l three hallmarks, (growth deficiency, central nervous system dysfunction, and physical abnormalities) a term was developed to refer to children with what seemed to suspected fetal alcohol exposure. The name to these occurrences is Fetal Alcohol Effects (FAE). This is not intended to be a diagnosis but rather a bookmark suggesting that the abnormalities seen in children were comparable with FAS. To date, there is no universal accepted evidence that FAE is definable and it would be unwise to use it as a diagnosis, but it does help explain apparent effects of alcohol that are not included in the FAS diagnostic criteria.To correctly identify FAS, a documented history of the mothers ingestion of alcohol during pregnancy is necessary. This is difficult for most women to provide accurately because the recognition of pregnancy usually occurs several weeks to even months after conception. When women are asked to report drinking from the beginning of pregnancy, many women think back to the point of pregnancy recognition instead of the time of conception. For most women alcohol abuse decrease over the length of a pregnancy and changes with each different stage of the pregnancy. Therefore, the amount that a woman consumed at the time in the beginning is often underestimated. In addition to learning the exact stage at which alcohol exposure occurs, researchers must also learn the exact dose of exposure to be able to correctly identify FAS. Women usually have a normal pattern of drinking which reflects the amount they usually consume. This pattern will then begin to vary when a woman finds out she is pregnant. A study concluded that this pattern could only account for 73% of the total alcohol consumed. This means to correctly diagnosis FAS, researchers must accurately identify when, how often, dose of exposure, and variability in pattern. This makes for a difficult task.There are specifics that doctors look for after a child is born...
