Describing A Disease That Dates From Birth: A birth defect is something visibly abnormal, internally abnormal, or chemically abnormal about the body of your newborn baby. The defect could be caused by genetics, infection, radiation, or drug exposure, or it could be due to an unknown cause.
Phenylketonuria, sickle cell anemia, and Down syndrome are examples of birth defects.
Describing A Disease That Dates From Birth
A birth defect is an abnormality in your newborn baby’s body. In the United States, a baby is born with a birth defect every four and a half minutes. A defect that can affect almost any part of your baby’s body is:
- Visibly obvious, like a missing arm or a birthmark.
- Internal (inside the body), like a kidney that hasn’t formed right or a ventricular septal defect (a hole between the lower chambers of your baby’s heart).
- A chemical imbalance, like phenylketonuria (a defect in a chemical reaction that results in developmental delay).
Experts don’t know the exact cause of most birth defects, but some reasons are:
- Genetic or hereditary factors.
- Infection during pregnancy.
- Drug exposure during pregnancy.
About 20% of birth defects are caused by genetic or hereditary factors. Genetic causes of birth defects fall into three general categories:
- Chromosomal abnormalities.
- Single-gene defects.
- Multifactorial.
Characteristics of fetal retinoid syndrome may include:
- Growth delay.
- Malformations of the skull and face.
- Abnormalities of the central nervous system.
- Abnormalities of the heart.
- Abnormalities of the parathyroid gland.
- Abnormalities of the renal, thymus gland.
Alcohol is the most commonly used drug that causes birth defects. Fetal alcohol syndrome is a term used to describe the typical birth defects caused by the mother’s alcohol use:
- Learning disabilities.
- Developmental delay.
- Irritability.
- Hyperactivity.
- Poor coordination.
- Abnormalities of facial features.
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