Children

Hi what are the chances of one of my children have MS???

I can’t remember the numbers, but it’s very low.

Having a parent with MS increases the risks only a little: genetics is only one of multiple factors in the development of MS.

Getting them on a vitamin D3 supplement might help cut the risk further.

Karen x

Hi I think someone once put the liklihood of it happening at 7%.

Does that sound about right Karen?

luv Pollx

I thought, depending which research you put your faith in, it’s estimated to be 1 in 40 to 1 in 20, which is from 2.5% to 5% chance.

That is per child, though, so obviously, if you were to have 20 children the odds start getting quite high of one of them being affected. Like the more times you roll a dice, the more chance you’ll throw at least one six - but the chances on each throw (read “each child”) are unaltered.

Tina

My mum had MS - I was diagnosed with it about 9 years ago. My mum immediately blamed herself. There was absolutely no need. I don’t know if she worried about either my brother or me developing MS before I did, but I hope she didn’t. It’s a very small chance that anyone develops it, regardless of their genes. You could say that we’re all very special people

What I’m trying to say is Don’t worry about it, it probably won’t ever happen, and, to be blunt, there’s not much you can do to stop it happening anyway. I think that the advice about vit D and keeping a healthy lifestyle is good, cross bridges when and if you get to them, try not to worry about something that may never happen, it won’t do you any good.

Luisa x

There’s good, sensible, reassuring stuff about this on the main part of this MSSoc site - you might want to have a look there too.

Alison

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I think ALL mums blame themselves - even those who don’t have MS.

Mine keeps asking: “How could this happen? To think Dad and I both thought we were healthy!”

And they were! Neither of them had MS. It was in the family, on my father’s side, but I doubt he even knew about it (I can’t ask, because he died before I was diagnosed). But even had he known, I don’t suppose it would have occurred to him he was “at risk” of passing it to his children. He wouldn’t have known enough about it to be aware of any genetic link, and if, by some chance, he HAD heard of it, he still wouldn’t have thought it enough of a risk to deter him from having children. He was a qualified statistician, and would have assumed the chances were too small to be of any consequence in decision-making.

Tina

Im encouraging my son to take extra vit.d and cod liver oil as hes already got a few bone problems. I believe in instilling good diet and getting plenty of exercise and vit.d so as to avoid as much as is possible any chance. As for genetics, we are stuck with what we have - most msers dont have it in the family and nobody distant either, so chances of a child of an mser developing it? Sounds remote to me.

bren

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