Most of the time, the person's symptom depends on a few variables. However, the most common and consistent features of FAS involve the growth, performance, intelligence, head and face, skeleton, and heart of the child. Growth of the child is lessened and they weigh less at birth. Slow growth is permanent. Performance is major impaired, they have trouble with everything from motor skills to hand eye coordination. Intelligence is diminshed, most FAS patients' IQ is usually somewhere in the 60's( which is considered mild mental retardation, and qualifies a child in the US as mentally retarded). The head of the child is small, but it's not noticable unless compared to other heads. The size of the head is primarily due to failure of brain growth. The face is characteristic with short eye openings (palpebral fissures), sunken nasal bridge, short nose, flattening of the cheekbones and midface, smoothing and elongation of the ridged area (the philtrum) between the nose and lips, and smooth, thin upper lip.The skeleton shows characteristic changes; abnormal position and function of joints, shortening of the metacarpal bones leading to the fourth and fifth fingers, and shortening of the last bone (the distal phalanx) in the fingers. A heart murmur is often heard and then may go away. The basis is usually a hole between the right and left sides of the heart between the ventricles (the lower chambers) or less commonly, the atria (the upper chambers).A number of other birth defects can occur in children with FAS. These include such major birth deformities such as hyrdrocephalus(increased fluid pressure on the brain that may require shunting to relieve the pressure), (sometimes with a cleft palate), and meningomyelocele (spina bifida)