How is the diagnosis of fetal alcohol syndrome made?
The diagnosis of FAS must be based on solid evidence. FAS is a diagnosis of great importance for the entire lifetime of the child, not to speak of its implications for the child’s mother and other family members. To establish a diagnosis of FAS, by convention, the following minimal criteria are met: • small size and weight before and after birth (pre- and postnatal retardation) • specific appearance of the head and face with at least two of the three following groups of sign: small head size (microcephaly), small eyes (microphthalmia) and/or short eye openings (palpebral fissures, and/or underdevelopment of the upper lip, indistinct groove between the lip and nose (the philtrum), and flattened cheekbones • brain involvement with evidence for delay in development, intellectual impairment, or neurologic abnormalities These criteria are used for the following reasons: • FAS can be difficult to diagnose at and after birth; • FAS can easily be confounded with many other disorders; • there i
