Eye Blinking Babies May Indicate Future Difficulties with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

Fetal alcohol syndrome is a contributing factor to ADD/ADHD and other intellectual disabilities.  Developmental disorders can be spotted as early as the newborn period. Babies with eye blinking may be subject to fetal alcohol syndrome.  Fetal alcohol syndrome occurs as a result of excessive exposure to alcohol before birth and includes learning disabilities, abnormal facial features and small stature or delays in growth and maturation.

Binge Consumption Impairs Eye Blinking Control

At Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, animal studies have demonstrated that binge consumption of alcohol during pregnancy impairs eye blinking control (EBC).”  Subcortical (brain) deficits are specifically affected by prenatal alcohol exposure in children.

The findings are reported in The Journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. In the study 98 five-year-old children in Cape Town, South Africa who had eye blink testing and healthy children who acted as a control group.

Overall, 64 of the children had mothers who were heavy drinkers, including 12 who met criteria for fetal alcohol syndrome and 18 who met criteria for partial fetal alcohol syndrome.

None of the children with fetal alcohol syndrome achieved normal EBC compared with 75 percent of control children, the said. In children with less severe alcohol-related exposures, it usually took more test sessions to achieve normal EBC than it did for control group.