The  Florida Center for Early Childhood is home to the state’s first Fetal  Alcohol Diagnostic and Intervention Clinic. Their expertise on FASD,  diagnostic resources and programs and long-standing reputation are great  assets that will strengthen the campaign’s educational outreach and  provide excellent support for Torchbearers!

In  the coming months, you will notice changes to the look and feel of the  campaign logo, e-newsletter, website and campaign materials as Florida  Fights FASD settles into its new home. While the look of the campaign  will change, its mission remains the same – to educate Floridians that  there is no safe amount of alcohol or time to drink while pregnant.

To learn more about the Florida Center for Early Childhood, visit www.thefloridacenter.org.

If you are a health care provider who wishes to learn more about why expectant moms should abstain from drinking while pregnant, the American Academy of Pediatrics has created a new online course titled “Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders: Identification and Management” to help expand your knowledge about FASD. The course emphasizes the importance of the primary care provider in identifying and/or diagnosing FASD; making proper referrals; and facilitating appropriate health care, education and community services.

A limited number of complimentary scholarships for this course are available on a first-come, first-served basis. To take advantage of this offer, contact the program manager, Faiza Khan, atfkhan@aap.org today!

To learn more about the course, visit www.pedialink.org.

Researchers at UC San Diego analyzed 33 years of data and found that alcohol consumption could be a contributing factor in many incidents of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), NBC San Diego reported Dec. 15.

The investigators analyzed 129,090 cases of SIDS recorded in national epidemiological data covering 1973-2006. According to NBC, they drew their data from three sets of data, including “computerized death certificates, the linked birth and infant death dataset, and the Fatality Analysis Reporting System.”

The study found a 33% increase in SIDS deaths on New Year’s Day, as well as jumps on weekends and other days of the year when alcohol consumption spikes, including April 20 (so-called Weed Day) and July 4. Babies born to mothers who did not drink were half as likely to die of SIDS as those born to mothers who did.

The authors concluded that drinking alcohol appeared to be a risk factor in SIDS cases. In their paper, they wrote that it was not yet clear whether alcohol acted independently of other variables; if other risk factors also had to be in play for an infant to die; or if alcohol was actually “a proxy for other risk factors associated with occasions when alcohol consumption increases (like smoking).”

They recommended that pediatricians alert parents about the connection between of drinking alcohol and the risk of SIDS. They also indicated that investigators of SIDS deaths should ask parents about their recent alcohol use.

The study, “Alcohol as a risk factor for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS),” appeared online on Nov. 9, 2010 in the journal Addiction.

What happens to children from birth to 5, before they reach the school-house door, is nothing less than a revelation. Neuroscientists, who have been studying children’s brains for the past three decades, confirm the dazzling pace of brain development in these early years. By age 2, the number of synapses reaches adult levels, and by age 3, children’s brains are twice as active as those of adults. Sensitive, stimulating, and enriching early care and education actually creates the architecture of the brain, building a child’s capacity to learn and grow — cognitively, emotionally, and socially — and establishing a foundation for later academic achievement and life success.

Researchers have long documented the positive outcomes of high-quality early childhood education, including readiness for school, greater academic achievement, higher rates of high school and college completion, lower rates of incarceration, and higher incomes. And labor economists point to the substantial economic benefits for investing in early childhood education. To successfully reform our nation’s public school system, early childhood education must be an integral part of the equation.

Too many of our country’s youngest children, however, lack the optimal circumstances for growth and development. According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, of the 25 million young children under the age of 6 in the United States, 46 percent live in low-income families and 24 percent are growing up in poverty. The high levels of family stress and trauma often associated with poverty may result in discontinuity in the quality of children’s daily care and education, compromising children’s readiness for school.

A recent synthesis of readiness research by the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory confirms that young children’s cognitive and social skills in kindergarten are of long-term importance. Kindergarten teachers rate high among readiness indicators physical well-being, social development, and curiosity, along with the ability to communicate needs, thoughts and enthusiasm for learning. While reliable tools for assessing children’s readiness are still evolving, anecdotal evidence from states across the United States confirms that growing numbers of children — many of them low-income — are struggling in kindergarten.

Indeed, studies show that at least half of the educational achievement gap between poor children and their more advantaged peers is evident in the kindergarten classroom. Children from low-income families often start school with limited language skills as well as social and emotional problems that inhibit learning. And those who start behind are much more likely to stay behind. Today, for example, the average African-American or Hispanic high school student achieves only at the level of the lowest quartile of white students. Black and Hispanic students are also much more likely than white students to drop out, and less likely to graduate from high school, complete college, and earn a living that offers entry into the middle class.

The persistence of the achievement gap has fueled education reform for decades, with early childhood education waxing and waning on the policy agenda. The needs of youth and those who educate them in K-12 classrooms and beyond, are equally urgent, and have justifiably demanded attention and resources as America’s global standing in education continues to plummet. This summer, the College Board announced that the United States ranks 12th among 36 developed nations in college completion rates. On October 15, at the first White House Science Fair, President Obama deemed students’ performance in math and science “unacceptable,” citing a study that found American 15-year-olds ranking 21st in science and 25th in math among their peers worldwide. We must do better, he exhorted, or risk being left behind in the global economy. The release, last week, of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) results, only ups the ante. “It’s a Sputnik moment,” Obama declared.

Fifteen — or 20, for that matter — is much too late to start turning things around. Learning begins at birth.

Just a few days before Waiting for “Superman” was released, Nobel-Prize-winning economist James Heckman wrote a letter to the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Reform. His question: What’s the best way to develop human capital to increase workforce capability, enhance productivity and social cohesion, and assure America’s economic competitiveness in the global economy? His answer: Invest in comprehensive early childhood development and education, from birth to age 5, especially for our most vulnerable children and families.

