Other factors must also be considered in the explanation of anencephaly. One factor is social class. Anencephaly seems to be more common in lower social classes and families with unfavorable socioeconomic circumstances, but the meaning is unclear.
Nutrition may also play a role and perhaps an important one. Scientists found that the reasoning was more in accordance with a dietary explanation. The state of nutrition was often a little lower in mothers of anencephalic children. Some observations have even confirmed the prevalence of these malformations in the lower paid occupational classes which might be explained by malnutrition.
Softness of water has also been speculated to be a cause in the frequency of anencephaly. Some data has been presented about the softness of water, its calcium content, and the frequency of anencephaly. Recently it has also been noted that a high consumption of tea amongst mothers could somehow be correlated with the softness of water. It is not clear if water truly has an effect on the cause of these malformations or if the association between the two is that they are independently related.
Another nutritional explanation suggests that eating, handling, peeling, or cooking blighted potatoes might result in anencephaly. Blight is the result of infection of tubers by a fungus which is facilitated by mild and wet weather.This reasoning was detected when an experiment performed on a chick showed that a common mold or fungi was able to stop the closure of the neural tube in a chick embryo. Scientists felt the same likenesses could occur in man in certain geographical regions.
There are many discrepancies and inconsistent facts with this hypothesis. Experiments on the subject have not been very instructive and further experiments are required to give a conclusive result. Thus, the questions of the causes of anencephaly remains complex and much further investigation is still required. Handling the situation can be difficult and doctors have put together ways to manage an anencephalic child.