A new study is suggesting that mothers who drink even low levels of alcohol during pregnancy could permanently damage their children’s intelligence.
The study, by scientists in Detroit, of seven-and-a-half-year-olds, found lower IQ scores, and memory and problem-solving difficulties among those who had had low-level exposure to alcohol during pregnancy.
The research challenges current British Government advice, that pregnant women can safely consume one to two units of alcohol a week.
It has been established for a long time that serious problems such as severe learning difficulties and physical abnormalities can occur when women drink large amounts of alcohol during pregnancy, leading to foetal alcohol syndrome (FAS).
But this study is now saying that more research is needed to look at the damage caused by prenatal exposure to alcohol at lower levels.
In the study the team looked at 337 African-American children who were exposed to moderate to heavy levels of alcohol in the womb.
It was found that the children were able to perform memory, number and other tasks as well as other youngsters when the tasks were simple, such as naming colours, but when the children were encouraged make quicker responses, their processing speed slowed down significantly.
Researcher Matthew Burden, says prenatal alcohol exposure is often associated with slower reaction times, and poorer attention in infancy, and some of these deficits may be at the core of poorer academic performance and behaviour problems often seen later in childhood.
What this means is that it is likely that these children may be more and more challenged the older they get, by the demands placed on them within the school system, and within their day-to-day social interactions.
Reference – News-Medical.Net, StraightFromTheDoc, Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research
