International Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) Awareness Day was observed on September 9, 2026, with Dominican pediatrician Marcos Díaz Guillén warning that there is no known safe amount of alcohol to drink during pregnancy.
Díaz Guillén, a neonatal pediatrician, explained that the date was chosen because September is the ninth month of the year, matching the nine months of a human pregnancy. He said the day exists to remind pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers and women who are planning to become pregnant that alcohol should be avoided at every one of those stages.
He said that when doctors advise against drinking alcohol, they mean exactly that: none at all, because no one yet knows what the minimum dose of alcohol, which he described as a potent neurotoxin, would be capable of causing brain damage to a fetus.
What causes Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder
Díaz Guillén said alcohol consumption during pregnancy or while breastfeeding is the cause of what is now known as FASD, an umbrella term covering the range of effects that prenatal alcohol exposure can have on a child. He said Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) is the most severe form in which the disorder can present.
According to Díaz Guillén, a child with the syndrome can show the following features:
- Short palpebral fissures, meaning a smaller horizontal opening of the eyes
- Smooth skin or a flattened surface between the nose and the upper lip
- A very thin upper lip
- A flat nasal bridge
- Delayed growth
- A small skull, or microcephaly
- Muscle weakness
- Hyperactivity, attention deficit and learning problems
He said one condition is always present in these children: intellectual disability, because alcohol has a particularly damaging effect on the brain of a child who is in a stage of rapid development and growth, forming millions of neural connections every second.
How the syndrome is diagnosed
Díaz Guillén said diagnosing FAS is complex, because not every case presents the same signs and symptoms at the same time, and genetic penetrance varies from one case to another.
For that reason, he said, diagnosis requires pediatricians, neurologists, psychologists, geneticists and other specialists in child health working together. Using standardized clinical guidelines, they must confirm at least four fundamental conditions: a documented history of alcohol consumption during pregnancy, characteristic facial abnormalities, delayed development in height and weight, and evidence of damage to the central nervous system.
No cure, but preventable
Díaz Guillén said the most tragic aspect of FAS is that it has no cure, and there is no specific treatment able to fully reverse the underlying problem: the intellectual disability that the child, their family and society will have to live with for the rest of the child's life.
At the same time, he said, the disorder is easily preventable if the whole population understood that no quantity of alcohol should be consumed from the moment a couple decides to have a child, once a woman becomes pregnant, and for as long as a mother is breastfeeding.
About the pediatrician
Díaz Guillén is a neonatal pediatrician and director of the School of Medicine at the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra in Santo Domingo (PUCMM-CSD). He is a pediatrician emeritus and a past president of the Dominican Society of Pediatrics, and currently serves as president of the Dominican Society of Vaccinology for the 2025-2027 term.
