FAS Team – How Alcohol Affects the Future of Our Children

Data published by the **National Center for Nutrition Education and Health in Poland** indicate that **between 17 and 38 percent of pregnant women** consume alcoholic beverages during gestation, with **2 percent doing so on a regular basis**. As a consequence, an annual average of **900 newborns** are diagnosed with **full-blown fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)**—a condition associated with **permanent, irreversible damage to the nervous system, physical malformations, and cognitive impairments** in affected children. FAS, alongside related disorders, is collectively termed **fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD)**. Within the FAS framework, **four primary categories of dysfunction** are distinguished: – **partial fetal alcohol syndrome (pFAS)**, marked by the presence of **select morphological anomalies**, including: **a flattened nasal bridge, thin upper lip, microphthalmia (abnormally small eyes), and widened palpebral fissures**; – **alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder (ARND)**, manifesting as **executive function deficits**—such as **impulsivity, attentional impairments, and risk-assessment difficulties**—and frequently misdiagnosed as **ADHD**; – **alcohol-related birth defects (ARBD)**, encompassing **structural malformations of organs and tissues**, particularly affecting **limbs, cardiac structures, or renal systems**; – **neurobehavioral disorder associated with prenatal alcohol exposure (ND-PAE)**, arising from **chronic ethanol exposure to the developing fetal brain**, characterized by **outbursts of aggression, impairments in daily functioning, and working memory deficits** (source: Williams J.F., Smith V.C., *Pediatrics*, 2015).