Is light drinking during pregnancy safe?

The finding from a UCL study suggesting that a glass of wine a week during pregnancy will not harm your child's development has caused controversy but the lead author said that the more the social factors were taken into account, the weaker the association became.


The study involved over 11,000 women who were asked about their drinking habits and their child's development until they were 5 years old. They found that children born to light drinkers were 30% less likely to have behavioural problems and achieve higher scores on cognitive tests than those whose mothers did not drink during pregnancy.

Some experts said that the study was flawed because it only looked at children up to the age of 5. The Dep of Health said "After assessing the available evidence, we cannot say with confidence that drinking during pregnancy is safe and will not harm your baby...... Our advice to pregnant women and women trying to conceive is to avoid alcohol", reported in the Telegraph.

An US alcohol epidemiologist said that alcohol is the leading fetal neurotoxin in the world, there is no safe amount of alcohol a pregnant woman can drink based on the evidence that alcohol kills brain cells in the developing fetus, reported in White Coat Note.

So the debate goes on.

Source: Light drinking during pregnancy: still no increased risk for socioemotional difficulties or cognitive deficits at 5 years of age? Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 2010, October

Is background TV bad for young children?

A newspaper reported a randomised controlled trial that looked at the effects of background TV on young children’s play behaviour. Researchers observed 50 children of 12 - 36 months old play with toys for 1 hour. A TV was on with commercials in the background for half an hour, then turned off for half an hour.

The researchers found that “very young children’s toy play was disrupted by background television” and said this may have a cumulative effect if the child has long periods of TV exposure at home. However, critics say it is not clear from this study whether this has any effect on development but this is an area of topical interest that will benefit from further research.

Source: "The Effects of Background Television on the Toy Play Behavior of Very Young Children." Child Development 2008; 79:1137–1151