Want to be a dad? Watch what you drink.
A recent Georgetown University study says newborns can suffer from fetal alcohol spectrum disorder even if the mother never had a drink. The culprit, researchers concluded: Dad.
“Up to 75 percent of children with FASD have biological fathers who are alcoholics,” says Joanna Kitlinska, the study’s lead investigator. That drinking, she adds, negatively impacts the men’s offspring — resulting in babies with decreased birth weight, reduced brain size and learning disabilities.
The report also cites past studies that found men older than 40 were five times more likely to have kids with autism than fathers 30 and younger. And obese dads were linked to having babies who developed diabetes, obesity and brain cancer.
“We know that the nutritional and psychological environment a mom provides can alter an offspring’s organ structure,” Kitlinska, a professor of biochemistry at Georgetown, tells The Post. “Our study shows that a father’s lifestyle can also be reflected in his offspring’s gene function.”