Health: What Alcohol Does to a Child

Alcohol and pregnancy don't mix.  Fortunately, most women who drink cut their consumption dramatically once they realize they are carrying, and the number of children who develop the severest alcohol-related effects is relatively small: from 0.5 to 2.0 per 1,000 live births in the U.S. But doctors still don't know what harm--if any--comes from light to moderate drinking during pregnancy, which is why they caution expectant mothers not to drink at all.

The wisdom of that advice grows with each new study on the topic, as a paper released last week reminds us. Just one drink a day (12 oz. of beer or 4 oz. of wine) during the first three months of pregnancy is associated with a 2-point drop in overall IQ by the time the child is 10, according to a report in the June issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. The effect shows up most clearly in certain visual tasks--like fitting pieces of a puzzle into an empty space--and was strongest among African-American children.

The apparent racial gap is puzzling--and ultimately inconclusive. Although other studies had shown similar effects of moderate drinking among pregnant Caucasian women, this one did not, says Jennifer Willford, a psychologist at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and co-author of the report. The gap does not appear to reflect differences in income or drinking patterns, Willford says, since the two groups were comparable in this particular population. And in her previous research, Willford says, she has found problems in learning and memory among 14-year-olds--both black and white--whose mothers drank during pregnancy.

As you might expect, the effects on IQ and cognitive abilities became more pronounced if moms continued to drink throughout their pregnancy or consumed more alcohol. Conversely, the children of women who stopped drinking during pregnancy fared better than those of women who did not.

Of course, to stop drinking during pregnancy, you have to know that you're pregnant in the first place. But as another study in the same issue of Alcoholism points out, younger women are more likely to drink heavily than older women and are more fertile--and therefore more likely to become pregnant.

About 45% of pregnancies in the U.S. are unplanned, says Dr. Raul Caetano of the Dallas campus of the University of Texas School of Public Health, a co-author of the second paper. A month may pass before a woman even realizes she is pregnant. "If you want to drink and you are sexually active, the best thing to do is to use contraception," Caetano says. "That's what I say to my daughter." And the best time to quit drinking is from the moment you--and your partner--decide you would like to conceive a child.