The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has a document entitled: Fetal Alcohol Syndrome: Guidelines for counseling and diagnosis. This document established a general consensus among health professionals, it is diagnosed in the United States ..
The four main features are:
1. Iron deficiency - is defined as significantly below average, weight, or both due to prenatal exposure to alcohol. The criteria are less specific in the diagnostic system. The low weight for height measurement, weight or slowdown is not due to poor nutrition.
Low growth is classified as follows by four-digit diagnostic code:
Severe: Size and weight at or below the 3rd percentile.
Moderate: Any size or weight at or below the 3rd percentile, but not both.
Soft: the size or weight or both between the third and tenth percentile.
No: both above the tenth percentile.
2. The three facial features of craniofacial anomalies are visible characteristics in children with FAS. Three facial features are:
A smooth philtrum: The number or the groove between the nose and upper lip flattens with increasing alcohol exposure.
Vermilion Thin: The upper lip is diluted with increased exposure.
Short palpebral fissures: eye width is shortened with increasing exposure.
3. Central nervous system damage: is the main key element of any diagnosis. Prenatal exposure can damage the brain through a continuum of subtle problems, the most serious deficiencies. The four-digit diagnostic code gives four classifications for CNS Injury:
Finale: structural or neurological deficiencies
Probable: a significant failure of two standard deviations or worse in three or more functional areas.
Possible: mild dysfunction or worse than two standard deviations moderate in one or two functional areas.
Improbable: No evidence of CNS injury.
4. Prenatal exposure to alcohol can be documented interviews determined by the biological mother, other family members, court records, and chemical dependency treatment records.
Some children with FAS are adopted and can be difficult to determine whether the biological mother drinks alcohol during pregnancy. Thus, a determination of the unknown exposure is often used for these children. The diagnosis of FAS still be determined with a known exposure if the child has other three main features.
Sometimes it is difficult to determine why a child has a disability, to understand this information could be critical to help the child to learn. Many children with this syndrome require intensive special education services to help them learn and have a happy and fulfilling life.