Mother's early experience of taking care of a child later diagnosed with autism. A follow-up study in the Danish National Birth Cohort

Introduction and objectives: The aim is to study whether prospectively collected information from mothers regarding deviations in their child’s development and behaviour during the first two years of life can predict the risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) later in life.

Methods: In the Danish National Birth Cohort (DNBC) mothers were interviewed about their child’s development and behaviour when the child was 6 and 18 months of age, respectively.
Children diagnosed with ASD in Danish paediatric and child psychiatric departments are registered in the Danish National Patient Register. Thus, it is possible to identify children with ASD in the DNBC and analyses of the information in the interviews will provide information about signs of ASD before the age of two years.

Results: The study is ongoing. The study cohort consisted in august 2010 of 76.441 children; of which 617 children were diagnosed with ASD.
Deviations reported by mothers when the child was 6 months, showed a statistically significant different pattern for breastfeeding and crying in children later diagnosed with ASD compared to the whole cohort. At 18 months only deviations in sleeping showed statistically significant increased risk of later ASD diagnosis.

Conclusion: The results indicate that mothers’ information about deviations in early regulation is associated with the child’s risk of later being diagnosed with ASD.