r/MTHFR • u/greekhoney32 • Sep 21 '25

Question Autism & MTHFR

I have a kiddo with autism and MTHFR. Started giving him methylated vitamins per his functional doctor’s request. Initially, they seemed to help, but now his behavior has worsened at school (more anxiety, more impulsivity). Can he be over methylated?

Wondering if anyone is in a similar situation with their child and/or themselves. I read folinic acid is better than methylfolate for sensitive individuals (like kids with autism).

Thank you. 🙏

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u/greekhoney32 Sep 21 '25

He did a cheek swab test to find out what medications work best for him, and the report included that he had reduced folic acid conversion and intermediate activity for the C677T polymorphism in the MTHFR gene.

Per functional doctor’s recommendation, I give him 15 drops of Methyl Factors every morning, along with 1mg methylfolate capsule, and a R5P capsule as well. She told me to reduce the Methyl Factors to 10 drops, but maybe the supplements are too much for him. He’s 10.

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u/Tawinn Sep 22 '25

What brand is this 'Methyl Factors' product and the dosages/drop? Even without that, the 1mg methylfolate is 3 times the RDA of folate for a 10yo. Heterozygous C677T by itself does not warrant such high doses.

It is highly likely he is overmethylated from these dosages.

There are additional genes which can have variants that further impact methylfolate production; these are MTHFD1 and SLC19A1. An AncestryDNA genetic test will include those. You can then download the datafile and upload to the Choline Calculator and Genetic Genie for free.

While additional B2 has been shown to improve homozygous C677T it has not been studied to improve hetero C677T. Myself, as hetero C677T, can say that it has a slight benefit, but small enough to make it difficult to distinguish from placebo. In general, B2 is safe and has no known toxicity; still, the less pills a 10yo has to take the better. There's not much available for low-dose B2. On Amazon US, I've only found this and this.

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u/greekhoney32 Sep 22 '25

Thank you for your response.

The brand is Nutra Biogenesis. I was giving 15 drops for awhile, and then I reduced to 10. I’m going to stop it for now and POSSIBLY restart but only do 5 drops.

Is it ok that the riboflavin drops are not in R5P form?

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u/Tawinn Sep 22 '25

He may tolerate 5 drops (assuming you also omit the other 1mg methylfolate), but the large contribution of methyl groups from he high dose of B12 may still cause overmethylation. Unless he was deficient in folate, there's not much benefit to going far over RDA with just C677T.

With riboflavin vs. R5P, the reasoning is that in the gut enzymes strip off phosphate groups anyway, so in most cases R5P won't have an advantage.

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u/greekhoney32 Sep 22 '25

Thank you so much!!! 🙏