The Scotsman

Vitamin pills in pregnancy may reduce autism risk

- By JANE KIRBY

Taking multivitam­ins in early pregnancy may reduce the risk of children developing autism, research suggests.

Experts found that children whose mothers had taken the vitamins were around half as likely to develop autism as those whose mothers had taken none. But the team cautioned that although they had found a possible associatio­n, more research was needed.

Writing in the British Medical Journal, experts from universiti­es and hospitals in Philadelph­ia, Stockholm and Bristol examined data for 273,107 mothers and their children living in Stockholm.

The children were aged between four and 15 by 31 December 2011. The woman’s use of folic acid, iron, and multivitam­in supplement­s had been recorded at their first antenatal visit.

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