Children of Alcohol and Drug Abusers Spend

By Karen Shideler, The Wichita Eagle, Kan.

Jun. 18–A lifetime learning to cope

Michael Freeman is one of the lucky ones. He’ll never overcome the effects of the alcohol, cocaine and marijuana that his birth mother used while she was pregnant.

But he has parents who advocate for him and get him the help he needs, and he is learning the coping skills he’ll use for the rest of his life.

Too many children who have fetal alcohol syndrome don’t have that. And many other mothers-to-be are putting their children at risk — maybe not with cocaine or marijuana, but with alcohol or tobacco or prescription drugs. The results can range from low birth weight, prematurity and lowered IQ to severe learning disabilities, physical abnormalities and death.

That’s why a group of Sedgwick County organizations is working as the Stand Together Coalition. The coalition formed in 2004 to address youth and adolescent substance abuse and expanded its reach this spring to include exposure in pregnancy.

A hidden problem

Last year, 82 pregnant Sedgwick County women sought alcohol or substance abuse treatment, according to the coalition.

“Those are the ones actually seeking help, which is rare,” said Mildred Edwards of the Regional Prevention Center in Wichita.

The number doesn’t include, for example, women who drank early in their pregnancies, then stopped, or students who binge-drank, then found themselves pregnant, or women who don’t want to admit to using, fearing that they’ll have their children taken away, she said.

Wes Jones, who runs the Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Diagnostic Clinic in Emporia, said that 53 percent of U.S. women of child-bearing age drink, and 1 in 10 don’t stop during pregnancy.

“There is no safe level of alcohol consumption during pregnancy,” he said at a recent coalition meeting.

Drinking during the first trimester can cause facial abnormalities, such as a thin upper lip and a flattened nose. In the second trimester, alcohol can cause miscarriage. And in the third, he said, it can create learning disabilities, hyperactivity and aggression.

Michael’s story

Michael Freeman is a cute, freckle-faced 10-year-old who recently finished fourth grade at Wheatland Elementary School in Valley Center. He loves science, math, television’s “MythBusters,” video games and hanging out with his brother, Noah, 7, who isn’t affected.

But Michael’s face shows some signs of fetal alcohol syndrome, and his behavior fits his diagnosis of alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder, say his parents, Polly and Marty Freeman.

They knew his birth mother had used drugs when Michael came to them as a 10-month-old. They suspected problems from the first, though they didn’t find out about his alcohol exposure until later. As a baby, he wouldn’t laugh or cry. He wouldn’t sleep unless he was being held. “I literally wore out a recliner,” Marty Freeman said.

They thought they were being bad parents, giving him so much physical contact. Chicago physician Ira Chasnoff, considered an expert in fetal alcohol syndrome and the broader fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, told them it’s exactly what Michael had needed.

Michael is a smart kid (“and funny,” he adds) but he can’t follow directions such as “Take out your workbook, turn to page 51 and look at paragraph four” because he has a hard time with sequencing. He often acts impulsively, and his instinct when someone brushes against him accidentally is to turn and hit. Crowded hallways and classroom noise overwhelm him.

Overcoming difficulties

At the coalition meeting, Liz McGinness of Wichita public schools said children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder start school “far less ready to learn.”

The assistant director of special education didn’t have figures on how many children in the Wichita district are affected. But others say an estimated 35,000 to 50,000 babies born each year nationwide have alcohol-related neurodevelopment disorders.

Usually, their problems aren’t diagnosed at birth. They may be “difficult” or colicky babies, McGinness said.

As they get older, they may be labeled as behavior problems.

Marty Freeman said that thinking Michael should be able to behave better because he’s so smart is like thinking someone in a wheelchair should be able to walk because he has legs.

“He gets mislabeled and misjudged all the time,” said Polly Freeman.

The Freemans have worked with Michael’s schools. At Wheatland, he has a “safe room” — a converted storage space — where he goes “if I get like really, really mad” or if the classroom gets too noisy.

Michael thrives with structure, and the Freemans are helping him prepare for less structured settings, such as PE, recess and field trips. Before he started soccer camp this summer, he and his parents talked about what he’d do if he were hit by a soccer ball. Walk away, he said. And on the first day of camp, when he was hit by a ball, he walked away — and kept walking.

The alarms on his wristwatches — he wears two on his left arm because he likes them — help him stick with the tasks at hand, such as finishing a bath on time.

Michael will be affected for life. There is no cure. But his parents hope that the more they work with him, using choices and positive rewards and feedback, the more his brain will learn coping mechanisms, and he’ll be able to move through life in a somewhat normal fashion.

That makes him one of the lucky ones.

Reach Karen Shideler at 316-268-6674 or kshideler@wichitaeagle.com [mailto:kshideler@wichitaeagle.com].

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