A newborn\u2019s first stool can signal the child may struggle with persistent cognitive problems, according to Case Western Reserve University Project Newborn researchers.
\nIn particular, high levels of fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEE) found in the meconium (a newborn\u2019s first stool) from a mother\u2019s alcohol use during pregnancy can alert doctors that a child is at risk for problems with intelligence and reasoning.
\nLeft untreated, such problems persist into the teen years, the research team from the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences found.
\n\u201cWe wanted to see if there was a connection between FAEE level and their cognitive development during childhood and adolescence\u2014and there was,\u201d said Meeyoung O. Min, PhD, research assistant professor at the Mandel School and the study\u2019s lead researcher. \u201cFAEE can serve as a marker for foetal alcohol exposure and developmental issues ahead.\u201d <\/p>\n
Detecting prenatal exposure to alcohol at birth could lead to early interventions that help reduce the effects later, Min said. <\/p>\n
For this study, researchers analysed the meconium of 216 subjects for levels of FAEE. (FAEE are composed of a group of products from metabolizing alcohol; this study examined ethyl myristate, ethyl oleate ethyl linoleate and ethyl linolenate.) They then gave intelligence tests at ages 9, 11 and 15.
\nThe conclusion: There was a link between those with high levels of FAEE at birth and lower IQ scores. <\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough we already knew a mother\u2019s alcohol use during her pregnancy may cause cognitive deficits, what is significant is that the early marker, not previously available, predicted this, establishing the predictive validity of FAEEs for determining alcohol exposure in utero\u201d Min said.\nCase Western Reserve University<\/link>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A newborn\u2019s first stool can signal the child may struggle with persistent cognitive problems, according to Case Western Reserve University Project Newborn researchers. In particular, high levels of fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEE) found in the meconium (a newborn\u2019s first stool) from a mother\u2019s alcohol use during pregnancy can alert doctors that a child is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1371"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1371\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}