FAS/FAE/ARND

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 with learning, attention, and memory.

Fetal Alcohol Effects, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, and Alcohol-Related Neurodevelopmental Disorder also occur when the woman drinks during pregnancy, but in this case the child does not have all the signs of full-blown FAS but may have some.

This, from Teresa Kellerman, an advocate and educator on FAS:

The most serious characteristics of FASD are the invisible symptoms of neurological damage from prenatal exposure to alcohol. These symptoms persist into adulthood and include the following:

Attention deficits
Memory deficits
Hyperactivity
Difficulty with abstract concepts
Inability to manage money
Poor problem solving skills
Difficulty learning from consequences
Immature social behavior
Inappropriately friendly to strangers
Lack of control over emotions
Poor impulse control
Poor judgment

According to NOFAS, the National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, children do not outgrow Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.

According to this paper on the website of Dr. Jane Aronson, a well-known international adoption doctor, the rate of FAS-affected babies born in Russia is possibly 8 times higher than the world-wide rate. Of course, children adopted from anywhere in the world (including the U.S.) could have FAS.

Some helpful websites about FAS and FASD:

FAS Community Resource Center

General Information from Adoption.com

Facts on FAS from the International Birth Defects Informations Systems website

Although there is no treatment for FAS or FAE that will reverse the brain damage that has occurred through maternal ingestion of alcohol, there are many therapies, behavioral modification techniques, medications, and other treatments that may be beneficial to the alcohol-affected child. This page, on the Family Empowerment Network at the University of Wisconsin, has some very useful strategies.

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