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Dec. 12 (Bloomberg) — Babies can get a taste for alcohol before they're born that follows them into childhood, a study in rats suggests.

Rats exposed to alcohol in the womb drank up to twice as much per pound of body weight as their non-exposed peers if they were offered alcohol 15 days after birth, according to research published in the Journal of Behavioral Neuroscience.

Doctors and regulators recommend against drinking while pregnant. If an expecting mother imbibes, she can expose her child to a lifelong condition called fetal alcohol syndrome, which can cause mental retardation. Previous research has also shown that babies exposed to small amounts of alcohol in the womb tend to move toward its smell, lead study author Steven Youngentob said. His research may begin to explain why.

"There's an adaptive mechanism where you learn how to eat by what Mom ate when you were in the womb," said Youngentob, who is a professor of neuroscience and physiology at State University of New York's Upstate Medical University in Syracuse. "Your body thinks, `Well, if Mom ate it, it's probably ok."'

Fetuses' nervous systems are exposed to whatever their mothers take in. This may account for why rats whose mothers were given alcohol preferred its taste and smell as babies and adolescents more than peers without fetal exposure, Youngentob said.

Exposure to Toxins

This mechanism backfires when fetuses are exposed to harmful substances, such as alcohol or drugs. The research on rats shows that their nervous systems are changed during development by fetal exposure to alcohol. The animals then are more likely to drink as babies, when given the option, and prefer the smell of alcohol more than peers whose mothers didn't imbibe spirits during pregnancy.

Researchers evaluated the amount of liquor per pound because rats exposed to booze in the womb were smaller than their peers.

The researchers also looked at rats whose mothers drank and who weren't exposed to alcohol again until they were adults. Youngentob and his team found that without another exposure after birth, the rats were no more likely to drink than their control group peers.

"It's use it or lose it," he said.

The response to alcohol disappears because neurons compete in the brain, Youngentob said. Although these rats are primed to like alcohol, if they don't receive the second exposure during youth, other connections in the brain become more important, crowding out the early connection for alcohol.

For humans, this research adds to the already considerable body of evidence suggesting women who are pregnant or may become pregnant should stay away from "happy hour," Youngentob said.

"Pregnant moms shouldn't drink, ever," he said. "It's never safe."

—Editors: Jeanmarie Todd, Sau Chan.

To contact the reporter on this story: Elizabeth Lopatto in New York at +1-212-617-4016 or elopattobloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reg Gale at 212-617-2563 or rgale5bloomberg.net.

-0- Dec/12/2007 23:04 GMT 12-12-07 1804EST