What Exactly Is Fetal Alcohol and What Does It Have To Do With Me?

Etal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, (FASD) isn't a mental health diagnosis or a medical diagnosis but is an umbrella term used to refer to a selection of syndromes and disorders that may occur in a child whose mother consumed alcohol while pregnant. The effects and symptoms vary in severity. Many kids share the usual effects including emotional, physical and learning difficulties. The common physical characteristics that could be associated with FASD are facial deformities, growth deficits, heart, liver, kidney defects, eyesight and hearing difficulties as well as permanent brain damage. FASD is the only 100% preventable cause of mental retardation and birth defects in the United States and FASD is 100% Nominal. It's projected that FASD affects 40,000 infants each year. This is over Spinal Bifida, Down Syndrome and Muscular Dystrophy combined.

Alcohol damages the areas of the brain which gives us memory, self control, judgment and planner. Children with FASD frequently have problems with learning, memory, attention, central nervous system, and problem solving skills which might have lifelong consequences. FASD is a permanent condition and affects every facet of the child's life and the life of their family.

The psychological toll on families can't be underestimated. For birth parents, acknowledging their child's mental retardation, birth defects, or neurodevelopment disorders are a result of maternal prenatal alcohol intake is very tricky to face. For adoptive or foster parents, discovering that their child suffers from FASD later years of trying to understand that his cognitive and behavioral problems results in feelings of frustration and isolation. As an adoptive mom I will tell you raising a child with FASD is the hardest but the most rewarding thing I have ever done. Andrew is now 13 years old and is in the seventh grade. He is sweet, generous, loving and incredibly naive. He also has shown a lot of the symptoms related to FASD since the day we brought him home at 1 week old. He cried all the time! Until he was 3 years old and on medication he never slept for over 30 minutes at one time, day or night. To say life seemed impossible is actually an understatement. He needed constant attention and if I let him out of my sight in another room for a single minute he'd ruin it. If I wasn't right beside him if he had a bowel movement in his diaper he'd take off it and then smear feces all over the walls, bed and carpets. We had to set a lock on the refrigerator because he'd climb out of his crib at the middle of the night and dump everything from the refrigerator smearing it from the carpeting, walls, and beds. For many years we knew there were serious problems, but nobody can help us. Each the professionals said that his behaviours were outside of the expertise. We moved from Doctor to Doctor, counselor to counsel and hunted everywhere for answers for him and our loved ones. From age three, he was thrown from every daycare in our area, went through a minimum of 30 babysitters, and couldn't stay in the nursery at Church. He was quite violent toward everybody; however most of his rages were taken out on me. He'd bite me, hit me and throw things at me. He'd place holes in the wall, windows, threw stones at us, in addition to the automobiles and was basically never pleased. When he started college a whole new nightmare started. The fourth day of college he'd thrown toys, supplies and destroyed the classroom than conducted from the room causing the teacher to need to leave other students to chase my 4 year old. He had been transferred to an emotionally disabled course where they'd experience with other children like him.

From the time he was 5 he had so many diagnoses I lost count, but not one of them really explained the severity of his behaviors. We had attempted 21 different medications and attempted at least 4 unique sorts of therapy. We began exploring the net and found a couple of sites about FASD and found that there were several places from the USA that technical in FASD. Andrew and I packed up, leaving my husband along with other two kids at home and moved in search of an investigation. We moved to Baltimore, MD and saw a FASD specialist that gave him a precise diagnosis of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. While we had a diagnosis nobody seemed able to help us get his behavior under control and his behaviour was becoming worse. At that time, he had been on 7 drugs however none were powerful. We went back online searching and learning about FASD and found that a "severe" behavior practice, The Marcus Institute, in Atlanta GA.. They observed his behaviors and they immediately asked if we would be open to coming to Atlanta to endure a couple of months so he can attend to the clinic. It was their observation that his behaviours were something that would never get better without extreme intervention. At this point we had no choice; he was getting bigger, stronger and more damaging regular. After fighting insurance issues, Andrew and I went to Atlanta where he underwent therapy, testing and training for eight weeks.

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