Drinking alcohol months before pregnancy could change child’s face shape, new study says

Have you ever been told you have your mother’s nose? Or that you got your cheekbones from your mom?

What is meant as a term of endearment might have science to back it up.

Scientists have found that drinking alcohol before becoming pregnant can change the face shape of the child, according to a study published Feb. 16 in the journal Human Reproduction.

As part of a long-term development study in the Netherlands, scientists used artificial intelligence and three-dimensional imaging of children to learn how their faces changed over time. The study included 3,149 9-year-olds and 2,477 13-year-olds, and the scientists asked their mothers to report their alcohol habits before and during pregnancy.

The mothers were divided into three groups: those who didn’t drink at all before or during pregnancy, those who drank up to three months before becoming pregnant but stopped once they learned they were pregnant, and those who drank during their pregnancy, including those who stopped after their first trimester.

The research found a link between certain facial traits and a mother’s alcohol consumption among the 9-year-old children.

Xianjing Liu, lead author on the study, said in a Feb. 15 release from EurekAlert that the most common traits associated with prenatal alcohol exposure were a “turned-up nose tip, shortened nose, turned-out chin and turned-in lower eyelid.”

Liu said the “more alcohol the mothers drank,” the more “statistically significant” the changes in the children’s face shapes were.

The study’s findings are important because “the shape of children’s faces can be an indication of health and developmental problems,” according to the release.

“I would call the face a ‘health mirror’ as it reflects the overall health of a child,” Gennady Roshchupkin, assistant professor and head of the computational population biology group at Erasmus Medical Centre that led the study, said in the news release.

“A child’s exposure to alcohol before birth can have significant adverse effects on its health development, and, if a mother regularly drinks a large amount, this can result in foetal alcohol spectrum disorder, FASD, which is reflected in children’s faces,” Roshchupkin said.

The researchers found that there were also facial changes in the children of women who drank “very little” during their pregnancy, less than 12 grams a week.

“This is the first time an association has been shown at such low levels of alcohol consumption,” Liu said.

Researchers found a weaker link between face shape and alcohol consumption in the older children, according to the release. They found “no significant association” when examining data from the 13-year-olds.

The researchers said that other environmental factors may also influence the shape of a child’s face over time and it may be harder to identify the impact of a mother’s alcohol on older children. But, the effect alcohol has on the child’s health will not go away.

“Therefore, it is crucial to emphasize that there is no established safe level of alcohol consumption during pregnancy and that it is advisable to cease drinking alcohol even before conception to ensure optimal health outcomes for both the mother and the developing foetus,” Roshchupkin said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends stopping all alcohol consumption if you are trying to become pregnant and throughout a pregnancy.

If you or a loved one shows signs of substance use disorder, you can seek help by calling the national hotline at 1-800-662-4357 or find treatment using SAMHSA's online locator.

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