Nutrition is a key component of an individual’s healthy well being. Many factors have a significant effect on nutrition and it is important to continuously maintain a balanced one. Having a good nutrition is one of the main defenses for an innumerous amount of illnesses and diseases that can harm the body. One would ask, “What is nutrition per say, and how do we maintain the balance of it?” Nutrition is defined as “the sum of the processes by which [a living thing] takes in and utilizes food substances.” (Merriam-Webster, 2011). It is the responsibility of each individual to assure the consumption of enough nutrients to nourish the body and to be cautious of harmful toxins. A child is dependent on their guardian on being taught how to have a well-nourished diet, as they are incapable of maintaining it on their own. It is extremely important that a pregnant mother is well aware of the concepts of nutrition, as she has to keep herself and the fetus growing internally healthy. If a mother is unvigilant during pregnancy and is not well nourished, it can lead to many severe abnormalities in the growing fetus. More specifically, a disorder that will be explored in this essay is Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS); caused by alcohol consumption during pregnancy. Since the alcohol is consumed in such a developing stage of the fetus, it can potentially cause many different complications in the unborn child. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome could easily be prevented with more awareness to the issue and its defining characteristics, how it affects the fetus during growth, and finally the long-term effects on the individual’s life. The science behind FAS will be explained in depth to grasp a thorough understanding of what it is and how it causes h...
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Ritchie, B. (2008). If it quacks like a duck. Retrieved from: http://www.faslink.org/index.htm. Ontario: Author
Sizer, F.S., Whitney, E., & Piche, L.A. (2012,2009) Nutrition Concepts and Controversies Second Canadian Edition. Toronto, Ontario: Nelson Education Ltd.
Streissguth, A.P., Barr, H.M., Kogan, J., & Bookstein, F.L. (1996). Understaning the occurrence of secondary disabilities in clients with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and fetal alcohol effects (FAE): Final report to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Grant No. R04|CCR008515 (Tech. Report No. 96-06). Seattle: University of Washington, Fetal Alcohol and Drug Unit.
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A mother who drinks while she is pregnant stands a high risk of harming their unborn child because the alcohol passes through her blood to her baby, and that can harm the development of the baby’s cells. This is most likely to harm the baby’s brain and spinal cord. Many of the common effects of a child suffering from fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) is: distinctive facial features, growth problems making them smaller than the average child, and learning and behavior problems.
lip, skin folds at the corners of the eyes, indistinct groove on the upper lip, and an
... excluded potential risk factors for preterm birth including previous pregnancies and multiple births. Thus, these results should only be applied to the risk of alcohol consumption for primiparous mothers with singleton pregnancies. However, despite the lack of risks identified in this study, alcohol use during pregnancy has been linked to disabilities. According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP, 2011), its adverse effects include fetal alcohol syndrome, learning disabilities, social ineptness, depression, and anxiety. The AACAP strongly recommends against pregnant women consuming any form of alcohol at any level. Despite the data presented by Dale et al. (2016), the question of the other risks of alcohol consumption on the fetus was not explored and thus alcohol use during pregnancy should not be condoned solely based on this study.
There is no known safe amount of alcohol a woman can drink while pregnant. Alcohol can cause life-long physical and behavioral problems in children, including fetal alcohol syndrome. FAS is a serious condition where babies can be born with mentally ill condition and may have deformation mainly in there face. When you consume alcohol during pregnancy, so does your baby, because alcohol passes freely through the placenta to your baby. If you choose to drink alcohol while you are pregnant, you will increase the risk that your baby will be born with a Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). Fetal alcohol syndrome is a condition in a child that results from alcohol exposure during the mother 's pregnancy. Fetal alcohol syndrome causes brain damage and growth problems. The problems caused by fetal alcohol syndrome vary from child to child, but defects caused by fetal alcohol syndrome are
a patient's birth defects. In other words, FAE is a less severe form of FAS.
