Question from Ukiah, California, USA:

My 20 year old daughter is not able to read phonetically and can only read at a first grade level, she cannot spell at all, and she has no understanding of counting. She is fairly high functioning in every day life, but she is mildly spastic in her legs and arms. I think that I had uncontrolled high blood sugar when she was conceived, was unaware that I had diabetes or that anyone else in my family had it. and two years ago I (along with my brother, mother, and father) was diagosed with type 2 diabetes.

I had a very rough pregnancy with both of my children. We have a son two years older than our daughter who is fine and had no problems, but I did have to have an emergency C-section with him because of placenta detachment. I weighed 194 pounds during that pregnancy and 196 pounds with our daughter. I know I was not checked for gestational diabetes, and I was not aware at the time that it ran in my family. I also had preeclampsia and our daughter weighed 9 pounds 1 ounce at birth. The doctor said he was glad that a C-section had been planned for her because the incision from the C-section with our son had not healed.

Is the reason our daughter has these problems from undiagnosed uncontrolled diabetes during pregnancy? I have always wondered what happened since I had no idea I had diabetes.