BACKGROUND:

To examine the effects of low to moderate alcohol consumption during pregnancy on child motor function at age 5.

METHODS:

A prospective follow-up study of 685 women and their children sampled from the Danish National Birth Cohort based on maternal alcohol consumption during pregnancy. At 5 years of age, the children were tested with the "Movement Assessment Battery for Children" (MABC). Parental education, maternal IQ, prenatal maternal smoking, the child's age at testing, and gender of child were considered core confounders, while the full model also controlled for prenatal maternal binge drinking episodes, age, maternal prepregnancy body mass index, parity, home environment, postnatal parental smoking, health status, and indicators for hearing and vision impairment.

RESULTS:

There were no systematic or significant differences in motor function between children of mothers reporting low to moderate levels of average alcohol consumption during pregnancy and children of mothers who abstained.

CONCLUSIONS:

In this study, we found no systematic association between low to moderate maternal alcohol intake during pregnancy and child motor function at age 5.

Copyright © 2011 by the Research Society on Alcoholism.