Extreme morning sickness linked to neurological delays in children

Women who suffer from extreme morning sickness are three times more likely to have a child with neurological developmental disorders than mothers who experience mild pregnancy symptoms.

That’s according to a new study out of UCLA, which discovered children whose mothers suffered from hyperemesis gravidarum — or HG — within the first five weeks of pregnancy were more prone to developing attention and sensory disorders, as well as language and speech delays, by the time they turned 8.

While morning sickness is fairly common in pregnancy — about 80 percent of women experience it in one form or another — hyperemesis gravidarum is somewhat rare, with just 285,000 cases of hospitalization reported in the U.S. each year, according to the American Pregnancy Association.

HG is typically characterized by severe and violent vomiting, nausea, electrolyte disturbance and weight loss, according to the APA. In extreme cases, women have to receive IV fluids in the hospital due to an inability to keep anything down. Symptoms can last anywhere from a couple of months to an entire pregnancy.

A team of researchers led by Marlena Fejzo — an associate researcher at the David Geffen School of Medicine — set out to identify what impact HG had on a child in utero. They looked at 312 children born to a few more than 200 women diagnosed with HG during pregnancy, and 169 kids born to 89 mothers without the disorder.

Most of the children were about 8 years old at the time of the study.

Researchers found that children of HG mothers were 3.28 times more likely to develop neurological delays than the children whose mothers did not experience extreme sickness. The types of delays were varied — 19 percent of HG babies were found to have an attention deficit disorder and 24 percent developed speech or language impairment, according to the study.

Additionally, the earlier HG manifested itself, the heavier the impact on the child.

“What we did find is that very early symptoms do seem to increase risk,” Fejzo told Rueters. “The theory then would be women who get symptoms very early are getting nutritional deficiency and dehydration and that’s leading to the problems.”

The HG mothers in the study each lost at least five pounds during the first months of pregnancy and required IV fluids, according to the study.

“These findings show that it is vital to take HG seriously so these pregnant women can get nutritional support right away,” Fejzo said in a statement.

The good news: Researchers found no link between the neurological disorders and the medication commonly used to treat HG.

“I speculate that the neurodevelopmental outcomes are more likely caused by nutrient deficiency early in pregnancy rather than medication,” Fejzo said.

Overall, women shouldn’t be too concerned about the study results, Fejzo said. Fifty-one percent of the HG children in the study showed no neurodevelopmental delay at all.“The majority of women should not be concerned about this,” she told Reuters. “It’s important to be aware, but I don’t think it’s cause for alarm at this point.”