Aug 4, 2015 01:41 PM By Lizette Borreli @lizcelineb Retrieved from: http://www.medicaldaily.com/marker-first-dirty-diaper-can-predict-cognitive-development-issues-fetal-alcohol-346046
Many pregnant women struggle with the question: to drink or not to drink? Typically, expectant mothers abstain from drinking alcohol to prevent endangering the baby’s health, but others do imbibe and are reluctant to reveal how much they consumed during pregnancy because of the stigma — hence prenatal alcohol exposure being missed. However, a baby’s first dirty diaper can reveal alcohol exposure in utero and long-term cognitive development issues, according to a recent study published in the The Journal of Pediatrics.
To investigate, researchers from the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University studied whether fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEE) — a group of products from metabolizing alcohol — found in meconium (a newborn’s first stool) can predict alcohol use during pregnancy and whether the baby is at risk for problems with intelligence and reasoning. The…
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