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FAS, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, is a fetal disorder that results from the mother taking alcohol during pregnancy. FAS is the most severe form of birth defect and its occurrence is entirely at the mother’s discretion.
Two groups of parents come to the doctors with children who suffer from damage to the nervous system, abnormalities in the structure of various organs and other disorders. The first, the most numerous, are people who adopted an apparently healthy child. When looking for the causes of problems that a toddler creates, they first go to a psychologist, then to a doctor, and finally to a specialist in FAS, i.e. fetal alcohol syndrome.
The second group consists of parents who do not understand how their child suffered the damage that occurs in the offspring of alcoholics. After all, they are a decent family. What about alcohol? Well, maybe a few drinks during the holidays, in the second or third month of pregnancy … Well, maybe a dozen glasses of red wine, after all, the doctor said that it prevents anemia and cannot harm the baby.
FAS – causes
15% of pregnant women hear from Polish gynecologists or midwives that a glass of wine, or even cognac, can do them good. Meanwhile, no one has yet proven that there is a safe dose of alcohol for the fetus. Getting drunk once can be as dangerous for a child as regularly drinking a glass of wine with dinner. Therefore, a woman who finds out that she is pregnant should definitely drink alcohol or even the so-called give up non-alcoholic beer. Unfortunately, the placenta does not isolate the baby from the alcohol circulating in the mother’s bloodstream. Half an hour after drinking wine or vodka, the alcohol concentration in the baby’s veins is the same as in the mother’s. So if the mother is out of control, the fetus is just drunk too. But the mother will sober up, and the child will not necessarily.
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) – Symptoms
Except in the most dramatic cases where there is marked deformation of the face or limbs, a child with FAS usually appears completely normal. She gets 10 points on the Apgar scale after giving birth, grows, hears, sees, starts to walk. For most FAS-ols, as adoptive parents often call their children, even standard intelligence tests show no problems. Their IQ is often normal. Yet they are struggling with science, have no friends, and parents tear their hair out of their behavior. Małgorzata Klecka, psychotherapist and neurodevelopment therapist, describes in her book Fascinating Children the typical behavior of a child with FAS: “Kasia is unable to complete the activity she has started, she is still distracted by something. She wanted to pick up the toys, but when she heard a car go by, she looked out the window and forgot what she was supposed to do. The phone rang and it effectively disrupted her concentration. A dog barked at the neighbors, and that was reason enough to stop her activity. Children with FAS often do not remember the names of their classmates, they forget that they have a sandwich in their bag and they go hungry all day long, mistake morning and evening hours, do not know their watches, even up to the age of 12. They do not understand the value of money, PLN 1 and PLN 200 is the same for them, because it is just one money. They have particular difficulties with counting and anything that requires abstract thinking. They often give the impression that they are not listening to what we say to them. They go to their room to get socks and bring a book, because they have forgotten what they went for on the way. Parents and teachers say they are distracted and wayward. Meanwhile, their brains work differently than the brains of healthy people. Because it was irreparably damaged.
Children with FAS
The most common problem in children with FAS is impulsiveness and hyperactivity. If something makes them angry, they throw a book, slam the door, start screaming. If someone says something they don’t want to hear, they’ll plug their ears. They don’t learn through experience, they don’t see cause-and-effect relationships. So the usual rewarding for good behavior and punishing bad behavior often just doesn’t work. Collecting magnets on the fridge to get a great reward in the end doesn’t work, and neither does depositing money in a piggy bank. For a person with FAS, regardless of age, it exists only here and now. He is unable to plan, to pursue a goal.
Of course, this doesn’t apply to everyone diagnosed with FAS. Because there are really no two identical cases. You never know to what extent the alcohol drunk by the mother will damage the body and what parts of it will work! It is not true that in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy, you can already drink it without harming the baby. This is when bones, glands, muscles, lung and brain development disorders, etc. can be damaged. Babies of mothers who drink are born smaller and lighter than others. There are also more frequent miscarriages and premature births.
Children with FAS – therapy
Nobody can be cured with FAS. It doesn’t outgrow this disease. However, this does not mean that nothing can be done for a child with FAS. The first, most important and often the most difficult thing is the diagnosis. There are still few specialists in Poland who deal with this problem. (addresses in the box) Most often you need a meeting with a psychologist, neurologist, pediatrician, ophthalmologist, laryngologist … And only then you know exactly what kind of disorders the child has.
– Most children with FAS live in adoptive and foster families or orphanages – says Ewa Dobosz, a psychologist. – And this means that FAS-related disorders overlap with other problems, diseases resulting from neglect in the first months of life, but also, for example, a bond disorder syndrome, typical for children who grow up far from their mother, experienced parting with her, and then their caretakers often changed like a kaleidoscope. Therefore, it sometimes happens that it is impossible to say which behavior is due to FAS, which is due to attachment disorders, etc.
Most parents feel relieved when they hear the diagnosis. A typical reaction is: Phew, I am not the poor guardian who cannot teach a child to follow the standards and explain why it is not allowed to walk barefoot in the snow! It’s just brain damaged! Older children who struggle with problems at school, in the family and in the peer group also take the news that they are sick, not bad. And there are people who know how to help them. And who can teach their parents how to work with their FAS child on their homework, how to support them, every day, so that they grow up to be a fulfilled, happy person. This work can take many forms. More often than medications, a child is prescribed various exercises, sometimes auditory, sometimes in the field of sensory integration. Older children often successfully go to behavioral psychotherapy, which allows them to learn correct social responses. Usually, a diet that eliminates or severely reduces sugar and white flour is recommended. Because the blood sugar of children with FAS is often metabolized to alcohol. So the child is simply drunk after eating a large chunk of ice cream!
Read more in: If you drink pregnant, your baby drinks the same amount!