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Hi
my little son is 2 months old. To my shock I recently read that the tranmission rate to children of a parent with MS is 1 in 10 - whereas I had always read up until recently that it was 1 in 100. 1 in 10 is so high, I am a bit worried about his future. But I suppose he has a 9 in 10 chance of NOT having it.....

What things should I do to help him minimise his risk of MS developing? I know that these things can only be hypothetically beneficial based on epidemiology and the like.

I was thinking of:
keeping his vitamin d levels up through diet and sunshine

not being too "anti-bacterial" around him after 3 months

testing him early for coeliac disease (I have that) and keeping to a gluten free diet if needed

What do the rest of you think?

Hi WW...
Just saw your quote on the red head thread re: eight years ago trying to cure MS. I'm coming down off my google high of one year since husband's diagnosis.

My son is his Dad's "mini-me." Same physique and coloring...but there is one big difference.

BEST thing you can do is breast feed. I truly believe there is a correlation. My husband was bottle fed and has a ton of allergies. My son was breast fed and has a great immune system and no allergies.

Breast milk has all the fats and nutrients needed. If you never breast fed your baby or thought you were done, no worries. I would look into a mothers' milk bank in your area. There are moms who help out by donating their extra milk.

Also, be careful with immunizations. I would suggest spreading them out over time. In the states, docs like to load them up on the 18 month visit. There's no hurry, spread them out over you child's life.
Also, try not to worry. (Ha!) try not to worry too much. Your child has less of a risk because he is a boy, and because you are looking out for him from the start.

best,
AC

well i think you mentioned everything that you can do..you can go to the best bet diet website and pull up preventing ms..it focus's on our kids..i think the whole thing is hit and ms...both my parents have ms and neither of my sisters do, but me. its just one of those things..you never know. i wouldn't worry about passing it down. i don't know how accurate that 1-10 is..i thought i had a 1-50 chance because of both parents..do the diet, do the supplements with vid d..thats my advice. and the shots..my 4month old just had hers done. if they have that stuff thermosal then i will spread those out...that stuff has mercury of 49.6 % of its compound. just insane..i will spread them all out. keep doing what your doing..

if i was to mash up one of my vit d of 700iu and give that to my son would that be fine? like mixing it into his juice or something.

WW, I must have missed your birth announcement - congratulations!

It sounds to me like you are doing all of the things you can do with the little information we have. Can i ask where you got the 1 in 10 stat? Here in Canada I have read it's 1 in 40. At least he has the advantage of being a boy.

Another thing to consider is that if he does one day, God forbid, get a diagnosis, you can try to set a good example for him on how to deal with it, on loving life, family and moving forward.

It sounds like he's already a very lucky boy.

Thanks for all the replies so far.

BEST thing you can do is breast feed. I truly believe there is a correlation.

Unfortunately AC I was only able to for 2 weeks because I felt that I had to get back on my Copaxone asap....it broke my heart to stop really, I would love to have continued. But at least he got the colostrum and some milk too for the first few weeks. There are no milk banks in Ireland for ordinary babies - only preterm ones. My son was 3 weeks premature but wasn't considered at any kind of risk as he was a healthy 7lbs weight.

Also, be careful with immunizations. I would suggest spreading them out over time.

- mmm, not sure about how this would work in Ireland. He has already had a "5 in 1" and meningoccocal meningitis. We also get a "BCG" one for TB as it is on the increase in Ireland again. He goes back for booster vaccinations in 2 months/6 months/1 year/4 years intervals but I think what he just had this week was the BIG vaccination so I'm probably too late to avert any problems from that too.

Hutto, I hadn't realised the best bet website had a section on children, taht's great, will look it up. Thiomersal in the vaccination oh dear. Will check it out at his next booster jab.

if i was to mash up one of my vit d of 700iu and give that to my son would that be fine? like mixing it into his juice or something.

Hutto I thought I saw a baby-D supplement advertised in one of the parenting magazines, but I've web-searched (quickly) for it and can't locate. I probably personally wouldn't just give my child my supplement, just in case, without checking with a nutritionist first in case it caused an imbalance in another vitamin or an overdose. If I find the baby supplement I'll let you know.

thanks Punchy! Saw the article here: http://www.webmd.com/multiple-sclerosis ... sk-to-kids the original was published in "Neurology" so pretty authoritative.
Edited to say - just realised that it's roughly 10% of parents with MS who pass on MS. Help me out on this one, porridgey brain day happening again, does that translate as 10% risk to all children of parents with MS too or am I wildly extrapolating off?

I give my one year old daugher this vitamin d3 supplement
http://www.meadjohnson.ca/en/products/vitamins_1.html

My 3-year old give the life extension 1,000iu as its a very small pill and easy for her to swallow

A recent review indicated that a group of nurses who took 400iu supplement had much lower risk of developing MS. My gut feel would be if you kept them on a supplement their risk would be comparitive to the general population.