Fetal Alcohol Syndrome {The Alcohol Beverage Disorder in Children}

I and my friend went to swim in a public pool yesterday, and you can trust that you would see different types of people with different habits. Actually, let me call it, we went to have fun at the pool side because we ended up not swimming, this is because I do not like swimming in a pool with lots of people, I always end up not liking the clinical after effect on my health but my friend doesn't fight this whenever she swims either in a public pool or a private pool. For yesterday, I was able to convince her to not swim but let's watch the entire event. We had fun and while we were sat there sipping our drinks, we saw a pregnant woman who was consuming alcoholic beverage heavily. My friend in a joking form said she was sure the fetus would be intoxicated already. We laughed over it, and then we saw a man coming to caution her. The rest is history as I do not have anything to pull out of whatever event played out, my concern is the pregnant woman who was consuming alcoholic beverages. Today, I will be explaining Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, I hope you enjoy reading.

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Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Explained

Prenatal exposure to alcohol can cause a wide spectrum of alcohol disorder in the fetus, one of which is Fetal alcohol syndrome. So fetal alcohol syndrome is a disorder that occur in the development of a fetus as a result of maternal consumption of alcohol during pregnancy, which could affect the fetus at conception or at anytime during the period of the pregnancy, which could lead to neurological, facial, and bone/skeletal conditions. It is important to know that alcohol isn't safe for consumption during pregnancy. It doesn't matter how small or how large it is consumed, it is never safe to expose fetus to alcohol. There are numerous alcohol spectrum disorder when exposed, and this disorders range from partial fetal alcohol syndrome (pFAS), neurobehavioral disorder associated with prenatal alcohol exposure (ND-PAE), alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder (ARND), alcohol-related birth defects (ARBD) and fetal alcohol syndrome, which is the most severe of all the disorders.

In the United States, six to nine cases of children are born with fetal alcohol syndrome, with a 1.5% rate in children in the foster care system. The global prevalence range of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) is 2% to 5% in new born. Fetal alcohol syndrome is basically caused by maternal consumption of alcohol during pregnancy, other factors include chronic alcohol consumption of women above the age of 30 before getting pregnant, increased possibilities of having a subsequent child with Fatal Alcohol syndrome after the birth of child that suffered from the disorder, and maternal malnutrition.

Alcohol is a teratogen, and teratogen causes irreversible damage to the central nervous system, as they penetrate through the placenta into the fetus. This could affect the genetic makeup of the fetus and cause impairment as a result of lack of nutrients being transported to the fetus. This usually affects the facial morphology, as well as cause brain abnormalities, growth, and cases of miscarriage.

Clinical Features of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

This includes facial morphological changes, cognitive/neurological abnormalities, and growth restriction. Clinical features in the area of facial morphology includes small eye opening as the skin of the eyes folds (microphthalmia), ptosis, strabismus, short nose, low nasal bridge, and thin upper lips. In the aspect of growth restriction, it affects the growth of the fetus in the womb as affects the child when birthed (postnatal). In the cognitive or neurological clinical feature, children could have microcephaly, neurological impairment, leaning disabilities, brain development delay, seizure, poor coordination, and reduced myelination of neurons.

Diagnosis, Evaluation and Treatment

Diagnosing fetal alcohol syndrome can be less difficult, following the observations of criteria such as short palpebral fissure, vermillion border, short nose and other characteristics that shows facial abnormality, growth retardation both before birth and after birth, neurological defects, and history of alcohol in mothers.

When it comes to the treatment of fetal alcohol spectrum, there is no cure. The disorder causes an irreversible neurological condition, but there are medications which would help improve development of the child and reduce the severity of the damage caused by the disorder while health care personnel and family members support the patient emotionally.

Prevention of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is basically advising the mother against alcohol while being pregnant and breastfeeding.

Conclusion

It is important to know that there is no known safe amount of alcohol to be consumed during pregnancy, and people still take little amount of alcohol while bring pregnant which doesn't lead to facial alcohol syndrome, they might lead to behavioral issues in child, and it is advisable to quit completely. it is important to know that fetal alcohol syndrome is irreversible, and since it isn't a cognitive disorder that we cannot control, the parents that consume alcoholic beverages would be responsible for their children health status.

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Post Reference

• National Library of Medicine - Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

• Cleveland Clinic - Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

• National Library of Medicine - The Early Developmental Outcomes of Prenatal Alcohol Exposure: A Review

• NHS.UK - Foetal alcohol spectrum disorder

• National Library of Medicine - Systematic literature review on which maternal alcohol behaviours are related to fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD)

• Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder: an overview

• A hidden epidemic of fetal alcohol syndrome