Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD)

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is a medically diagnosable condition describing a set of birth defects seen in children whose mothers consumed alcohol during pregnancy.

Features include:

  • central nervous system impairment (e.g. brain damage)
  • slow growth (e.g. weight and height below normal, smaller than normal head circumference)
  • facial characteristics (e.g. short opening between eye lids, flattened vertical grooves between nose and upper lip)

The physical features are normally more pronounced in infancy and early childhood

Prenatal exposure to alcohol is one of the leading causes of preventable birth defects and along with Spina Bifida and Down Syndrome, one of the top three known causes of developmental delay in children in Canada. It is a life-long condition. A child with FASD becomes an adult with FASD. There is no cure for this syndrome; the damage is irreversible.

FASD was identified as a medical condition in 1973. Physicians and health care providers are continuing to educate the public about the impacts of alcohol on the fetus. Since research has not been able to confirm a safe level of alcohol for a woman to consume while pregnant, experts agree that no alcohol is best.

FASD is considered often to be at the extreme end of a continuum of observable effects. Individuals with FASD have physical characteristics as well as neurological impairments. There are many more children who are born with alcohol-related birth defects. These children may not have the physical characteristics of FASD, but do have various levels of neurological impairment that affect the way they grow, reason and learn. Fetal Alcohol Effects (FAE), and/or Alcohol-Related Birth Defects (ARBD), and/or Alcohol-Related Neurological Disorders (ARND) are just as serious as Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder and often harder to detect because they do not include the physical features of FASD.

Note: Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), Alcohol-Related Birth Defects (ARBD), Fetal Alcohol Effects (FAE), and Alcohol-Related Neurological Disorders (ARND) are the most commonly used terms to refer to the various forms of impact, resulting from exposure to prenatal alcohol. For this website, unless otherwise specified, the term FAS includes the full spectrum of impacts.