Building Better Baby Brains: Just Say No To FAS

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is our most preventable form of disability. Despite a growing focus on the hazards of prescription painkillers for newborns, drinking during pregnancy remains the nation’s leading preventable cause of birth defects and developmental disorders in children. Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) encompass a wide variety of neurobehavioral and central nervous system disabilities related to alcohol use during pregnancy, including, but not limited to, developmental delays, growth retardation speech disabilities, and poor social skills. The classic physical characteristics of FASD, such as small head size, wide-set eyes and a thin upper lip, are not always present. September 9th is International Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Awareness Day. Kenneth Warren, acting director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, said in a prepared statement that “Almost 40 years have passed since we recognized that drinking during pregnancy can result in a wide range of disabilities for children, of which fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) is the most severe. Yet up to 30 percent of women report drinking alcohol during pregnancy.” NIAAA, in a brief history of the disorder, calls fetal alcohol syndrome the “most common known cause of mental retardation.” Tragically, the knowledge of alcohol as a teratogen responsible for birth defects was not widely recognized by the medical community in American until the 1970s, when a group of crusading...
Source: Addiction Inbox - Category: Addiction Authors: Source Type: blogs