Researchers said on Monday they had found a whole new level of damage in babies born to mothers who drank heavily during pregnancy -- this time to the nerves in their arms and legs.
The study, published in the Journal of Pediatrics, is the first to look beyond the well-known damage to the brain and spinal cord in babies of mothers who drink and to find damage outside the central nervous system.
“Infants born to mothers who drink heavily during pregnancy are known to be at risk for mental retardation and birth defects,” Dr. Duane Alexander of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, which directed the study, said in a statement.
“This is the first study to show that these infants may suffer peripheral nerve damage as well.”
Nerve damage persists
Working with a team at the University of Chile, the researchers found the damage was still there when the children were a year old.
The experts examined 17 full-term, newborn infants whose mothers drank heavily during pregnancy and compared them to 13 newborns whose mothers did not drink.
They defined “heavy drinking” as four standard drinks a day or more, a standard drink being a can of beer, one glass of wine or one mixed drink.
The drinkers were counseled about the dangers and offered help, but many continued to drink heavily anyway, the researchers said.
The children’s upper and lower limbs were examined with a machine that stimulated the nerves using a machine that passed a mild, painless electric current through the skin and recorded the electrical activity of the nerves to determine if they were damaged.
Babies whose mothers drank heavily before they were born had significant problems in conducting a message through the nerves at both one month and one year of age.
“The finding that the nerve damage persisted when the children were a year old suggests that alcohol may cause permanent damage to developing nerves,” said Dr. James Mills, who led the study.
“Because the children were evaluated before they could talk, they were unable to tell us if they had symptoms such as pain or numbness. We are continuing to follow these children to determine what effect this nerve damage will have on normal nerve function and whether it will lead to weakness or problems with touch sensation or fine motor skills later in life.”
