Question from Nazareth, Pennsylvania, USA:

I have a question that involves myself, my five year old son, and my one and a half year old daughter. In March of 2004, my son was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes after having a respiratory virus. Looking back, he had demonstrated symptoms even before the virus, but the virus was the last straw. He is doing fairly well. At the time of his diagnosis, I was six months pregnant. Just prior to my induced delivery at 35 weeks, in July 2004, I turned yellow with jaundice. The doctor said I had “fatty acid of the liver of pregnancy,” and, luckily, I pulled through following liver and kidney failure. I went to the ICU and took the rest of the summer to recover. My daughter was delivered with no complications to her and appears to be developing typically. I know fatty acid of the liver of pregnancy is very rare, but I’m curious if there is any link to this complication of pregnancy and autoimmune disorders?

I had a very uncomplicated first pregnancy with my now eight year old daughter and a more carefully monitored pregnancy with my son, who developed diabetes, and an even more carefully monitored pregnancy with my younger daughter. In my second and third pregnancies, a hormone on the Down’s screening came back high. For my younger daughter, it was the Hcg level. Anyway, between my second and third pregnancies, they thought I was displaying symptoms that were in the lupus family, but they disappeared before I was pregnant with my younger daughter and have not returned. Since there seem to be so many autoimmune issues in our family, should I be monitoring my younger daughter somehow?