Was your baby fine after having HIGH B12 in pregnancy? Study showed autism risk!

[Kateeeeeeee]

Hello!

I had very high B12 levels before pregnancy because I supplemented too much, luckily I was made aware of this by my nutritionist in week 6 of my pregnancy which is when I switched to a prenatal with low B12 to get my levels down. This was mainly due to it potentially creating anxiety in my body. (I am now 12 weeks)

However now I am absolutely shattered after I read a study that found a significant increase in autism in children when mothers had very high B12 levels. 😭 I wasn’t aware of this risk!! I am obviously working on lowering them however I worry that the damage might have already been done?! Since the levels take weeks, if not months to go down!

My aim here is to hear from you if you also had high B12 levels and that your child turned out fine.
For reference, my levels hovered around 1634 ng/L which is more than double the reference range but my doctors were never concerned.

If you want to read the study, this is it:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10146734/#nutrients-15-02009-t004

Are you getting any support for your anxiety?

I am not sure if this is relevant to my question, but yes I am, and my anxiety is already a lot better.

How snide.

OP, loads of things raise the autism risk. Older fathers, under active thyroids, not enough B12, too much B12, steroid use, painkillers, diet drinks…

I remember reading with a sinking heart when pregnant just how many risk factors my baby had. Think 6 or 7, all ‘significantly proven to raise the autism risk’. I basically accepted my baby was going to be severely autistic because we seemed to have every risk factor going.

DS is nearly 2, a real chatterbox and completely NT in every way.

Please try not to worry.

I have no idea what my B12 levels were but I'm pretty sure all three of my kids are autistic, and me too and my partner. IME the biggest "risk" for having an autistic child is having someone autistic in the family.

But if it helps autistic doesn't have to mean profoundly disabled, my kids are mostly "fine" they have their struggles for sure and I wish it was easier for them but they also have their strengths that they wouldn't have it they were NT

Wow, this message actually made me cry!
Thank you so much, this is exactly what I needed to hear/read today.
I love this forum for people like you, who write such encouraging messages when we most need them. What a beautiful story, so wonderful to hear how despite all the risks, your little one is so healthy now.

My children are healthy too. And they are autistic. Autistic does not mean they are not healthy!

This is so good to hear! Yes I also read that family history is significant. So wonderful to hear that in many cases like yours, you all live normal lives and that it doesn’t affect you all as much! It’s true that I was definitely imagining those severe cases in my mind. This is very reassuring, thank you.

This!

Also my diagnosed one is a chatterbox, advanced speech is just as not typical as delayed. I have one of each (and a baby... tbd)

Perhaps a better way of thinking about it is that when you have a baby you are rolling the dice on all sorts of things - they could be autistic (which is not the end of the world, I promise), they could have a physical disability, they could have a learning disability, they could be d/Deaf, they could have bad allergies or asthma, they could have mental health problems, or they could be in a car crash when they're 18 and need your help for life. Or none of those things could happen. But whatever your and their lot in life you will have a child who is yours who you love, and you'll work with any challenges life throws at the two of you. And none of it will be because you did anything wrong like take too many supplements.

I genuinely mean this in the kindest spirit because I know anxiety around "what ifs" can be torturous. But parenting is often about surrendering and admitting what you can't control. And learning that even the things you might have been afraid of aren't so bad after all

I cannot see any peer-reviewed evidence that this is true. If you're in the UK then nutritionist is not a protected title and I would take what is said with a pinch of salt. Given what autism is, it feels unlikely that something like levels of B12 in Pregnancy would have a strong association with it

How are you getting on @Kateeeeeeee? I am due to go in for an ivf transfer this Monday and have just found out my b12 levels are high (1506ng/l). My gp has just told me to stop supplementing, but I’m concerned

I have three autistic children and work in the area. If you have a family history of autism, then you are more likely to have an autistic child. It’s the biggest factor!

