Spina Bifida is also heriditary. I have a daughter with SB. I also have a nephew that was diagnoised with SB Occulta when he was 24 yrs old. He still has back aches. I have been doing my own research for 33 years and here is what I found from the New England Journal of medicine and from the JAMA. BTW anyone can go to the Medcial library and do research and study the same thing that the docs read.
First of all SB can be caused from heridity, lack of Folic Acid, and Vitamin defiency. Also from Enviironmental like paint, household cleaning products are among some of the thingss. One journal form England said that sitting in a very hot Tub could casue neural tube defects. SB happens in the first ten days of conception so by the time you find out you are pregnant your baby could have SB. Most babies are found when a ultra sound is completed. There are over 60 million people born a year with SB Occulta and do not realize it. they just have bad back pains and a child will complain about their legs hurting. I founded the SB Assoc in our state in 1976 and have met many parents and children. I know of one family that has 3 children born with SB, one was adopted but the oldest and the youngest both have SB and are blood kin. I would nto ever discourage peopel from having babies even if they are diagnoised with SB. I know of too many parents that have SB and have very healthy babies.

My dr told me it is not hereditary but I believe differently. I just recently found out I had SB Occulta. My dads sister had a baby around the same time I was born the was stillborn and had severe SB. My little brother has MANY symptoms but has never been checked. I am trying to conceive so I am taking LOTS of folic acid to prevent it as much as possible! Good luck

I would also be looking for a good prenatal vitamin. Not the ones form Walmart but from a good health industry. When I speak to Companies on how to keep their employees healthy I always educate women on the need for Folic Acid and prenatal vitamins if they are thinking of adding to their family.

Hi

My sister has a occulta; she is 43 and I have Myelomengecele. My family had never heard of it until I was born and my older sister was told of hers when she was in her 30's. Cat

It is so sad that SB is the most common crippling birth defect in America yet most everyone has never heard of it until they have a child born with it. I found out through my own research that Ireland has the most children born there wtih SB. The resarch indicated that it was from eating the eyes of the potato. I never went any further with the research. Our last membership records in our state we had over 400 children on our mailing list. That is just the ones we knew about. I am not as involved with the SBAO as I have been in the past due to my husbands illness. The Spina Bifida association of America was trying to make SB a household word by educating people. I still get calls from people who had a child born with SB that is requesting info.

the doctor told my mother back when I was born that it had something to do with potato eyes. I havent hear anything more about that either. maybe I should look into it more?

When I was doing more researh on SB I found that 4 out of 5 babies are born with SB in Ireland. Maybe more research should be done. I love learning all that I can. I am not able at this time to do more research. My heart goes out to all of the adults with SB because there are not a lot of info out there for the doctors to do research on. I do know that we have more living adults with SB than ever. I wish that there was a MM clinics for Adults that were born with SB.

i felt i had to comment. so i shall. i have SBO and I only found out when I was 18. Whereas my family knew when I was an infant. mine was discovered in Germany. Where they still seemed to be in medievil times with it and as opposed to treating me my mother was accused of munchausens (sp.) idiots! even though prior to that Id never so much as had a doctors appointment. I live in england now and have done for about 16 years. and when i tell people that I have spina bifida you can almost see the big question mark appear over their heads as they havent got a clue what it is. to be honest Im getting sick of explaining. (just emphasising lack of public knowledge) I must also say that when I first found out by a GP slip-up I didnt think much of it, my reaction was one of those with the question marks. it didnt help that my family seemed to be in denial. i had to explain it to my sister who had given birth weeks earlier that I had it and her immediate reaction as I told her was that I was going to die and she cried. Followed by anger as she refused the SB test for the baby as its seen as low risk over here and down to the parents preference. Luckily my nephew is clear.
And I'm sorry, I refuse to believe that SB is or ever was caused by potato eyes. Am I the only one that thinks this is ridiculous. fair enough I agree outside factors could contribute. But from what I have been made aware of which again may be wrong is that the exact cause isnt known. only how and when. please correct me if Im wrong. I just really dont think potato eyes have anything to do with it. probably poor diets smog and bad weather didnt help.

33 years ago there was not much information on SB becaseu most children didn't live past the age of ten yrs. The Jama is where I read the info on the eyes of the potatoes adn it is in the medical books back then. they beleived that there was a chemical in the eyes of the potatos. HEre in America we don't have the eyes in our ptoatoes. right after I read that over 30 yrs ago I was afraid to eat any potatoes. I was only 23 yrs old at teh time so I was in shock. I have not done any research in the last 10 years so I don't know what the JAMA's beleif of why more children are born in Ireland with SB compared with other countries. Just my $0.02

please dont be offended with what i said. i know it wasnt your personal beliefs on what causes it. pretty much like drilling a hole in your skull to remove a headache(iron age) things change. but in this day and age i personally find it hard to believe. if someone said that to you now would you believe what they were saying? (without knowledge beforehand)

I am not sure only becasue there has got to be a reason that SB is higher in Ireland than any ohter nation. I knwo the eyes of the potatoes sounds crazy but teh study I have been doign in nutrition I realized that there is a lot of things that we need to be careful about eating due to the natural poisons in things. I am sure I would problably do more study on the eyes of the potatos since Jama so clearly stated tht there was a chemical in them. And results is everything so when you come to the place of Ireland has more children born each year with SB you gotta be more open minded.

Who would have thoguht some 26 years after my daughter's birth that they would have programmable shunts? You place the shunt in the with surgery but if it needs revising they place the patient in the MRI and reprogram with a magnet. My daughter has one and it has already kept her from one surgery when her shunt just needed readjusting. So many new things that are so helpful to us.

my brother has the closed leasion of sb and my son has sb mys

My daughters paternal grandmother has myleo and my daughter also has myleo the specialist I went to when I was pregnant told me that hes sure my daughter inherited this from her grandma.. before I started trying to get pregnant we were told it was not herditary so, we never worried about our daughter getting it, I took prenatal vitamitins and did everything I should have needless to say we were wrong!!

Doctors told my mother potato I thing too. The problem was she does eat potatoes in my case that theory was blown . I agree with some of the other post on here. I don't believe that an exact cuase has been found yet. I do know all the theories that it is something the mother does to not take care of herself can cuase some major blame issues for her. Education is great but it needs to be worded were a new more of someone with SB doesn't blame herself.

Oops!! I forgot to mention I am the only one with Spina Bifida in my family.