Please help spread the word. 

Awareness is key in preventing this horrific disability.  I work with these children everyday and it breaks my heart to see the struggles they will go through during their lives.

FASD is 100% preventable.

Please keep these children and families in your thoughts and prayers today.

Hugs,

Heather

FASworld is an international alliance of parents and professionals who do not want to see any more children, teenagers and adults struggle with birth defects caused when their mothers drank alcohol in pregnancy. Co-founded by volunteers in Toronto, Canada, and Tucson, Arizona, it has resulted in the creation of the Canadian organization, FASworld Canada, which continues to work with the FAS Community Resource Center in Tucson to coordinate work in worldwide awareness.

Individuals struggling with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders may be diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), Alcohol-Related Neurodevelopmental Disorder (ARND) — formerly known as Fetal Alcohol Effects (FAE) — Alcohol-Related Birth Defects (ARBD), Alcohol-Related Birth Injury (ARBI) or Partial Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (pFAS). (In New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and other parts of the world, these conditions are spelled, “Foetal Alcohol Syndrome,” etc.).

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) is an umbrella term describing the range of effects that can occur in an individual whose mother drank alcohol during pregnancy. These effects may include physical, mental, behavioral and/or learning disabilities with possible lifelong implications. The term FASD is not intended for use as a clinical diagnosis.

Psychologists and psychiatrists often assess individuals with FAS disorders as having Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), Conduct Disorder or Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) — but are often unaware that the real problem is permanent neurological damage caused by prenatal alcohol.

People with prenatal alcohol exposure have a high risk of mental disabilities, learning disabilities, early school drop-out, juvenile delinquency, trouble with the law, alcoholism, drug addiction, unemployment, homelessness, poverty, incarceration, and mental illness. As many as half of all adults with some form of FASD have depression and a significant percentage of those have attempted suicide. With early diagnosis and treatment, many of these “secondary disabilities” could be prevented.

[tags]fas, fasd, prevention, children, fetal alcohol, awareness, arnd[/tags]

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