Alcohol is so toxic to a baby's developing brain that it is too difficult to distinguish
the long-term neurological defects of other drugs from the alcohol damage.

--Child-in-Family Services

Disabilities resulting from drinking alcohol during pregnancy:

FAS: Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
Symptoms include small head/body, facial characteristics, brain damage

FAE: Fetal Alcohol Effects
Symptoms usually not visible, such as behavior disorders, attention deficits

ARBD:  Alcohol Related Birth Defects
Anomalies such as heart defects, sight/hearing problems, joint anomalies, etc.

ARND:  Alcohol Related Neurological Disorders
Disorders such as attention deficits, behavior disorders, obsessive/compulsive disorder, etc.

Facts:

1. FAS is the leading cause of mental retardation in western civilization.
2. The incidence of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome in North America is 1.9 cases per 1,000 live births (1/500).
3. Incidence of babies with disabilities resulting from prenatal alcohol exposure:  1/100.
4. FAS/FAE is a major health issue in western civilization today. More American babies are born with FAS than with Down Syndrome, MD and HIV combined.
5. Alcohol causes more destruction to the developing baby than any other substance (Institute of Medicine report to Congress).

The above information came from handouts from a workshop given by Deb Hoyt and Valerie Owens (Iowa Connects and Healthy Connections:  e-mail: IAConnects@aol.com ) at the International ATTACh Conference in Greenville, SC, in Oct. 2001.

Alcohol exposure during stages of pregnancy

During the first trimester, as shown by the research of Drs. Clarren and Streissguth, alcohol interferes with the migration and organization of brain cells.  (Journal of Pediatrics, 92(1):64-67)

Heavy drinking during the second trimester, particularly from the 10th to 20th week after conception, seems to cause more clinical features of FAS than at other times during pregnancy, according to a study in England. (Early-Human-Development; 1983 Jul Vol. 8(2) 99-111)

During the third trimester, according to Dr. Claire D. Coles, the hippocampus is greatly affected, which leads to problems with encoding visual and auditory information (reading and math).  (Neurotoxicology and Teratology, 13:357-367, 1991)

Neuro-Developmental Characteristics of FAS/FAE

1. Memory problems
2. Difficulty storing and retrieving information
3. Inconsistent performance (on and off days)
4. Impulsivity, distractibility, disorganization
5. Ability to repeat instructions, but inability to put them into action ("talk the talk but don't walk the walk")
6. Difficulty with abstractions, such as math, money management, time concepts
7. Cognitive processing deficits (may think more slowly)
8. Slow auditory pace (may only understand every third word of normally paced conversation)
9. Developmental lags (may act younger than chronological age)
10. Inability to predict outcomes, or understand consequences (cause-effect thinking)

The above information comes from FASCETS, Inc., of Portland, Oregon it was excerpted from the handouts of Deb Hoyt and Valerie Owens (Iowa Connects and Healthy Connections) at the International ATTACh Conference in Greenville, SC, in October 2001