Drinking during pregnancy may damage baby’s vision
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Infants whose mothers regularly drank during pregnancy may show poor vision by the age of 6 months, according to a new study.
Prenatal alcohol exposure is known to put babies at risk of fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), a cluster of problems such as poor growth, delayed mental development and unusual facial features. Because it’s unclear how much alcohol is needed to put the developing fetus at risk, women who are pregnant or might become pregnant are advised to avoid drinking.
In the new study, published in the Journal of Pediatrics, many of the babies with vision problems, though not all, also had FAS.
In addition, the vision damage was found primarily among babies born to women age 30 or older.
Exactly why a mother’s age might matter is unclear, according to the researchers, but it may be related to the fact that older women are likely to have been habitually drinking for a longer time.
Dr. R. Colin Carter of Children’s Hospital Boston led the study, which included 131 South African women and their 6-month-old babies. The researchers asked the women about their drinking habits around the time of conception and during pregnancy. They also gave the babies special tests that gauge the sharpness of infants’ vision.
The women were generally poorly educated, and more than half said they drank while pregnant. The more they drank, the study found, the higher the risk of their baby having poor vision.
Nearly 17 percent of the babies had FAS, and of these, 27 percent had vision test scores near the bottom for their age—compared with 9 percent of babies without FAS. Ten babies who were not diagnosed with FAS also showed poor vision, and in many of these cases, their mothers admitted to heavy drinking during pregnancy.
The particular reason for the poorer vision—alcohol-induced damage to the eye’s retina, for instance, or to vision-related areas of the brain—is unknown, according to the researchers. It’s also unclear, they add, whether the effect is permanent.
Regardless, the researchers conclude, the vision test used in this study could be a useful tool for spotting some of the harmful effects of prenatal drinking. Screening of babies born to relatively older women could be particularly useful, the study authors add, since they may be at greater risk of vision problems from alcohol exposure.
SOURCE: Journal of Pediatrics, October 2005.
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