Alcohol and pregnancy don’t mix

YOUR Alcohol and Ireland supplement, and follow-up booklet, provided much-needed core reading about most issues arising from the use of the substance.

Might I respectfully suggest an addendum, a special feature on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders, (FASDs), which pans out to be much more than one of the conditions, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome alone, which was mentioned in the booklet?

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome only comprises 10%-15% of FASDs. The remaining 85%-90% of those with fetal alcohol conditions do not present with dysmorphic features at birth and will not be recognised as having been affected. They will, however, go on to have any or all of the following challenges — attention deficit, (with or without hyperactivity), autistic, learning, cognitive, and psychiatric problems, most particularly as they start to flounder in school at around nine or 10 years of age when the curriculum gets a bit more abstract, if not before. These telltale signs are secondary effects which obscure their origins — organic brain damage from prenatal alcohol exposure.