What puts people at risk of having a child with autism or other mental disabilities

[Peatness]

Autism is higher among certain ethnicities, so there's likely a genetic factor. I'm not saying that's the only factor, though. Vaccines, people waiting until a later age to have children, exposure to environmental toxins, etc. all most likely play a part, as well.

It has been shown to be linked to vaccines but evidence is being retracted

Measles-mumps-rubella vaccination timing and autism among young African American boys: a reanalysis of CDC data - PubMed

The present study provides new epidemiologic evidence showing that African American males receiving the MMR vaccine prior to 24 months of age or 36 months of age are more likely to receive an autism diagnosis.

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[chrstn4o]

Do certain medications or supplements affect that area

I've published a book on autism, and some of the factors that seem to contribute are the health of the mother, maternal immune activation, maternal autoimmune conditions, and such.

Other factors that contribute to immune activation include:

Allergies
Autoimmunity to self-proteins
Activation of microglia
Inflammation caused by the innate immune system
Heavy metals and toxic chemicals
Gut infections and leaky gut

The gut seems to be a big piece of the puzzle. Gut dysfunction is show to correlate with higher autism severity and a number of other things like challenging behaviours. Early antibiotic use I believe also play a role in terms of risk.

 

[Nebula]

Any significant prenatal inflammation can probably cause some kind of brain malformation. LPS is used to induce autism in mice fetus. Strong anti inflammatories like Hydrogen water attenuates autism development in mice that was induced exposed to prenatal LPS.