Danish researchers report that children whose mothers had the flu or ran a fever lasting more than a week during pregnancy had an increased risk of developing an autism spectrum disorder. The study analyzed data collected from 97,000 mothers of children born from 1997 through 2003. The children whose mothers specifically reported having the flu during pregnancy had double the risk of being diagnosed with autism before age 3. Children whose mothers had a fever for more than seven days had three times the risk for autism. There was also a small increased risk of autism after the mother’s use of various antibiotics during pregnancy. It also found no association between mothers who reported common respiratory or sinus infections, common colds, urinary tract or genital infections, during pregnancy and autism in their children.
