The present work studied the adverse effects of maternal exposure of rats to alcohol during lactation, on the development of their offspring. Histometric evaluation by karyometry and of the palatine epithelium of the sucking was performed. Two groups of animals, one coming from mothers exposed to drinking water containing 20% ethanol during the total lactation period and the other of controls coming from mothers receiving only alcohol-free drinking water during this period. On the 21 first day of lactation the young of each group were aleatorily selected and following anesthesia, their heads severed; after histological treatment, serial 6 -J,m sections on the frontal plane at the molar level, stained with hematoxilin and eosin, were obtained. The experimental results produced, suggest that suckling from ethanol-treated mothers, show a significant decrease of body weight, significant alterations of karyometric and stereological measurements that determined hypotrophy of palatine epithelial cells and toxicity of ethanol at the palatine epithelium.