grandparents first cousins

i never thought of it being a concern, until my wife got pregnant. my paternal grandparents are first cousins that married back in europe. they had relatively healthy 6 kids (including my father). my aunt however had a son with some type of mental retardation. he was the only one, as the other 5 uncles and aunts all had healthy children. now of my generation of cousins i am the first to have a kid. should i have any concern with our baby having any defects? is there anything i should ask my wife's doctor to look for?

[junie37]

  I would certinly mention it to him and also about the son with mental retardation.  Sometimes these things can skip a generation and show up later.  Also, it could show up as something different but still in the same family so to speak. For instance, Autism, Dyslexia, ADD or ADHD and Tourettes Syndrome are sort of in the same Family but each is different or can be in combination such as Autism with ADD or ADHD. I am not saying that the person you mentioned as being retarded has any of these, just using it as an example. You may have nothing to worry about.  I would try to find out if there is anything back in the family -- genetics .  That in itself may be almost impossible as that sort of thing may be a family secret .
                                                             PJ