Pittsburg, Oct 18: Even small amounts of alcohol consumed early in pregnancy can cause children to be born shorter and weightless at age 14 than those whose mothers abstain, according to a study. For long, the US government has warned pregnant women of any amount of alcohol. University of Pittsburg researcher, Nancy Day, the study’s principal investigator reinforces the fact with her study. In a statement made on Wednesday, she felt that women should not drink at all during pregnancy. Though the deficiencies revealed by the study are slight and within normal height and weight ranges, they were nevertheless surprising to Day. The fact that the differences were also statistically significant ruled out the possibility of chance. Initially Day expected the growth deficits to reduce after puberty. Her research is reported in the October issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental research.


Day discovered that drinking even about 1 and ½ drinks a week (about a half litre of beer or a quarter litre of wine) took their toll on children in later years.



At age 14, children born to women who were light drinkers in their first trimester weight about 3 pounds less than children born to non drinkers. Children born to heavy drinkers, on the other hand, weighed up to 16 pounds less than children born to abstainers.


Day has been studying the effects of alcohol on 565 children born to drinkers, since 1982 and tracking their progress at various ages.



Bureau Report