pediatrics
Intellectual Disability
Prevention of Intellectual Disability
 Childhood Vaccination Schedules have all but eliminated congenital rubella and pneumococcal and Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is a highly common and totally preventable cause of intellectual disability. Because it is unknown when during pregnancy alcohol is most likely to harm the fetus and whether there is a lower limit of alcohol use that is completely safe, pregnant women should be advised to avoid all alcohol intake. Folate supplementation (400 to 800 mcg orally once a day) in women beginning 3 months before conception and continuing through the 1st trimester reduces the risk of neural tube defects (see Prevention ). Continuing improvements in, and increased availability of, obstetric and neonatal care and the use of exchange transfusion and Rho(D) immune globulin to prevent hemolytic disease of the newborn have reduced the incidence of intellectual disability; the increase in survival of very low-birth-weight infants has kept the prevalence constant. 