Fetal Alcohol Syndrome within the Adolescent Years

[Iridescence]

Are there any personal experiences with this? I have read a good bit regarding the potential issues... and yet, too, much of what I have read has primarily been regarding the younger years of an individual's life. What about the older years?

This cannot be a small issue, considering... many women, especially unwed and unestablished are known to get pregnant and not be aware for several weeks, if not months.

CDC - FASD, Home - NCBDDD

FASDs are 100% preventable if a woman does not drink alcohol during pregnancy. There is no known safe amount of alcohol to drink while pregnant. There is also no safe time during pregnancy to drink and no safe kind of alcohol.

What are the board's thoughts about this? Is this really the truth? From what I have come to know, which is very little... The mother's drinking habits may not always be the determining factor of FAS.

Also, there is a potential of re-establishing the alcohol induced vitamin and mineral deficiencies.

June Russell's Health Facts: Alcohol - Effect on Vitamins and Nutrients

Effect of Alcohol on Nutrient Absorption Generally Alcohol interferes with the metabolism of most vitamins, and with the absorption of many nutrients. Alcohol stimulates both urinary calcium and magnesium excretion.
{Dept. of Health and Human Services, Report to Congress, 1990}
It is best to hold off on that alcoholic drink for four hours after taking your vitamins. Alcohol may hasten a supplement's breakdown in the stomach, perhaps interfering with absorption.
{"Health check," by Nancy Snyderman, MD, Good Housekeeping, Jan. 1998}
Alcohol reduces the absorption of food through the lining of the small intestine and interferes with the absorption of amino acids, glucose, zinc and vitamins.
{“Alcohol and tobacco, america’s drugs of choice.” Information Plus, 1999}
Alcohol hampers the efficient metabolizing of fatty acids.
{"Get Health Now," by Gary Null, one of America's leading health and fitness advocates, 1999}
The presence of alcohol in some beverages may lessen their health-giving properties.
{American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2000}
Despite an adequate diet, alcohol can contribute to the entire spectrum of liver diseases. Alcohol interferes with nutrient activation, resulting in changes in nutritional requirements.
{'Alcohol and Nutrient Interaction," Nutrition Hints by Betty Kamen. Source: the Annual Review of Nutrition 2000}
If alcohol is your soother, stress will hike your nutritional needs and alcohol will reduce nutrient availability.
{"6 steps for handling stress," Lauri Aesoph, ND, Health World Online, June 2001}
According to USDA surveys, fewer than two percent of Americans are following a diet with the recommended amounts of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.
{Eating Right columnist Lawrence Linder, executive editor of the Tufts University Health & Nutrition Letter, Washington Post Health, October 24, 2000} Editor's comment: The use of alcohol negates availability of vitamins and nutrients, so if you are already taking in fewer nutrients than you should, as 98% of the population are doing, then it is even more of a risk for resulting health problems.
Food in the stomach will compete with ethanol for absorption into the blood stream. It is well known that alcohol competes and influences the processing of nutrients in the body.
{"Alcohol, chemistry and you," Kennesaw State University, chemcases.com, Aug. 2002}

A wonderfully helpful chart...

Drug Induced Vitamin - Mineral Deficiencies and Vitamist Oral Sprays


Anyways... It seems illogical to think that we can prevent every fault, every flaw that an individual may make, be it by ignorance, resistance and rebellion, or other... but it seems just as illogical that there are not ways to combat the undesired results of such decisions.

 

[strollingbones]

fas is real and preventable....i have only known one family with this...they adopted a child with it.....seizures etc...facial structure tells the tale

 

[uscitizen]

If the MIssippi provision of a person becoming a person at conception...

will a pregnant woman be charged with child abuse or contributing to the delinquincy of a minor for taking a drink?
Charged with child molestation if having sex while pregnant?

 

[Truthmatters]

Be charged with murder for falling down the stairs?

 

[Iridescence]

fas is real and preventable....i have only known one family with this...they adopted a child with it.....seizures etc...facial structure tells the tale

Those are the more extreme signs... which would require more than mere proactive measures taken in dietary aides.

