Thursday, March 29, 2012

What is FAS?

Dear readers,
Every year 40,000 babies are born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, but would you be able to recognize them in a crowded room? Like most people some children with FAS look normal on the outside. There are little differences in their facial expressions but they look like the everyday person. Their facial expressions are different, unique; it is what makes them beautiful.
To start I want to tell each of you about what Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) is. FAS is what happens to a child both physically and mentally when an unborn fetus is subject to high doses of alcohol, in other words it is what happens when a mother drinks during pregnancy. People with FAS have a lot of different problems some of which my siblings have. Here are some listed symptoms of FAS:
Poor Growth
Poor muscle tone
Delayed developmental problems such as:

Thinking
Speech
Movement
Social Skills
Facial Abnormalities
Narrow/small eyes
Small Head
Small upper Jaw
Smooth groove in upper lip
Smooth and thin upper lip


There is no treatment for a child with FAS. That has always been the hardest thing for me to know. I watch my siblings every day and wish that I could change them, change what their biological mother made them. It’s hard knowing that there is nothing I can do for them, but there is something that I can do. This blog will follow the lives of my three younger siblings through my eyes. I will discuss different factors of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and talk about how we overcame the difficulties involved.
Sincerely,
Growing up with FAS

1 comment:

  1. Is it true small ears too, or is that from a drug?

    ReplyDelete