The Daddy & Family Magazine Winter 2014 Issue #1 | Page 29

About Elly…
Elly Taylor is an Australian Relationship Counsellor, researcher and columnist and
her passion is turning connected partners into connected parents. She writes
regularly for Practical Parenting magazine and Daily Life website and her first book
Becoming Us, 8 Steps to Grow a Family that Thrives has been warmly welcomed by
parents and birth and family professionals. Elly lives by the beach in Sydney with
her firefighter husband, their three children and a bunch of pets.

Find her at~
www.ellytaylor.com
www.parentsupportonline.com
www.becomingus.com.au

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Are Kids BORN
To OBESE DADS
At More Risk
For AUTISM?

Breaking News. A new report published online on April 7 in Pediatrics, have found a
link to fathers' obesity with an increased risk of autism in their offspring. Researchers
found that of nearly 93,000 Norwegian children they followed, those born to obese
dads had double the risk of developing autism. But the odds were still small: just under
0.3 percent were diagnosed with autism, versus 0.14 percent of kids with normalweight fathers.
This link is so new that the researchers cannot say for certain whether it is the extra weight
that the dad is carrying or whether the dad’s obesity is altering the sperm quality.
Dr. Andrew Adesman, chief of developmental and behavioral pediatrics at Steven and
Alexandra Cohen Children's Medical Center of New York said that even if fathers' obesity had
only a small effect on autism risk, that would still be concerning on the broad population level
since obesity has become so common across the globe.
Although it is a small risk aren’t our future children’s lives worth taking steps to get in shape?

For more information
The U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention has more
about autism. http://www.cdc.gov/