Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Effects on Vision Health and Eye Development

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, FAS, is a complex condition that affects thousands of children born each year. As a condition that is preventable, children are born with FAS in response to the level of alcohol consumption by the birth mother. If you are a mother who is concerned about Fetal Alcohol syndrome effects in your child, it is important to become especially familiar with the complications involving vision and eye health.

In children who are born with FAS, the complications with development, en utero, are readily apparent at birth. With facial deformities that set this syndrome apart from other congenital birth defects, children are born with widening of the eyes and complications involving vision development. While there are many other Fetal Alcohol syndrome effects that can manifest, the loss of proper vision development can be most crucial in the first few months of life.

While a newborn's vision is typically not perfect until about six months of age, in children with Fetal Alcohol syndrome, the vision will never fully develop with most children, at most, obtaining 50 percent acuity. Without proper eye and vision development, loss of other sensory development may also be possible and a child will lose significant ground in mobility and cognitive learning. Much like the effects of Lowe syndrome, and other congenital birth defects that impair vision, FAS is going to be a life long battle in terms of vision and eye health.

As a new mom to a baby with Fetal Alcohol syndrome effects, you may be initially concerned about the droopiness of the eyelids but, in most children, this does not adversely affect vision. Instead, your child should be referred to a pediatric ophthalmologist for evaluation and care. While corrective lenses can be used in children with FAS, later in life, they typically do not provide the level of vision correction that a child needs to advance into normal schooling and education levels.

A baby born with Fetal Alcohol syndrome will face many challenges over the course of their life and often vision complications only further challenge growth and development. Once your baby is confirmed as a baby with FAS, be sure to address vision and eye corrections early in life so as to give your baby the best opportunities for growth and development when vision becomes more clear around six months of age.

Sources: Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, by Ann Pytkowicz