothers May Have An Autistic Child
Pregnancy is the 9 month period during which a woman carries a developing baby inside her womb. This is one of the most important milestones that a woman can experience during her life. During the woman’s pregnancy it is important for her to maintain both a healthy diet and lifestyle because what she consumes or does will affect the baby also. Hence, a pregnant woman should try to maintain herself in the best possible physical state for her own benefit and that of her unborn child.
Understanding Autism
Autism is a medical condition that affects the behavior and social skills, as well as the language development of a child. It often appears before the child turns three years old. Basically, there is no cure for autism itself. However, early and intensive treatment can work wonders for an autistic child. There are a lot of possible risk factors which may lead to a child to suffer from autism. One such factor is when the pregnant mother is diagnosed with a metabolic problem.
According to studies, autism can be acquired by having a pregnant mother who is obese, or who has abnormal weight gain during pregnancy and has a metabolic disorder at the time of her pregnancy.
The reason behind a mother bearing a child with Autism
Medical experts have pointed out that mothers who have metabolic disorders or those who are diagnosed with gestational diabetes mellitus or diabetes during their pregnancies have a greater tendency to bear a child with autism.
Gestational mellitus is a state where a woman has a high level of blood glucose during pregnancy. This leads to the insulin receptor not being able to properly function and the pregnant woman becomes insulin resistant. The hormones that are associated with pregnancy interfere with the normal insulin action.
What happens in cases of gestational mellitus is that with the presence of insulin resistance, the glucose has difficulty entering inside the cell, resulting in more glucose in the bloodstream than normal. In combating this untoward scenario, there is a need to have more insulin. However, because of pregnancy, there is only a little insulin produced in a woman’s body which is not sufficient to able to accommodate the rising glucose level.
The high glucose level in the bloodstream can lead to the baby absorbing it and this will lead to there being too much glucose in the baby’s blood. This will affect the developmental stage of the baby which may be at high risk of acquiring autism if the medical condition is not corrected. Hence, it is important to prevent this occurrence prior to, or during pregnancy.
Preventive action
When a pregnant woman is healthy she is more capable of avoiding or resisting diseases that could affect her and her baby’s health. In addition, a healthy pregnant woman can enjoy life at its best without worrying about spending on medications or hospital expense for her health. Experts recommend that pregnant women invest time in keeping healthy and fit in order to avoid common health problems and enjoy their pregnancy.
Preventing occurrences of mothers giving birth to autistic children ban he helped by maintaining a balanced, healthy diet and lifestyle. Another recommended preventative action is for women to participate in regular exercise such as the 24 hours fitness regime or TRX training which can help in weight loss. Find out more information on TRX training and24 hours fitness at weight loss triumph. There is nobody better positioned to take care of an unborn baby’s health than its mother, but to do this, pregnant women need to care for their own health first as it directly affects the health of their baby.
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The most comprehensive and very well thought out write up I have found on this subject on the net
this is utter bullshit, there is a new reason to blame the mother every other day it seems, depression, anxiety, obesity, it’s all the mother’s fault!
I wonder if we are EVER going to consider the companies who dump billions and billions of tons of chemicals into our environment every year MIGHT be having an impact on our unborn children? Oh heck, why bother? Let’s just blame moms!
yeeeaaah except my mom (forgive me mom…) was HUGE when she was pregnant with me…like in the 300 range. My cousin was 130ish. Guess which one had a child with autism?
@Yessi – He posts pretty regularly, actually. I don’t know why his previous posts don’t show up. I don’t consider him so much a troll, more like he just regurgitates whatever kind of fear-mongering crap he’s heard elsewhere. And this post is exactly that ~ word vomit.
Bottom line: As mothers we do EVERYTHING we can to have healthy babies and turn them into healthy children. Sure, educating on possible prevention is great (if this info is true) but most of us already do what we are able to ensure we have healthy kids. I hate it when doctors/scientists say things later that make us feel guilty for possibly playing a small part in our child’s problems, when they most likely would have been that way no matter what. I am thankful that my daughter has no known medical or behavior problems but I always worry about the future and if I am doing everything right for her.
This guy is obviously just a troll. He has no previous posts, his credibility and sources are next to nothing. Don’t waste your breath ladies. He’s purposefully trying to stir up trouble by appealing to something women in particular are sensitive about in addition to being in the context of autism, something we know just as much about as this guy. 0/10 would not read again.
