A Child With Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

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A human beings growth starts in the womb as a fetus. A fetus growth and development depends on the environment that they are surrounded in. Most people don’t realize that the most important part of the child’s development and growth can occur in the womb. A fetus can not control what occurs in the womb. The fetus must rely on their mother to keep them in a safe and healthy environment. A safe environment for the fetus would include a healthy diet, exercise, and prenatal care.

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Everything that the mother consumes the unborn child gets through the placenta. So what happens to a child when the environment is not safe because of the use of alcohol? The baby can be born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Some mothers do not know the impact that this can have on her unborn baby. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome can have an affect on a person throughout there life, behaviorally, neurologically, and mental health.

Sometimes it is unknown why the mother drinks during pregnancy.

There has been a few research studies to why the mother might have drank alcohol or didn’t drink at all. The main reason for not drinking during pregnancy was shown to be because alcohol was not proven to be a big part of their life (Meurk, Broom, Adams, Hall, and Lucke, 2014). These pregnant women had a different lifestyle, they were educated, and had good prenatal care. The reason that women drank during pregnancy was because alcohol played a big role in their life, “…those for whom drinking alcohol formed an important part of their identity and social functioning and who continued to drink or found it a burden to abstain” (Meurk, 2014, p.

4). Given this study, if a pregnant women tries to stop drinking to make a safer environment for her unborn child it can cause her anxiety and depression which can become too much for her leading her to go back to drinking while pregnant. There may also be peer pressure involved with the mother thinking her friends will stop talking to her if she stops drinking with them. In addition, the stress of not knowing how to care for a child and having a feeling that her life is ruined may also prompt the idea of drinking. Some women drank alcohol during the pregnancy because it was an important occasion, “…the cultural importance of alcohol in marking special occasions and celebrations meant these were times when women either made an exception and drank…”(Meurk, 2014, p. 4). Women have also stated that their practitioner would hardly ever talk about the consumption of alcohol during pregnancy and did not explain much about what could occur or the effects of drinking (Meurk, 2014). While these mothers thought that drinking alcohol during there pregnancy alcohol would not have an affect on the child, a child exposed to alcohol in the womb during anytime has a threat to having Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.

According the studies done by Kulaga, Shor and Koren in 2010, diagnosing Fetal Alcohol Syndrome can be hard because its all based on what the mother says or the mother could be lying about how much alcohol that she consumed during her pregnancy. From this article we can expect that the mother could be lying because of the fear of the consequences, losing her child, guilt, or ashamed of what she has done. Researchers are now finding new ways to diagnose and detect the amount of drinking in adults. By taking the hair of a person, “Cumulative levels of four FAEE, ethyl myristate, palmitate, oleate, and stearate, measured in hair have been shown to be highly sensitive and specific in the detection of excessive drinking in adults” (Kulaga, 2010, p.615) . Hair is not the only sign to alcohol use, bloodwork is also showing that alcohol is being used by the mother (Sundelin-Wahlsten, Hallberg, and Helander, 2016). “…but the test results for two blood alcohol biomarkers – carbohydrate-deficient transferrin in serum and phosphatidylethanol in whole blood – consistently showed values below the cut-offs used to indicate excessive drinking” (Sundelin-Wahlsten, 2016, p.447).Some of the signs of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is found in facial feature, slow growth, and problems with the central nervous system (Wacha and Obrzut, 2007). The facial features of someone with Fetal Alcohol syndrome is easier to see in a child rather then in adult hood (Wacha, 2007). Characteristic facial features include an underbite, the inside of the eye has a skin fold, thin upper lip, and flattened or elongated upper lip crevice (Wacha, 2007). These can be very small characteristics that can be overlooked in doctors appointments. Disfunction in the Nervous System is usually seen in the adulthood rather then in child (Wacha, 2007). The features of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome can vary and be worse depending the time period that alcohol was consumed.

According to the study by Wacha, different times during the pregnancy can also affect the degree of the Fetal Alcohol Syndrome in children (2007). The worse time that children can be exposed to alcohol during pregnancy is in the first three to six weeks and the last two months, because of the most brain development during that time period (Wacha, 2007). During this time some women might not know they are pregnant and will consume alcohol. This could cause problems for the child such as Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. As stated by Wacha, when children were exposed during the first and second trimester they had trouble naming and learning objects and people; worse affects occurred if the child was exposed to alcohol throughout the whole pregnancy (2007). Overall, whenever a mother consumes any level of alcohol at any point during her pregnancy, it is doing damage to the child she is carrying (Wacha, 2007). Exposure to alcohol during the pregnancy can have several different affects on the child’s motor functions (Wacha, 2007).

The motor movements of children were affected by the use of alcohol during pregnancy. Children that were exposed to alcohol during the whole pregnancy, “Specifically, these children performed most poorly on naming body parts and tokens, blending sounds and repeating words and non-words, sustaining concentration, controlling impulses, and copying geometrical designs” (Wacha, 2007, p. 218). From the results of this study we can conclude that a child could become behind in school, needing extra help, or develope a learning disability. It was also proven that during the life the child will have several different problems at different points in there life. As an infant the child can be very sensitive, very active, and overly or underly attached to the parent (Wacha, 2007). According to Sudenlin-Wahlsten, multiple infants with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome have shown to cry and scream more then a usual infant and can become behind in big mile stones in development (2016). Sundelin-Wahlsten, did a study in 2016 at one year and six month old children; this study was preformed to show the difference in activity and screaming in children.

