Drink ruins our children's lives

I read with interest articles on young women's increasing use/abuse of alcohol and recreational drugs. According to a report by an experienced healthcare professional of 20 years standing who has been examining children and adolescents with various disorders of development (including many adversely affected by fetal alcohol effects, or fetal alcohol syndrome), it seems that such behaviour has the potential for some devastating consequences.

The biggest worry is the general lack of awareness of many people regarding the lifelong effects which fetal alcohol abuse has on the child.

The psychological assessment findings of greatest concern do not centre on such problems as learning disabilities, short attention span and hyperactivity but on difficulties which are complex and not easy to assess.

These include such long-term deficits as the child's ability to attach meaningfully to the family, an inability to sustain friends, poor anger management control to the point of being dangerous to others or themselves and an inability to learn from experience. Many such children have long-term, inconsistent and variable memory performance.

One day they can remember skills while the next day (week or month) they cannot do a task which was well known to them. These deficits are not something you grow out of.

I hope that young women of all social backgrounds will consider that what appears to be a "choice" now may look very different in the not-too-distant future.