Autism and Terbutaline
So here I am at the end of a nice holiday and I open up one of my favorite mommy message boards and I see a post questioning the link between autism and terbutaline. Great, I’m just over my mommy guilt wondering if and how I may have caused my daughter’s autism and I see a post like this. When I was pregnant with my daughter I suffered from preterm labor; my cervix was dilated and thinning at 26 weeks. I was given steroid shots to help mature her lungs and terbutaline and mangesium sulfate to stop the labor; the labor stopped. I was then put on bedrest for the next 10 weeks and took terbutaline daily. My sister, who also experienced preterm labor, was on a terbutaline pump (intravenous via her leg) for a few months of her pregnancy as well. My nephew has experienced no developmental delays. Ava, on the other hand, has been delayed pretty much from the start.
I certainly don’t have the magic answer with regards to the origins of autism but seeing something like this certainly doesn’t give me a warm fuzzy feeling. Many of the mothers who responded to the post said that they, too, were on terbutaline and now feel guilty about not researching it. The original poster shared a few studies: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=16417856&query_hl=2&itool=pubmed_DocSum and http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=17400887&query_hl=25&itool=pubmed_docsum . One is from 2005 and another from last month. I decided to poke around the web a bit and found this site: Terbutaline Lawyers. The domain was registered in 2004 so the suggested link between terbutaline and developmental delays/autism goes back at least that far. I was trying to find the origin of the studies first suggesting this link but was unsuccessful. I am curious how far back this goes. The poster on my mommy board was curious why this link wasn’t discussed in the media as a possible environmental trigger. My guess, without regards to whether or not I support this theory, is that not as many women are affected by the terbutaline plus autism combination as are by vaccinations and autism. I am just using this as an example as it seems that the vaccine/autism link is the most popular and therefore widely recognized theory.
Whatever the case may be, my daughter is my daughter and I take each day a step at a time. Each night when I go to bed I look forward to what the next day will bring me. I have two wonderful children that I am very thankful for.
April 8th, 2007 at 5:42 pm
Well that’s just all you need after such a great day.
You know, it seems that almost every day there is something new with which we can beat ourselves over the head with. I’m sorry you’ve had this experience as so often you’re just bimbling along fine until some else decides to chuck a brick into the mix.
Best wishes
April 8th, 2007 at 6:06 pm
Thank you for posting this, that’s definitely how I feel, like someone chucked a brick into the mix.
April 9th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
I, too, was on terbutaline for 15 weeks and I DID research it (since I happen to do market research professionally and was pre-med in college, it was not too tough!).
I shared the available studies with my friends who are physicians, and NONE of them said that the science behind the studies was well done.
That being said, my son has had fine motor control problems and difficulty pronouncing certain sounds. We’ve invested in $$ of OT and speech therapy and things seems to be going well as he gets older. Other terbutaline kids I know have had similar muscle issues.
We wish you and your daughter all the best!
Big hugs,
Allegro
April 9th, 2007 at 3:45 pm
Thank you Allegro. I am a huge fan of OT, it has done so much for both of my kids. May you continue to see improvement in your son.