It is such a complicated thing... because so many single mothers, which are only on the rise, really don't have the healthier outlets as easily accessible to them. There may be optional avenues that they could take, but if it something that goes against every way that they have found comfort in or if it involves the very atmosphere that they have resisted and rebelled from, it isn't going to work for them without potentially destroying their mental strengths.

 

[Iridescence]

If the MIssippi provision of a person becoming a person at conception...

will a pregnant woman be charged with child abuse or contributing to the delinquincy of a minor for taking a drink?
Charged with child molestation if having sex while pregnant?

Be charged with murder for falling down the stairs?

Those are ridiculous and out of balance questions that prove the inability to connect with the guidance I gave in the OP. I meant for a specific train of thought to be followed for the reason that I am not targeting prenatal care or abortive measures...

The mentality represented by the actions of those women who knowingly do self-destructive things during their most vulnerable time of motherhood may only prove the detrimental state of our land for what too many seem oblivious of.

 

[Iridescence]

An important consideration that seems to have been misplaced... is that many mothers-to-be who choose drink knowing they are pregnant may be that they have inadequate prenatal attention, and I don't necessarily mean medical attention. Many do not have healthy social outlets that could replace the social atmosphere they are told to discontinue. Many also do not have anyone looking after their personal needs... their psychological voids. *THIS* is perhaps what should be the forefront runner in what is addressed in minimizing the self-destructive behavior many unwed and/or unestablished mothers continue and/or take on during their time of being with child.

 

[Mad Scientist]

My mother went to AA and they've known for years that alcohol interferes with vitamin absorption. I can recall listening to many stories from people who laugh about all the money they spent on vitamins and supplements during their drinking years.

So not only does the recovering alcoholic have to deal with addiction and the arrested emotional development, they have to repair all the damage, if they can, that they did to themselves through years of what amounts to malnutrition.

By the way I didn't go to AA but they have support groups for AA members family: Ala-Anon for the husbands and wives and Ala-Teen for the kids.

 

[geauxtohell]

The "no safe limit" in this country derives from our inability to quantitatively measure the dose effect of alcohol on the fetus. Thus, in this country, the policy is more draconian then in Europe, where moderate use is accepted.

In Europe, most pregnant women still will consume a glass of wine a day and there isn't a massive difference in levels of FAS over there versus here.

It's a pretty interesting debate. America seems to err on the side of extreme caution while Europe seems to be willing to accept some risk. It is known in this country, that one drink a day, is most likely safe. However, since it's hard to quantify that, we get the "no safe level". Which basically puts the ownous on the mother to assess risk.

 

[geauxtohell]

My mother went to AA and they've known for years that alcohol interferes with vitamin absorption. I can recall listening to many stories from people who laugh about all the money they spent on vitamins and supplements during their drinking years.

So not only does the recovering alcoholic have to deal with addiction and the arrested emotional development, they have to repair all the damage, if they can, that they did to themselves through years of what amounts to malnutrition.

By the way I didn't go to AA but they have support groups for AA members family: Ala-Anon for the husbands and wives and Ala-Teen for the kids.

Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome - PubMed Health

 

[Iridescence]

There are so many unmentionable benefits from moderate drinking that it seems detrimentally flawed to completely prohibit mothers-to-be from drinking. It is illogical to me and I aim to be very proactive toward helping my children develop toward their fullest potential. Children need psychological warriors as mothers and, though it may be a sad fact for many, alcohol does seem to be one of the most successful outlets many stay attuned to.

 

[whitehall]

When are women going to realize that it's not a good idea to ingest (or inhale) anything that you wouldn't give directly to a baby? These days the fine print on prescription deugs usually says not to take the drugs if you are pregnant. The heart breaking rash of "thalidomide" related birth defects forty or so years ago where kids were born without arms was a direct result of Dr. feelgoods prescribing drugs to mothers because they felt a little depressed. We really don't know the relation today between birth defects and prescription or even over the counter or recreational drugs because the technology allows us to discover and eliminate defective babies in the womb and they never appear on statistic charts.

