Women who consume alcohol should know that it can affect their baby's appearance. Alcohol consumption before and during pregnancy could alter the growing child's facial features, according to a study.
Alcohol Consumption Could Affect Baby's Facial Features
Dutch researchers used Artificial Intelligence (AI) to analyze 3D images of children's faces when they were between 9 and 13. The information about their mom's alcohol consumption had been collected years earlier in questionnaires during early, mid and late pregnancy.
The researchers from Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam found an association between alcohol exposure in the three months before pregnancy to the children's face shape, Daily Mail reported.
Moms who consume as little as a small glass of wine per week before getting pregnant were more likely to have children with turned-up nose tip, a shortened nose or a turned-out chin, according to the study. The more the mothers drank, the more the changes in their baby's appearance.
First author and PhD student Xianjing Liu, part of the group that developed the AI algorithm, said in a media release that the association between alcohol exposure and children's facial shape could be observed in the group of moms who drank throughout their pregnancy even less a week. Liu added that the study is the first to show a link between low levels of alcohol consumption and the facial features of children.
The results were reportedly visible at age nine. However, no significant link was found when the kids hit 13.
The authors suggested that other environmental factors or growth patterns could reduce or obscure the changes as the children grew older. The researchers believed that the findings are important because the children's faces can be an indication of health and developmental problems.
Professor Gennady Roshchupkin, the lead author of the study, said the study is helpful because a child's face is a "health mirror" of their overall health. Exposure to alcohol before birth can have adverse effects on their health development and if a mom regularly drinks a large amount of alcohol, it can result in fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD), which is evident in the children's faces.
Roshchupkin noted that there is no established safe level of alcohol consumption during pregnancy. He recommends that those trying to get pregnant stop drinking alcohol even before conception to ensure optimal health outcomes for both the mom and the developing fetus.
The results of the study were published in the journal Human Reproduction
Alcohol Use During Pregnancy
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), all types of alcohol are harmful during pregnancy, including wines and beer. Alcohol in the mother's blood passes to the baby through the umbilical cord.
Alcohol consumption during pregnancy can cause miscarriage, stillbirth and lifelong physical, behavioral and intellectual disabilities, including FASDs.
FASDs are preventable if the baby is not exposed to alcohol before birth. Children with the said condition could have abnormal facial features like a smooth ridge between the nose and upper lip, small head size, and shorter-than-average height.
They can also suffer from poor coordination, poor memory, difficulty in school and learning abilities, speech and language delays, low IQ, poor reasoning and judgment skills, vision and hearing problems, and worse problems with the heart, kidney or bones.
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