Alcohol and babies don’t mix at all

THERE is substantial research in the US and Canada around the effects of alcohol consumption in pregnancy, many of which will manifest only when the child has any combination of attention deficit, autistic, learning and behavioural problems.

The fetal brain develops right through the nine months, and alcohol interferes with cell development, and the formation of neural pathways.

All alcohol reaches the foetus and just as no doctor would recommend alcohol for any baby or child, it is in the baby’s best interest that alcohol should not be included in their prenatal diet.

Fetal alcohol syndrome, with its very specific facial features is rare, as most women are warned to stay off alcohol for the first three months of pregnancy. However, Alcohol Related Neurodevelopmental Disorder is not being recognised here, even though prenatal alcohol exposure is the cause of the greatest amount of non-genetic learning disability.

One does not have to be alcohol dependent to have a child with a fetal alcohol condition, and even if a baby appears fine at birth, this is not a guarantee that she or he has escaped unscathed.

The recent Kelly (University of London) research is not helpful in serious debate, as it was not based on objective clinical standard observation of the children concerned, who happen to still be very young, and have not reached the age when maths gets abstract, and reasoning gets more complicated.

Ireland has a high rate of miscarriages, one of the highest rates in the world for neural tube defects, including spina bifida, and also one of the highest rates of cleft lip and palate. We also have the highest rate of alcohol consumption, and tend to indulge in binge-drinking.

Minister Barry Andrews said recently in response to the ESRI research that more campaigns are needed to address alcohol and pregnancy. Ireland is still waiting for the legislation requiring warning messages to be put on alcoholic beverage products, and there have been no campaigns either from the Department of Health or the HSE to warn of the dangers thereof, despite the Chief Medical officer’s position statement on the subject.

Alcohol and babies don’t mix. Period.

Michele Savage

Spokesperson

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Ireland

Glendale Park

Dublin 12