Prenatal Vitamins May Ward Off Autism, Study Finds

Scientists have identified an unexpected factor that may play a significant role in the development of autism: prenatal vitamins.
A new study reports that mothers of children with autism and autism spectrum disorders were significantly less likely than mothers of children without autism to have taken prenatal vitamins three months before conception and in the first month of pregnancy. The finding, published in the July issue of the journal Epidemiology, suggests that taking vitamins in this period may help prevent these disorders, reducing the risk by some 40 percent.

Study: Prenatal Vitamins Cut Autism Risk

Women who reported not taking prenatal vitamins immediately before and during a pregnancy were twice as likely to have a child with autism, UC Davis researchers reported Wednesday. If the women also had a mutation in a high-risk gene, they were seven times as likely to have a child with the developmental disorder, the researchers reported in the online edition of the journal Epidemiology. The study is scheduled to appear in print in July.