[Perfect7]

My nephew (that we may be adopting at birth) has been exposed to at least marijuana and alcohol for the first two months of gestation. There was also Depakote (can cause limb defects, heart defects, cleft palate, and a host of others) and Risperdal (rarely because sister was non-compliant).
I'm trying to mentally prepare myself and I am familiar with the effects of cocaine from adopting our youngest son. Does FAS present itself with moderate alcohol consumption from the first trimester? Severity? Or is it caused more from drinking all through the pregnancy? What would the potential effects of marijuana be from the first trimester?
Fortunately, my sister no longer has access to these things but, unfortunately, she is now on a low dose of Haldol that the baby will most likely have withdrawals from at birth.
Thank you in advance.

[Barksum]

Fetal alcohol is a spectrum disorder. FAS is not the worst, just the part that has the most physical markers, and so has a cluster of observable physical anomolies and thus gets to have the title of 'syndrome'. A child with "Full FAS" may have minimal brain impairment, but has ALL the facial features. A child with few or no facial features associated with fetal alcohol can still have significant brain impairment.

Alcohol is a teratrogen, meaning it kills cells. The facial features occur when the bio mom has consumed enough alcohol for enough cells to be effected at a certain window of time during gestation. I think it's like a 3 day window? It's not what people tend to think. I think it occurs around the 18th day after conception, but don't quote me because I've been to a few too many classes and read too many books and can't keep track any more.

A binge drinker can have a child with significant brain damage and all the facial features, even though they only binged every third weekend, for example.

There is no known safe amount of alcohol that can be consumed while pregnant. Every woman metabolizes alcohol differently, and every fetus does too. There is one case where twins had differing damage; one was full FAS (facial features), the other having what used to be known as FAE (no facial features). They both had brain impairment, but to different degrees.

Much can depend on the general health of the bio mom. Other contributing factors are age, length of alcoholism issues, nutrition, housing (or lack thereof), domestic violence....

Generally speaking younger siblings born to an alcoholic mother are more impacted than older siblings, simply because the mom ages, she has to consume more alcohol the longer she's addicted, and her health is more likely to be compromised.

FASD (fetal alcohol spectrum disorder) is just that. A spectrum. It can be something that is likely not even recognized as fetal alcohol - like ADD or ADHD. Or it can be mental retardation, with dysmorphic facial features, organ and skeletal damage. Kids with FASD can be honors students, or they can be simply unable to function independently. Most kids, I think, fall somewhere in between.

I like what they say about autism: "If you've met one kid with autism, you've met one kid with autism." Everyone in the whole world is unique, even kids with alcohol exposure.

[Perfect7]

Thank you, Barksum. I guess it's just wait and see, though I've been reading that alcohol in the first trimester is, unfortunately, the worst. I believe she was more of a binge drinker, not daily drinking but getting really drunk when she did.

[theLBs]

Our pediatrician told us that if a baby was going to be exposed to something, marijuana was the least risky. If you google, you'll find some studies that say they've found increased risk of ADD/ADHD, and then you'll find other research pointing out all the problems in the first study concluding that there is not significant evidence at this point to confirm a connection. Same for increased risks of Leukemia-one study says yes, slightly higher risk, another says-not enough evidence. There is some increased chance for premature birth and low birth weight.

Of course, that's JUST marijuana. Adding alcohol to the equation as well as psychotropics gives you a whole different set of possibilities.

[Barksum]

Perfect, no time is a 'good' time to drink during prenancy, but you're right, the early stages are particularly dicey. This is partly because of the whole alcohol being a teratrogen thing; a teratrogen is a substance that kills cells. The smaller the fetus, the fewer the cells, but each cell is more important at that point.

The chart they used at one of our trainings was pretty graphic. They drew several circles which represented cells. Then put an X thru one or two of them. Two cells gone, right? Nope. For each cell destroyed you get not just one cell destroyed, but all the generations of cells that would have come from that one cell are also destroyed. Thats why kids with brain damage due to fetal alcohol have 'swiss cheese' brains. Literally. This doesn't mean that they can't repair some of the damage, just that they have holes in their ability to process information.

We've noticed that there is a lag in the time it takes one of our Ds's to hear, process, and then respond to us when we talk to him. It's an acutal, noticeable gap. I speak. He processes.... Then he responds. One professional we worked with referred to this as "a 10 second kid in a 1 second world". (Maybe it was a 5 second kid in a 2 second world? Whatever. It was about the lag between hearing and responding.) Sounds like not a bit deal, right? After 10 years, though.... LOL Sometimes the lag gets longer and I will ask, "Are you thinking?", just to see if he did actually HEAR me and is simply processing. When you add puberty on top....

[Perfect7]

I guess all there is to do is hold my breath and pray for this little unborn baby. Either way it will make no difference to me and my capacity to love him unconditionally, but for his sake I hope the effects are minimal.
Yes, marijuana, add in some alcohol, throw in a little Depakote and Risperdal, and then a little biomom psychosis.....and top it off with a little Haldol so that the baby isn't moving around much now at all.
My sister told me today that if it was her choice, she would have a partial birth abortion. It was all I could do to not say, "Of yourself?" I love her, I know she is ill, but sometimes it's hard to keep that in my mind when I see how she hurts her kids (one 17 adopted by my parents and this unborn child).

[Barksum]

(((hugs))) It hurts all the way around. Hang in there.