HHS HealthBeat (October 1, 2010)

Children of older binge drinkers

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Pregnant binge drinkers raise the risk that their children will have problems in thinking and paying attention. And a study indicates that children of binge drinkers have greater problems if their mothers were pregnant at the age of 30 or older.

Researcher Lisa Chiodo of Wayne State University in Detroit found that in data on 462 children who were tested at 7 years old.

"Children whose mothers binge drink during their pregnancy performed poorer on attention measures. There was just a greater impact of binge drinking on children of older drinking mothers." (10 seconds)

Chiodo says no drinking is safe during pregnancy.

The study in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: November 21, 2011