Right.
I’m an advocate for special needs kids…been doing it for years.
Moms come in all sizes, shapes, and WEIGHTS.
This is like promising women if they are fit, their children will be “perfect”.
And that is just cruel.
@WaitingToShrug@xanga – That was an author bio type page from the main site. Here is Stuart Duncan’s main site. http://www.stuartduncan.name/
I don’t think it’s a spam site. I think he is using his blogger’s (whoever they are WHICH I totally question the authenticity of) articles and posting them here as though they are his own.
@WaitingToShrug@xanga – Sorry if my link directed you to a site that gave you a virus (I have a mac so I wouldn’t know
).
But in all seriousness, I’m not trying to stir up trouble. I just seriously question the authenticity of this article and now this author. I don’t mean to offend him, I really don’t.
But the things that make you go hmmm….
I’m considering flagging this for plagiarism or something of that nature.
Will the real blogger please stand up?
@sarahsmurfette@xanga – Oh, no, I didn’t mean that it *actually* gave me a virus. I meant that the site seemed very shady and illegitimate. Sorry, that reads like I’m serious.
Honestly, it reminds me of the spam comments.
@sarahsmurfette@xanga – He sure does mention NutriSystem and 24 Hour Fitness a lot. I feel like I may have gotten a computer virus on that page.
Then why are there SO MANY autistic children in South Korea? Have you seen Korean women? smh
“mothers who have metabolic disorders or those who are diagnosed with gestational
diabetes mellitus or diabetes during their pregnancies have a greater tendency to bear a child with autism.”
mhh…perhaps, I am getting something wrong here, but to me it pretty much sounds as if the risk factors are forms of diabetes and other metabolic disorders, not the amount of fat cells or the BMI. (Even though the sentence sounds fishy since diabtes IS a metabolic disorder)
FYI, you can have all of that without even being overweight, and there certainly are obese people who don’t suffer from either too. Is this scapegoating of the fat really necessary???? As if it wasn’t enough that the first lady does it, in exactly the same partially destrucive way.
I don’t like it for two reasons: 1.) it leads to fingerpointing to people who look a certain way, just because of that. 2.) everyone who is slim or ‘normal’ feels like they are not at risk.
The advice at the end may or may not be effective regarding the potential causes that are mentioned. What other metabolic disordes are risk factors? What exactly (what chemicals/molecules) are suspected to affect the unborn baby bc the disorders have it common? If your disorder is genetic, you probably can’t help it with exercise. Plus, the obviousness and exagerrated extent to which the advice is taken is offensive. “exercise so and so often that’s how you get rid of your fucking fat (d’uh! really?!) which isn’t even the cause (and otherwise, if you are fat, what, you evidently don’t care about your kid at all?)”. Honestly, is this whole thing an advertisement for weightlosstrimph.com?
I thought this was an article (word for word) by “Dr Amarenda” (who is not a doctor but a med student blogger in India) on the OP’s website here:
http://www.stuartduncan.name/author/dr-amarendra/
I need some medical references for this, and more than one study, to find it credible.
Otherwise, it’s sounding to me like the 1950s all over again. Back then, we blamed moms emotionally. Now we’re blaming them physically?
Hmm, let’s see. I did not have any type of metabolic disorder nor was I obese during my pregnancy. I actually LOST weight with my son and I was being watched by my doctor. It was not due to any disorder. I’m so sick of feeling like my son being diagnosed with Autism has to be my fault somehow. Why add stress to a mother of special needs child by pointing fingers at her. We already have enough stuff to think about and stress about during the day. I don’t need to be looking at everything I have done since pregnancy with a microscope to pinpoint the moment I CAUSED my son’s Autism. My son has Autism and I choose to focus my time in helping him in present times rather than sitting around analyzing and feeling guilty. Been there, done that. I choose to be more proactive in my approach to life.
This does not make any sense to me. I agree with the other two posters, this just seems like another way to blame the mother and/or give people false hope that they can avoid haviing a child with Autism by following a protocol.
@Ikwa@xanga – Agreed!! I personally only know, oh say THOUSANDS of exceptions to this rule. Whatever!
I guess my two runner stick figure sister-in-laws have Autistic kids because it’s their fat fault? No I think not. What else do we blame moms for?