“Healthy children with no alcohol where 75% very active and 10% screamed frequently, alcohol intake before pregnancy was 76% very active and 16% screamed frequently, unknown amount of alcohol intake during pregnancy had 83% very active and 22% screamed frequently, occasional alcohol intake during pregnancy had a 80% very active and 20% screamed frequently” (Sundelin-Wahlsten, 2016, p. 450).

According to Wacha, children with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome tend to want more attention, are too happy and friendly, not sensitive to situations, and demanding (2007). As an teenager and an adult they usually have bad social skills, bad judgement, want a lot of attention, are stubborn, and don’t know how to respect another persons boundaries (Wacha, 2007). Wacha’s research and study showed that the social skills of a person with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is pretty similar through out there life, this can cause the person to have negative thoughts about themselves and cause bullying throughout school. “It has been reported that social problems in alcohol-exposed children, adolescents and adults tend to persist throughout life and are likely to worsen with age” (Sundelin-Wahlsten, 2016, p. 451). One can conclude from the article that since social problems tend to get worse with age, this can also led to more problems with social status; more people might become shocked by how opened a person with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is, this can led to them not wanting to become friends with them and possible rumors. While these are the physical signs that person will see in a child with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome a lot of people are unaware of the damage that occurs to the brain.

The use of alcohol during pregnancy will not only makes the size of the brain smaller (Wacha, 2007).

“The head circumference of children ranged the average size circumference of a child’s head was 35.1 cm, occasional alcohol intake had circumferences of 35.0 cm, inconsistent reports on alcohol intake during pregnancy was 34.9 cm, and higher alcohol intake before pregnancy was known had a circumference of 34.8cm” (Sundelin-Wahlsten, 2016, p.449).

Having Fetal Alcohol Syndrome also causes several parts of the brain to be affected. The circumference of the head, can relate to the size of the brain. By the brain being smaller, the functions of the brain will not preform properly. This can led to serious problems for the child throughout there life. The parts of the brain that are affected are the basal ganglia, corpus callosum, and cerebellum (Wacha, 2007). These affects on the brain can cause lack in memory, learning disorders, lack in motor movements, bad behavior, and deficits in attention (Wacha, 2007). According to Wacha if there is damage to the basal ganglia you affect the child’s ability to memorize and their behavior, If the the corpus callosum is damaged you affect almost every aspect of learning and there attention ( 2007). Wacha’s article expresses how the brain was affected, by those facts we can infer that their learning will be affected causing them to need more help or developing learning disabilities. By damaging the cerebellum you can hurt there balance and coordination (Wacha, 2007). An example of this includes, “The present study suggested alcohol-related differences in the frequency of children who were late to sit and crawl” (Sundelin-Wahlsten, 2016, p. 451). From both of those articles we can make inferences, children may not hit mile stones with affects to the cerebellum, if the cerebellum is affected how will children be able to enjoy activities that a child likes to do, such as walking, running, swimming, and preforming in sports. Research has shown that children that have Fetal Alcohol Syndrome are likely to also have ADHD, “Specifically, 40% of individuals with FAS are also diagnosed with ADHD” (Wacha, 2007, p.224). That was not the only system that was affected. The dopamine system was also affected, which could be a reason for the child wanting more attention then what most children would prefer (Wacha, 2007). So while these affects can be shown in infancy, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, what are some other affects that can occur when the child ages?

One of the most under looked prenatal alcohol affect is the mental health of the person. It has be proven that a person exposed to alcohol in the womb is more likely to be diagnosed later in life with depression and anxiety (Vivian Y.Y. Lam et. al, 2018). Researches have noticed that more and more people that had been exposed to alcohol prenatally have higher amounts of stress that occurred at random (Lam, 2018). A recent study showed that the alcohol alone caused an increase in these mental health issues, “…independently increased anxiety- like behavior and altered MR, GR, and CRHR1 mRNA expression and did so in a sexually dimorphic manner” (Lam, 2018, p.18). The affects of alcohol on mental health was shown to be affected because of the alteration of the person genes (Lam, 2018,). By changing the genes sequence it can affect which chemicals in the body are released affecting your mental health (Lam, 2018). “Overall, the changes observed in the receptor systems in brain areas involved with both stress and emotional regulation could potentially underlie the increase in anxiety-like behavior following PAE and CUS exposure in adulthood” (Lam, 2018, p.18). While there is not a lot of research about the mental health affects due to fetal alcohol syndrome, it is a rising problem, “…may contribute to the development of mental health issues, such as anxiety, will ultimately help establish novel or targeted interventions and treatments for affected individuals” (Lam, 2018, p.18). Treatment is the biggest search now because of the high amounts of stress that is being cause by the anxiety and depression (Lam, 2018).

The behavior, neurological function, and mental health of a person throughout there life can be affected by Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. People don’t realize the damage that Fetal Alcohol Syndrome has on a child’s body until its to late, due to a lack of knowledge that is shared. Health teachers and Doctors should talk more about the affects of alcohol on a child to inform more people about Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Many children will be affected there whole life because of the mistake of a parent. The affects of having a child with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome can actually be harder to care for as well. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome can cause the child to be more hyper and very loud. Along with that the child can become behind in normal motor movements because of the neurological affects on the body. The best step for becoming a parent is to make sure that you provide a safe environment from the start for the child.