Excellent presentation by Bruce Ritchie on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Disorders (FASD) to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, Standing Committee on Social Policy, Bill 118, Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. Posted with permission from Bruce Ritchie. Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD), Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), Fetal Alcohol Effects (FAE), Partial Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (pFAS), Alcohol Related Neurodevelopmental Disorders (ARND), Static Encephalopathy Alcohol Exposed (SEAE) and Alcohol Related Birth Defects (ARBD) are all names for a spectrum of disorders caused when a pregnant woman consumes alcohol. FASD is 100% preventable. If you are pregnant or plan to become pregnant, don't drink any beverage alcohol. There is no known safe level. To ignore the facts does not change the facts. Invisible Disabilities - An individual's place, and success, in society is almost entirely determined by neurological functioning. A child with a brain injury is unable to meet the expectations of parents, family, peers, school, and career and can endure a lifetime of failures. The largest cause of brain injury in children is prenatal exposure to alcohol. Often the neurological damage goes undiagnosed, but not unpunished. There are strategies that can work to help the child with an FASD compensate for some difficulties. Early diagnosis and intensive intervention and tutoring can do wonders, but the need for a supportive structure is permanent. Prenatal alcohol exposure has been linked to more than 60 disease conditions, birth defects and disabilities. Damage is a diverse continuum from mild intellectual and behavioural issues to profound disabilities or premature death. Prenatal alcohol damage varies due to volume ingested, timing during pregnancy, peak blood alcohol levels, genetics and environmental factors. For example, ethanol interacts with over 1000 genes and cell events, including cell signalling, transport and proliferation. Alcohol supresses serotonin production. Serotonin suppression causes loss of neurons and glia, inducing excessive cell death during normal programmed death (apoptosis) or triggering apoptosis at inappropriate times leading to smaller or abnormal brain structures with fewer connections between brain cells, leading to fewer cells for dopamine production, leading to problems with addiction, memory, attention and problem solving, and more pronounced conditions such as schizophrenia. As FASD is a diverse continuum, issues range from almost imperceptible to profound. It is somewhere in the middle that the issues attract the attention of parents, educators, medical and social work professionals, and eventually the justice system. Most of the issues that attract sufficient attention are behavioural and performance issues. It is probable that 10% to 15% of children are significantly enough affected by prenatal alcohol exposure to require special education. As they become adults, FASD does not disappear but the issues of youth translate into ongoing problems in family relationships, employment, mental health and justice conflicts. The cost to the individuals affected, their families and society are enormous and as a society, we cannot afford to ignore them. About 50% of pregnancies are unplanned. "If you drink, don't have sex. If you have sex, don't drink. Prevent Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD)" Most girls are 2 to 3 months pregnant before they find out and the baby may well have been to many parties before the pregnancy is confirmed. Maternal prenatal alcohol consumption even at low levels is adversely related to child behavior. The effect was observed at average exposure levels as low as 1 drink per week. Even brief exposures to small amounts of alcohol may kill brain cells in a developing fetus. A study carried out by John Olney, M.D., at the Washington School of Medicine in St. Louis showed that just two drinks consumed during pregnancy may be enough to kill some developing brain cells, leading to permanent brain damage. FASD is not a threshold condition. It is a diverse continuum ranging from mild intellectual and behavioural issues to the extreme that often leads to profound disabilities or premature death. At the mild end, damage may be the loss of some intellectual functioning (IQ), visual problems and higher than normal pain tolerance. At the severe end, damage may be severe loss of intellectual potential, severe vision problems, dyslexia, serious maxilo-facial deformities, dental abnormalities, heart defects, immune system malfunctioning, behavioral problems, attention deficit disorders, hyper-activity, extreme impulsiveness, poor judgment, little or no retained memory, deafness, little or no capacity for moral judgment or interpersonal empathy, sociopathic behaviour, epilepsy, tremors, cerebral palsy, renal failure, heart failure, death. For more information, please visit:
http://www.faslink.org/
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its not funny, it very sad.
samgd11 2 years ago
Lol..i know how that feels..Parents blame us for everything..lol i have f.A.S
KwonJiYongobsessed 2 years ago
Damn.. now i know why F.A.S actually Existed..Damn it.. i have F.A.S...
KwonJiYongobsessed 2 years ago
IT took mothers to get MADD.
what more does it take.
name your poison!
samgd11 2 years ago
NO excuse!AS we the parents are as well! COUNT US?. we are banging down your doors to be heard, marching on streets., for the sake of so many children and youth.
"If You can't Fix it, don't Break it." quote Sevren Suziki at 12 years old.
samgd11 2 years ago
Children are no longer slipping though cracks, they falling though massive black holes.
The round peg in the square box!
Read Animal house, I have t wonder if it was fiction at this point. Or dare I say Orwell.
There a great deal of funding in FAS right now, Lets not over look other causes, that look the same, they cannot be teased out.
Look at the effect of mercury
samgd11 2 years ago
FAS ! yes an over looked serious concern. And the health effects as well.
Lead in the water, we just got around to that very old news, how is another toxic chemical Ritalin et al, a fix? Now another abused drug we have to be concerned about in college aged students.
samgd11 2 years ago
HOW do we tease out other issues, such ASD.
heavy metal exposures such as lead, and other, inborn errors not tested for, even simple thyroid testing, AND is all mental Health, NO!
its brain injury and or CNS disorders, hormones
Infants cord blood contains enough chemicals,
over looked as well, and nor is the air, food, water they drink safe! WHAT is the LD 50 on air?
I
samgd11 2 years ago
It rains Hg, and we know we have chemicals in the water that should not be there. THE PLANET is in Peril the love canal is the womb,
Just whom is governments servicing?Autism is epidemic, yet they buy HPV. HINI vaccines? DARE us even question it!
That the WHO is now under investigation for.
samgd11 2 years ago
And CAS, not wanting child diagnosed in foster care, HE is right on, that's criminal. and we fund them to protect who?
I have no doubt they are billing for special needs child in care! with no real diagnosis.
samgd11 2 years ago