Foetal Alcohol Syndrome

Tweet

Alcoholism during pregnancy has a deleterious effect on the growing foetus more so with an added smoking indulgence. Alcohol is also excreted in breast milk and three hundred per cent of maternal blood alcohol levels can indue sleep in the infant. Mild to moderate mental retardation is seen in children born to alcoholic mothers. Microcephaly, hypotonia, poor coordination, hypersensitvity as a child have been observed among such children. Facial features like short palpebral fissure, short nose and upturned hypoplastic philtrum, maxillary hypoplasia with thin upper vermillion, retroganthia, microganthia or relative proganthia are seen in adolescence. Growth deficiences in the pre-natal and post-natal periods with reduced adipose tissue are reported in such children