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Jaundice-stricken newborns more likely to develop autism
by Natalie James - October 11, 2010 - comments
The risk of autism was higher if the child was not the mother's first child, and more if the child was born between October and March.
Babies born with jaundice are at a significantly increased risk of developing autism than other infants, suggests a new study published Monday in the U.S. journal 'Pediatrics.'
Danish researchers, who carried out the study, suggest autism is more common in children who had jaundice at birth, but, at the same time, say new parents shouldn't be alarmed because there's no evidence jaundice causes autism.
Autism-jaundice link found
Full-term babies who develop jaundice at birth have a 67 percent higher risk of developing autism.
The autism risk was even higher for jaundice-stricken babies born between October and March, found the researchers.
Rikke Damkjaer Maimburg, the lead author and a researcher at Denmark's Aarhus University, and colleagues reached their findings after studying nearly 734,000 children born in Denmark between 1994 and 2004.
This seasonal difference, the study researchers suggest, may be due to infections, or due to different levels of exposure to daylight, which has an effect on jaundice.
It’s been known for long that premature babies have a higher risk of autism and this study has found a link between jaundice and autism among full-term infants, said Damkjaer.
Study findings
In the Danish study, more than 35,000 newborns had jaundice, while autism was eventually diagnosed in 577 kids.
Among autistic children, almost 9 percent had jaundice as newborns, compared with 3 percent of children who weren't autistic.
The risk of autism was further higher if the child was not the mother's first child, and more if the child was born between October and March.
On contrary, the risk disappeared if the child was a firstborn child or was born between April and September.
This seasonal difference, the study researchers suggest, may be due to infections, or due to different levels of exposure to daylight, which has an effect on jaundice.
Meanwhile, Dr. Thomas Newman, a pediatrician and epidemiologist at the University of California at San Francisco, who studied the same topic and found no link, has suggested the new results should not threaten parents whose newborns are jaundiced.
About jaundice
Jaundice is a yellow color in the skin, mucus membranes, or eyes. It is caused by higher levels of bilirubin, a byproduct of old red blood cells in the body.
In a normal person, about 1 percent of red blood cells retire every day, to be replaced by fresh red blood cells. The old ones are handled by the liver.
If too much of bilirubin (yellow pigment) builds up in a newborn's body, jaundice may result, causing the skin and whites of the eyes to take on a yellowish tone.
Mild jaundice can cause a slight yellowish-orange tinge to the skin and simply signals that newborns' livers aren't fully mature.
Most babies develop jaundice soon after the birth, but it usually disappears within a week or two without treatment.
"Jaundice is almost always harmless," Newman said. "The evidence for an association (with autism) is weak and inconsistent and evidence for causality nonexistent."
What is Autism?
Autism is a perplexing, life long mental disability that is believed to be caused by brain damage. The condition impairs a child’s natural instinct to communicate and form relationships, and the child usually withdraws into an isolated world of his own.
Autism limits social interactions and disables verbal and non-verbal communications.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that on an average, one in 110 children or approximately 1 percent are afflicted with some form of autism.