 

[Iridescence]

I don't know, whitehall, but what goes through the mother's digestive system does not go directly the fetus, necessarily. It depends... AND then, too, it is always filtered by what her body absorbs. Like, say... if a mother drinks alcohol while taking her prenatal vitamins, I may be mistaken, but the alcohol she is ingesting, while it may prevent her body from absorbing them... the fetus gets the benefit. This may be the issue with many prescription 'feel goods' as you mentioned, as the case may be more about what her body is rejecting or not absorbing rather than the 'what is shared' factoring.

 

[geauxtohell]

When are women going to realize that it's not a good idea to ingest (or inhale) anything that you wouldn't give directly to a baby? These days the fine print on prescription deugs usually says not to take the drugs if you are pregnant. The heart breaking rash of "thalidomide" related birth defects forty or so years ago where kids were born without arms was a direct result of Dr. feelgoods prescribing drugs to mothers because they felt a little depressed. We really don't know the relation today between birth defects and prescription or even over the counter or recreational drugs because the technology allows us to discover and eliminate defective babies in the womb and they never appear on statistic charts.

Thalidomide was for morning sickness and not depression. Hyperemesis gravidarum is a serious problem in pregnancy, because if the mom is unable to keep nutrients down, then the baby isn't getting any nutrition either. It's not a simply matter of "feel good". Furthermore, thalidomide was mostly a problem in Europe and had little effect in the United States due to quick action on the FDA.

You last statement is absurd. Drugs are given a pregnancy catagory. Few pathologies in pregnancy are detectable in utero and therefore woudln't prompt abortion. The ones that are would be issues where the child would be "late term" before they were detected or a condition that would cause a non-viable birth (anencephaly) or a trisomy (down's syndrome) which has no linkage to drug use.

 

[geauxtohell]

I don't know, whitehall, but what goes through the mother's digestive system does not go directly the fetus, necessarily. It depends... AND then, too, it is always filtered by what her body absorbs. Like, say... if a mother drinks alcohol while taking her prenatal vitamins, I may be mistaken, but the alcohol she is ingesting, while it may prevent her body from absorbing them... the fetus gets the benefit. This may be the issue with many prescription 'feel goods' as you mentioned, as the case may be more about what her body is rejecting or not absorbing rather than the 'what is shared' factoring.

The issue is what crosses the placental barrier?

If a mother has to be on anticoagulants, she can can't take coumadin (warfarin) but she can take heparin. Why? Heparin doesn't cross the placental barrier and warfarin does.

It's not as simply as "everything the mother ingests" goes to the baby.

Alcohol, being a small, polar compound certainly crosses the placental barrier.

 

[alan1]

Be charged with murder for falling down the stairs?

You are a sick puppy.

 

[Iridescence]

I don't know, whitehall, but what goes through the mother's digestive system does not go directly the fetus, necessarily. It depends... AND then, too, it is always filtered by what her body absorbs. Like, say... if a mother drinks alcohol while taking her prenatal vitamins, I may be mistaken, but the alcohol she is ingesting, while it may prevent her body from absorbing them... the fetus gets the benefit. This may be the issue with many prescription 'feel goods' as you mentioned, as the case may be more about what her body is rejecting or not absorbing rather than the 'what is shared' factoring.

The issue is what crosses the placental barrier?

If a mother has to be on anticoagulants, she can can't take coumadin (warfarin) but she can take heparin. Why? Heparin doesn't cross the placental barrier and warfarin does.

It's not as simply as "everything the mother ingests" goes to the baby.

Alcohol, being a small, polar compound certainly crosses the placental barrier.

These differences make it all the more important for the individual differences in limits to be noted. Many mothers' needs can be better met if more were to be psychologically supportive toward them.

It is honestly frightening as to how much works against motherhood, and yet it has seemingly always been so.