My autistic children are very chatty, very interactive, clever and verbal. Autism doesn’t ‘look’ a certain way. The increase of threads worrying about autism before babies are even born on in early infancy make me really upset that people think that people may consider something is ‘wrong’ with my children.

I have an autistic DS15. No history of autism in the family.

Over the years I've worried myself, trying to workout what I did to cause it. Now I can add B12 to my list, even though I can't remember if I took supplements.

I have totally relaxed on this now. Like others have said, family history is probably a bigger factor, or even just a whole combination of factors that all add up. I try not to worry about a single factor, because there’s rarely just one cause for anything. And my Nutritional therapist says that B12 is used up quickly during pregnancy because it is so needed so levels should be coming down quicker!

I totally understand. Luckily I can reassure you that the “nutritionist” I plainly referred to for ease is a Nutritional therapist which is more credible than a simple nutritionist which title anyone can use. She also specialises in fertility and pregnancy so I trust that she really knows her stuff. I currently study to become one myself actually, so luckily understand a lot of it already!

I lived overseas with my first and had a very expensive private doctor who advised against pretty much everything (caffeine, unhealthy food, sushi, cheese, etc). She has asd (I likely do too - it’s genetic). My second was born following a much more relaxed pregnancy. She is nt.

please don’t worry op. There are a million tiny things that are assessed to be risk factors which may later turn out to be nothing.

I totally understand your concern, especially if you feel that there is nothing “wrong” with your children.
I somewhat understand that autism is on a spectrum but I am not aware how much and what it may look like. And I believe that most people just have one association with it, which is a non verbal child that is very difficult to care for. Most of us are simply not aware of any other presentation of it.
Apart from this, obviously everyone wants a child that is as healthy as possible, and autism is one of the many things that may stand in the way. It’s difficult to define exactly what makes a child “healthy” and not healthy. I guess somebody could argue that even a child with an allergy isn’t fully healthy. Maybe non of us are, everyone has something. It’s probably not that easy to define. Perhaps it’s just one of those things that everyone has to find their own definition of. For me personally, any condition that is lifelong, not curable makes me view someone as less than optimally healthy. This is no attack on anyone, it’s simply my own definition and someone else may have a different definition.

My two autistic kids are amazing OP.

They've had some struggles but they are them.

Having an autistic child is not having an unhealthy child either. Autism is a neurological difference not a health condition.

I have no idea about the B12 risk.

I don’t think people would worry if their child was going to have autism but be chatty, interactive and intelligent. I wouldn’t. I would worry if they were going to be very mentally unwell with comorbidites, non verbal or struggle significantly in society, which sadly the majority of people with autism do.

While a lot of the messages about very happy and high functioning autistic kids are well intentioned, I think the OP is less worried about that profile and more about others.

This is exactly how I felt when trying for a baby. I wasn’t worried about autism in the sense that my children might need more support to function in school etc, I was worried about profound autism that makes children highly aggressive, unable to toilet themselves, non verbal, smearing, and basically be wholly dependent on other people their whole lives.

its a valid worry and I don’t believe for a second that any mothers of children who have the above issues, wouldn’t take their disabilities away from them if they could.

I hate the rhetoric of “autism” is a superpower. It’s not always the case. If your autistic child is a maths genius, that is not comparable to a child who reaches in to their nappy and smears shit all over the house and used you as a punching bag.

This is reassuring, thanks @Kateeeeeeee. Can I ask how high your levels were?

They are in my original post! :) take a look

Hi @Kateeeeeeee ,
I'm on the same boat as you. Found out that my vitamin b12 levels are very high (<2000 ng/L) and very concerned about this situation.

How are you doing? have you had any additional tests done?

Thanks for answer <3

Hey! I had another test a few weeks ago and results have dropped by about half into a normal range :) very pleased and not worried anymore. Apparently B12 drops quickly during pregnancy because it is needed in large amounts so that theory proved true in this case.