Therefore, individual variation in quantity, frequency, and timing of drinking exists between the groups of mothers in ways that one would generally expect given the severity of FASD characteristics in the sample. Higher average quantities consumed more frequently throughout pregnancy produce the predicted variation in diagnoses across the continuum. But a sixth and final point can be made from these data. Variation in drinking QFT is also striking within each group as evidenced by the large standard deviations for most every variable (e.g. DDD) and is illustrated by the error bars in Figure 1. Drinking quantities of individual woman are frequently similar across FASD diagnostic groups, indicating that there are many mothers of children with ARND who drank as much or more when they drank, especially in the 1st trimester, as did some mothers of children with FAS and PFAS. And there are mothers of children with FAS or PFAS who drank less, especially in the first trimester, than some of the mothers who have children with ARND or are children who are physically and behaviorally normal. Therefore, there is individual variation among mothers in quantity, but especially in frequency and timing.
