While Sedqa strives to educate the public regarding the negative effects of alcohol abuse, there are some cases for which even the smallest amount can be harmful and thus, should be avoided. One of these situations is pregnancy. The American Paediatrics Association states that, “at the current level of knowledge, the only safe amount (of alcohol) for pregnant women is zero”.

Since the unborn child’s system cannot handle alcohol, toxins end up remaining in their system for long periods of time. This means that the child gets a shot of everything the mother drinks at an extremely critical point of its development (particularly the first three months).

This often results in physical and psychological defects including skeletal abnormalities, central nervous system damage, prenatal and postnatal growth retardation and cranofacial abnormalities (small jaw, cleft palate, eye problems, small head, among others). Brain malfunctions and mental health problems include: difficulty focusing attention, poor school performance, below average IQ, lack of judgment abilities and lower verbal fluency among

others, Sedqa said.

Generally, children afflicted by FAS exhibit difficulties in class and other disruptive behaviour.

Unfortunately FAS also moves into adulthood with an array of psychological and social problems such as isolation, alcohol/drug problems, dependent living and problems with employment.

It is important, therefore, that people recognise such symptoms as FAS so as not to misinterpret them with social maladjustment, since in this case organic brain damage is present, Sedqa said.