Thursday, September 10, 2009
FASDay article
FASDay article-
http://www.dl-online.com/event/article/id/47367/group/News/
Published September 09 2009
FASD Awareness Day
Nearly 8,500 babies are born each year in Minnesota with brain damage caused by prenatal exposure.
On Sept. 9, the White Earth Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Program will celebrate FASD Awareness Day. Each year on the ninth day of the ninth month, we ask people to remember that during the nine months of pregnancy a woman should not drink alcohol. It can cause Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD).
“He doesn’t look like he has FAS,” the physician declared as he looked first at my son’s face and then skeptically at me, says Kari Fletcher.Fletcher had taken her 11-year-old son in for a strep culture and when the on-call physician asked if he regularly took any medications. She had answered with the names and dosages and explained, “Ben has a Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.”
After seeing the doctor’s obvious disbelief she said she clarified, “He does not have FAS; he has ARND — Alcohol Related Neurodevelopmental Disorder. His face was not affected by his prenatal exposure to alcohol but he struggles with impulse control, self regulation and other learning and behavioral problems.”
“My son’s face is beautiful, so is my daughter’s, but she has the facial features of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and he does not. They are biological half siblings with the same birth mother; both were our foster children and are now ours by adoption.”
Ben and Anna look “normal” and both have IQs within the average range, but both have permanent brain damage that was caused by prenatal exposure to alcohol. Anna’s partial Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (pFAS) is only slightly more visible to the world than Ben’s ARND and it has been our experience that most people, professionals included, do not understand what they cannot see.
Why do some children with FASD have “identifying” facial features and some don’t?
The face forms during one week very early in the pregnancy, likely on days 19-21. If there is alcohol use by the mother during that specific time of fetal development the child may have the facial features of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, but if the alcohol use occurs during the days before or after that time the face will develop normally.
However, the brain is forming throughout the pregnancy and can be affected at any time alcohol is used during pregnancy. The severity and type of damage varies based on when the alcohol is used, how much is used, as well as individual differences in the mother and fetus.
Alcohol, according to the Institute of Medicine in their 1996 report to congress, causes more damage to the developing fetal brain than heroin, cocaine or marijuana.
So many people look at the face for evidence of this disability but a very small percentage of people with FASD have facial features or “full blown FAS” (facial features, growth deficiency and central nervous system or brain damage). Most will have neurological impairment that causes them to struggle in life but rather than being supported and understood to have a disability, they are blamed and punished.
Fletcher said, they’ve been open with Ben and Anna about their diagnosis. They also have a daughter who has Type 1 Diabetes and talk to her about why it is important to manage her blood sugars, what can happen if she doesn’t, and why her individual needs may be different from those of her peers. Her hope, she said, is that my children who have FASD will grow to understand their needs in the same way — without the stigma.
“I want people to see FASD because with an estimated 1 in 100 people in our country affected, we cannot close our eyes to this very preventable disability. So we teach and we advocate.
“My kids’ disability may be invisible, but I’m not.”
The Minnesota Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome encourages families, touched by FASD, to visit the new Virtual Family Center at www.mofas.org.
http://www.dl-online.com/event/article/id/47367/group/News/
Published September 09 2009
FASD Awareness Day
Nearly 8,500 babies are born each year in Minnesota with brain damage caused by prenatal exposure.
On Sept. 9, the White Earth Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Program will celebrate FASD Awareness Day. Each year on the ninth day of the ninth month, we ask people to remember that during the nine months of pregnancy a woman should not drink alcohol. It can cause Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD).
“He doesn’t look like he has FAS,” the physician declared as he looked first at my son’s face and then skeptically at me, says Kari Fletcher.Fletcher had taken her 11-year-old son in for a strep culture and when the on-call physician asked if he regularly took any medications. She had answered with the names and dosages and explained, “Ben has a Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.”
After seeing the doctor’s obvious disbelief she said she clarified, “He does not have FAS; he has ARND — Alcohol Related Neurodevelopmental Disorder. His face was not affected by his prenatal exposure to alcohol but he struggles with impulse control, self regulation and other learning and behavioral problems.”
“My son’s face is beautiful, so is my daughter’s, but she has the facial features of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and he does not. They are biological half siblings with the same birth mother; both were our foster children and are now ours by adoption.”
Ben and Anna look “normal” and both have IQs within the average range, but both have permanent brain damage that was caused by prenatal exposure to alcohol. Anna’s partial Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (pFAS) is only slightly more visible to the world than Ben’s ARND and it has been our experience that most people, professionals included, do not understand what they cannot see.
Why do some children with FASD have “identifying” facial features and some don’t?
The face forms during one week very early in the pregnancy, likely on days 19-21. If there is alcohol use by the mother during that specific time of fetal development the child may have the facial features of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, but if the alcohol use occurs during the days before or after that time the face will develop normally.
However, the brain is forming throughout the pregnancy and can be affected at any time alcohol is used during pregnancy. The severity and type of damage varies based on when the alcohol is used, how much is used, as well as individual differences in the mother and fetus.
Alcohol, according to the Institute of Medicine in their 1996 report to congress, causes more damage to the developing fetal brain than heroin, cocaine or marijuana.
So many people look at the face for evidence of this disability but a very small percentage of people with FASD have facial features or “full blown FAS” (facial features, growth deficiency and central nervous system or brain damage). Most will have neurological impairment that causes them to struggle in life but rather than being supported and understood to have a disability, they are blamed and punished.
Fletcher said, they’ve been open with Ben and Anna about their diagnosis. They also have a daughter who has Type 1 Diabetes and talk to her about why it is important to manage her blood sugars, what can happen if she doesn’t, and why her individual needs may be different from those of her peers. Her hope, she said, is that my children who have FASD will grow to understand their needs in the same way — without the stigma.
“I want people to see FASD because with an estimated 1 in 100 people in our country affected, we cannot close our eyes to this very preventable disability. So we teach and we advocate.
“My kids’ disability may be invisible, but I’m not.”
The Minnesota Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome encourages families, touched by FASD, to visit the new Virtual Family Center at www.mofas.org.
