Fever From Flu While Pregnant May Hike Risk of Child Behavior Problems

(HealthDay News) – It’s not enough that a mother-to-be who contracts the flu has to suffer through aches, pains and fever during her pregnancy.

It may be that, given certain circumstances, getting influenza and having a fever while pregnant may cause your child to have behavioral problems later in life.

Research indicates that the risk for this happening occurs most often in women who develop a fever during the second trimester of pregnancy. "It's the first study to look at fever with respect to psychological and behavioral outcomes," says lead author Stefan Dombrowski, an a ssociate professor and coordinator of the School Psychology Program at Rider University in Lawrenceville, N.J.

The study, which was first published in 2003 in the journal Birth Defects Research, examined data from a Finnish study from the mid-1970s.

"If moms do happen to get sick, it's important to be aware of elevated fever and try to control that," he adds. Unlike rubella or chicken pox, influenza does not appear to cross the placenta and harm the baby, Dombrowski explains.

He and his colleagues suspected that some other disruption, such as fever, might be causing psychological and behavioral problems in children because that period [the second trimester] of a woman's pregnancy is critical for fetal central nervous system development.

To find their answer, the authors turned to data from a Finnish study of early childhood temperament. The sample consisted of 6,401 children born between July 1, 1975, and June 30, 1976, in Helsinki and its adjacent suburbs. After eliminating data for one twin of each twin pair, the final sample included 6,388 children.

The study compares outcomes at 6 months, 5 years and 12 years for children whose mothers never reported fever in pregnancy and children whose mothers reported fever in the second and third trimesters.

The findings demonstrate a connection between second trimester fever and various measures of temperament, behavior and academic performance.

Six-month-old infants had a much greater chance of becoming more distressed around new situations or strange adults if their mothers had fever in the second trimester than babies born to moms who didn't report fever.

Five-year-olds of moms who had second trimester fever could not attend to play and learning materials as long as their peers and were more socially inhibited in the presence of strange adults or children.

At age 12, children of moms with second trimester fever were significantly more likely to have trouble focusing on tasks and were at greater risk for reduced academic achievement than their peers.

One important caveat: the mothers in the study reported either having or not having fever since their last monthly visit to a prenatal clinic. The data did not reflect the fevers’ duration or intensity.

Dr. Owen Montgomery, an assistant professor of obstetrics-gynecology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia, cautions that a connection between second-trimester flu and developmental difficulties has not been shown in research published in major clinical journals.

"I have concerns about worrying unnecessarily 4 million pregnant women in this season of cold and flu that they would then be dooming their children to psychological damage in the rest of their lives," he says.

Women who are pregnant should get a flu shot, exercise, eat a healthy diet, get plenty of rest and practice proper hygiene, Montgomery advises. But they should not panic if they feel a cold or flu coming on, he adds.

"Women are going to get the flu, and if they're sick, they can absolutely call their doctor or midwife," he says.

On the Web

Learn more about developmental disabilities from the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities.

SOURCES: Stefan Dombrowski, Ph.D., a ssociate professor and coordinator, School Psychology Program, Rider University, Lawrenceville, N.J.; Owen Montgomery, M.D., assistant professor of obstetrics-gynecology. University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia; November 2003 Birth Defects Research (Part A)
Publication date: February 20, 2007
Author: Karen Pallarito, HealthDay Reporter
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