Reform strategies that focus exclusively on elementary, middle, secondary, and post-secondary education will not work. Philanthropic and public initiatives that favor one element of the system over another and ignore early childhood in the process are condemned to failure. We can’t afford to waste those earliest years of development, where the achievement gap is born.

To view the original article, click here.

from the National Center for Medical Home Implementation (NCMHI)

Webinar—Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders and Children in the Foster Care System

November 18: 12 to 1pm (Central)

 The AAP—through support from the CDC National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities—is pleased to offer the final session in the Birth Defects Prevention and Identification webinar series, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders and Children in the Foster Care System. This event is free and open to all who are interested. At the conclusion of this activity, participants should be able to:

• Identify risk factors that should prompt consideration of evaluating a child for a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD)
• Describe the prevalence of FASDs in the foster care and/or adoption populations
• Apply strategies discussed to provide ongoing care management of children suspected to have or identified with an FASD and for connecting families (birth, foster, and adopted) to appropriate resources and supports

If you have any questions or need any assistance, please contact Chelsea Fosse at cfosse@aap.org.

LIFE IS A SPECTRUM

Amanda Broadfoot10/19/2010 12:36 pmFetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) is an umbrella term describing the possible effects that can occur in an individual whose mother drank alcohol during pregnancy. FASD affects one in 100 infants each year, yet is 100 percent preventable. Some of those possible effects can include seizures, facial and other physical malformations, and developmental delays and other neurological problems.

And it’s 100 percent preventable.

How often do you get those kinds of stats related to birth defects?

I received this information this week in an email about a Community Action Summit taking place here in Tallahassee, starting tomorrow, in support of a statewide campaign, launched by the Florida Developmental Disabilities Council, to eliminate FASD. ““Florida Fights FASD” seeks to engage and educate Floridians about the dangers of alcohol consumption during pregnancy and, ultimately, to reduce the number of children born with FASD in the state.

I was discussing this issue with my Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) group this morning, and quickly became aware of how much more complicated an issue it is to solve FASD than I had at first thought. At face value, it sounds simple: Get pregnant women to stop drinking. How hard can that be?

Then one of our moms, who used to work as a bartender, told us how hard it was for her when clearly pregnant women would come to her bar and drink heavily. HEAVILY. She wasn’t allowed to refuse them service on the grounds that they were pregnant, even though it went against every fiber of her being to see them consume round after round.

Should we make it illegal to drink while pregnant? After a very short discussion, it became clear that that was impractical. Who’s going to enforce this law? What if you can’t tell? It’s more dangerous to drink in the first trimester, when most women don’t show. Should women be forced to wear a scarlet “P” as soon as they get a positive pregnancy test? Clearly not.

Maybe greater education at he OB/GYN level should take place, during prenatal care. But then you find out that some of the women most at risk never receive prenatal care. Never.

The goal of this week’s summit is to debate and brainstorm these issues and ignite “torchbearers” for the cause. These torchbearers will serve as community advocates and take FASD prevention activities and public awareness messages back to their local communities and/or share information with members of their organizations. Summit attendees will participate in an educational forum where expert speakers will lead discussions about the prevalence of FASD and what can be done to combat it.

The Summit is being held at the TCC Capitol Center, just west of the Florida Capitol and next to the Brogan Museum on Kleman Plaza. It begins with an evening welcome reception on Wednesday, Oct. 20, from 5 – 7 p.m. The main event will be held Thursday, Oct. 21, from 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.

If you have any questions or need additional information, please don’t hesitate to contact Rick Oppenheim or Emma Washington at (850) 386-9100, roppenheim@rboa.com or ewashington@rboa.com.

Today is the last day to officially register for the summit. To register now, visit http://www.fasd-fl.org/summit-registration.aspx.

If you can’t attend, but you’re interested in getting involved with this cause, you can join the summit online. Just click the “Watch us Live!” link at http://www.fasd-fl.org/summit.aspx and you’ll be tuned into all the speakers, panels and brainstorm sessions.

Anyone have any great ideas to tackle this issue? I’d love to hear your thoughts …

October 21, 2010

How much is too much alcohol when you’re pregnant? Would it surprise you to know that the experts say none is the only safe bet?

The risk, they say, is too much to wager, no matter how small the glass, what trimester you may be in, or how much you think your body can tolerate.

Sadly, too many mothers don’t follow this advice, either because they don’t know enough, don’t care or didn’t know they were pregnant when they partied. And the consequences are tragic.

Every year, an estimated 40,000 babies are born with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders, caused by prenatal exposure to alcohol and manifesting itself in many ways — mental and/or physical disabilities, behavioral problems, learning deficiencies and other debilitating setbacks. That’s more babies than are affected by autism, Down Syndrome, cerebral palsy, cystic fibrosis, spinal bifida and sudden infant death syndrome — combined.

The biggest tragedy in those numbers is that FASD is 100 percent preventable.

Now, the experts are getting aggressive about spreading the word. The Florida Developmental Disabilities Council has launched a special awareness campaign, Florida Fights FASD, that empowers people with the information, tools and resources to help prevent incidents of FASD. It starts today with an intensive Community Action Summit in Tallahassee that will feature expert speakers, panel discussions and brainstorming among the 75 attendees. The event is free and runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Tallahassee Community College Capitol Center. In the area and want to attend? Register at http://www.fasd-fl.org and click on the “Summit 2010″ tab.

If you can’t make it, don’t sweat it. The entire event will be webcast starting at 3 p.m. To watch, go to http://www.fasd-fl.org/summit.aspx, and click on the “Watch us Live!” link. For any more questions, contact Emma Washington at (850) 386-9100 or ewashington@rboa.com.

Isn’t it time we all got active in solving today’s health care problems?