28% of US Kids Drank Alcohol in the last month

According to a recent study, "27.6%) of American youth aged 12 to 20 said that they drank alcohol in the past month".

Talk to your kids about not drinking alcohol. Alcohol lowers inhibitions, making it more likely that you will say or do things that you later regret doing, like having sex. Alcohol also affects decision-making skills, making it more likely that you choose to have sex when you otherwise would not have done so.

Statistics indicate that alcohol was involved in more than 97,000 sexual assaults among college students during the years 1998-2001, and more than 100,000 incidents of being too drunk to consent to sex. Was alcohol involved in the sexual activity that lead to your daughter's pregnancy?

"People who start drinking before age 15 are six times more likely to have alcohol problems than those who start drinking at age 21 or older, according to research." Now that your daughter is pregnant, is she still drinking alcohol? Print out this fact sheet about how alcohol affects your daughter's baby while she is pregnant, and talk to her about it. Get her medical help to stop drinking.

The effects of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) vary widely from person to person. Difficulties in an individual’s ability to succeed at home, school, work, and in social situations may arise at different ages. For many people with an FASD, brain damage is the most serious effect. It may result in cognitive and behavior problems. One obvious sign of brain damage in some babies born with FAS is a small head. We call this condition microcephaly. Individuals with FASD may have facial anomalies such as small eye openings, a smooth philtrum (groove under the nose), and a thin upper lip. When a person has all three features, together they are a sign of FASD. Other features, sometimes seen in persons with FAS, include a short nose, a flat mid-face, or a small upper jaw. However, people who do not have FAS can also have these features, so they are not by themselves a sign of FASD.

Due to damage by exposure to alcohol in the womb, babies with an FASD may be born small and underweight. Somehave difficulty nursing or eating and their growth continues to lag, resulting in failure to thrive. Some infants with an FASD may also have tremors, seizures, excessive irritability, and sleep problems. Physical effects of FASD may include heart defects, such as a hole in the wall of the heart that separates its chambers. Other effects are skeletal defects, such as fused bones in the arms, fingers, hands, and toes. People with an FASD may also have vision and hearing problems, kidney and liver defects, and dental abnormalities. Alcohol can damage the developing fetus from the earliest weeks through the end of the pregnancy. Other factors associated with women who drink during pregnancy are poor nutrition and lack of prenatal care. These factors may also affect organ and skeletal development.