Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

When children are very young, their minds are like sponges. They are very easily influenced by the people around them, especially their parents. Children inherit everything from their parents. Everything from how they look to how they behave. Sometimes we inherit things from our parents that are not all that good. This includes health defects that may impair a child's opportunity to lead a normal life. Sometimes these effects are random, the parents have no way of controlling it. However, other times it can be caused by an environmental factor or something the parent does. A good example of this is fetal alcohol syndrome. Fetal alcohol syndrome occurs is when a child is exposed to alcohol while it is in the mother's womb. The woman engages in an activity that is sometimes harmful to the unborn child. These environmental factors are called teratogens. They are environmental factors that can have a negative impact on a child's development. Sometimes women do not even know that they are pregnant until after the baby's brain development is under way. They engage in these potentially harmful activities because they do not know that they are pregnant; they do not think they are hurting anything. Exposing alcohol to an unborn child can affect the child's life a great deal. Some of the symptoms of fetal alcohol syndrome are learning disabilities, physical growth retardation, facial malformations, and behavior disorders. The alcohol affects how the fetus' brain develops, and health defects are the result. This occurs when a women consumes any alcohol during the prenatal stages of the child's development. There is no safe amount of alcohol for a woman to drink, anytime she drinks she puts her child at risk for fetal alcohol syndrome. This does not necessarily mean that it will happen, it just means it is a possibility. Research has shown that consuming greater amounts of alcohol greatly increases a child's risk of having fetal alcohol syndrome. It is generally best if a woman stays away from alcohol during her pregnancy.