Wardlaw, G. M., & Smith, A. M. (2011). Contemporary nutrition (8th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
The intake of drugs and alcohol during pregnancy can cause many different birth defects. Drugs and alcohol can easily reach the baby while inside the mother. When a pregnant woman consumes a drug or some alcohol it enters into her bloodstream, then makes its way to the placenta. When it reaches the placenta it travels through the umbilical cord to the baby’s body (Schniderman pg. 27). Once it reaches the bay it can cause a lot of different problems. Drinking alcohol can cause the baby to be born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. If too much alcohol gets into the baby’s bloodstream the baby will most likely have FAS. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome can affect an infant after it is born or even later on in life. Kids with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome can be impulsive at times, and they tend to not learn from their own mistakes and behavior unlike other children (Stewart pg. 47). Having a child with FAS could be very hard. They have difficulties trying to learn certain things. Learning from mistakes make life so much easier, and having a child who cannot do that could be very stressful. Many people put the...
Wardlaw, G.M. and Smith. Contemporary Nutrition: Issues and Insights. 5th Edition. Boston: McGraw-Hill, pp 85, 2004.
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Hoyme, H. E., May, P. A., Kalberg, W. O., Kodituwakku, P., Gossage, J. P., Trujillo, P. M., et al. (2005). A Practical Clinical Approach to Diagnosis of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders: Clarification of the 1996 Institute of Medicine Criteria. Pediatrics, 39-47.
The term Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, also known as FASD, is an umbrella term used to describe a range of adverse effects caused by maternal intake of alcohol while the fetus is in utero. Under the Canadian diagnostic guidelines FASD includes the diagnostic terms ‘fetal alcohol syndrome’ (FAS), ‘partial fetal alcohol syndrome’ (pFAS), ‘alcohol-related Neurodevelopmental disorders’ (ARND), ‘fetal alcohol effects’ (FAE), and ‘alcohol-related birth defects’ (ARBD). These conditions manifest themselves in the form of developmental disorders, weight and height deficiencies and a specific set of facial characteristics to varying degrees. While many characteristics of FASD are well understood, the vast majority are still being researched. This leads to vast information gaps especially when concerned with Aboriginal populations globally notably in Canada and Australia.
Fetal Alcohol syndrome is one of the leading causes of disabilities that could be prevented in the world; the costs of someone with FAS are between $800,000 to over 2.0 million dollars in medical and overall costs throughout their life. (Lupton, Burd, & Hardwood, 2004)...
Children can be effected by their caregiver’s alcohol and substance abuse in numerous ways. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is a pattern of birth defects caused by maternal consumption of alcohol during pregnancy. Children born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome tend to have physical abnormalities such as deformed facial characteristics. They are generally born with a variety of emotional and/or intellectual limitations. It is very common for these children to...
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) are identified as a category of birth disorders caused by prenatal alcohol exposure. These can include physical or intellectual anomalies, such as cardiac, skeletal, visual, aural, and fine or gross motor problems. (Callanan, 2013) Prevention would involve alcohol use prevention programs for women who are pregnant, and treatment for FAS and FASD would be aimed at helping those affected realize their full potential through both family and individual interventions. While there is no cure for FAS or FASD, appropriate treatments can aide individuals with these diagnoses to minimize the effects.
“I brought you into this world, and I can take you out!” A child has most likely heard that phrase at some point in their life. Although, it is not ethical or legal for a mother to “take her kid out of this world”, it does bring up a good point that it was through her body, that the child was born. One of the most important responsibilities in this world is a mother carrying a child in the womb. There are many divine processes that take place during gestation, but there are also many contributing factors from the mother that can affect the developing human. These factors may include what a woman ingests and exposes her embryo or fetus to. Sadly, alcohol use during pregnancy is an ongoing problem that can have detrimental affects on the fetus, including Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS). Choosing to drink alcoholic beverages during pregnancy is a choice, a risky choice. Unfortunately some women don’t even know they are making a risky choice by consuming alcohol because it is in the early stages of pregnancy. It is common for a female to not find out they are pregnant until at least the fifth or sixth week after fertilization. In 2006, 49% of all pregnancies in the United States were reported unintended on a national survey.1 The highest rate of preventable birth defects and mental retardation is due to alcohol use.2 In this paper, I will further discuss FAS, the potential effects of binge drinking during the embryonic stage of gestation, and what actions need to be taken in order to reduce the incidences of alcohol related birth defects.