Almost half of all the deaths of working age men in Russia may be caused by the drinking of alcohol not meant to be a beverage. So says a study released this morning by Britain's national school of public health.

Researchers at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine found that the percentage of deaths caused by the drinking of so-called hazardous alcohol--alcohol-containing substances that were not supposed to be beverages--was significantly higher than previously thought. The study, which was carried out in Izhevsk, Russia by... more

This Friday, the March of Dimes will be presenting a lifetime achievement award in genetics to Dr. Kenneth Lyons Jones, one of the two doctors who first identified Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Dr. Jones has done research on FAS not only in the United States, but also in Russia and the countries of the former Soviet Union, so he deserves a round of applause from this blog, too.

Dr. Jones is chief of the Division of Dysmorphology/Teratology in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of... more

My kids would eat their own weight in bacon if I let them. And maybe now I am going to have to.

According to a study released on March 8 by the Duke University Medical Center, cholesterol may help prevent some of the neurological and physical defects caused by pre-natal exposure to alcohol.

Yes, you read that right, cholesterol. It made me stop when I read it too.

It turns out that cholesterol is very important to... more

There was a bit of interesting news out of Canada on Friday. Researchers at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario have developed a simple eye-movement test that can identify children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.

FASD is umbrella term that describes a number of problems caused by prenatal exposure to alcohol. Those problems include Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, Alcohol-Related Birth Defects, Fetal Alcohol Effects and Alcohol-Related Neurological Disorders. As I noted in my... more

Perhaps nothing generates more hand wringing in discussions of Russian adoption than Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Volumes have been written about it, by folks with far better scientific credentials than me. But it needs to have a place on this blog for information and discussion, and I thought I should start with the basics. So here are five things to know about Fetal Alcohol Syndrome:

1. What is Fetal Alcohol Syndrome? It is a disorder--a range of problems--caused by a birth mother’s drinking during pregnancy. The birth father’s... more

This morning I asked Little J to clear his breakfast dishes. "NO!" he said. I then told him to clear his breakfast dishes.

"You're mean."

"How am I mean?" I asked. "I just want to teach you manners! That's not being mean. That's being a good mommy."

"You are a good mommy," he said. He cleared his dishes.(Little J has been in an extraordinarily thoughtful and mostly sweet mood the past few days, although also his energy level has become frenetic. He is changing. As long as he isn't hostile I can deal with the hyperactivity...but... more

Carol Echternach was a parent, an educator, and an advocate for people with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. She was the former director of CalFAS, the California Fetal Alchohol Spectrum Organization, and she passed away a few days ago in her sleep.

She will be missed.

I did not know Carol Echternach personally, but I corresponded with her for this blog and I also have been reading her posts to the Russian adoption lists over the years. I think her presence on those and other adoption lists have probably educated and comforted thousands of parents who knowingly or unknowingly adopted a child with Fetal Alcohol Related Neurological Disorder.... more

This is continued from an earlier post. Pam P. had shared with me and other members of EEAC's PEP list a diet-related treatment for Fetal Alcohol Sydrome: gluten free eating.

I'd actually grown quite complacent about the diet because my daughter had been on it for so long -- it was just a given, and sometimes I wondered whether it was worth the trouble. The past months have made me realize that it may be the basis for my daughter's unusual success for a kid with full-blown FAS, who is a sweet,... more

Pam P., from EEAC's PEP list, posted the following a while back about her success with gluten-free eating and her children, who have all been diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Related disorders. I found it really interesting because I happen to be gluten intolerant myself (only recently discovered and diagnosed and I also have along family history of alcoholism on both sides of my family.

This isn't really the place for me to get into the whole gluten intolerance thing, but let's just say that this treatment seems completely plausible to me. For people who are... more

Here's the beginning of my glossary on the alphabet soup of terms that you might read about when adopting a child from Russia.

Number one: Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) Related terms: Fetal Alchol Effects (FAE), Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), Alcohol Related Neurodevelopmental Disorder (ARND).

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome occurs when the biological mother drinks alcohol during pregnancy. Full-blown FAS can result in facial abnormalities, retardation, small size, small birth weight, heart, liver, and kidney defects, hearing and vision problems, as well as problems... more