Lets all stop and think before we act!

This morning as I was driving to Walmart I was thinking about this holiday season and all of the many things that I am grateful for. The number one thing that came to my mind was how grateful I am for my family especially my loving husband and children.

This year has been a very tough year on our family with losing our precious Hunter. Although she took most of my time with all of the medical care she required I wouldn't have changed it for anything.

As I thought about her and all of the many lessons she taught me I was saddened by the thought of her not being here this year to share the joy with us. What I wouldn't give to have just one more day with her, to hold her in my arms and kiss her little cheek. I know that there is nothing that Jacob and I could have done to prevent this outcome for her, but as I substitute at the special needs school she attended. I see children every day who sadly their parents didn't have the gratitude of a precious unborn child and were selfish in their actions ultimately resulting in a precious life that would always be imprissioned in an imperfect body.

I am talking about children who are born to women who drink while they are pregnant. It saddens me so much to think that a mother would be so selfish or to think that " It won't happen to my child." because IT CAN and IT DOES!

I found the information below from www.kidshealth.org

Alcohol (wine, beer, or liquor) is the leading known preventable cause of mental and physical birth defects in the United States.

When a woman drinks alcohol during pregnancy, she risks giving birth to a child who will pay the price — in mental and physical deficiencies — for his or her entire life.

Yet many pregnant women do drink alcohol. It's estimated that each year in the United States, 1 in every 750 infants is born with a pattern of physical, developmental, and functional problems referred to as fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), while another 40,000 are born with fetal alcohol effects (FAE).

Signs and Symptoms
If you adopted a child or consumed alcohol during pregnancy and are concerned that your child may have FAS, watch for characteristics of the syndrome, which include:

low birth weight
small head circumference
failure to thrive
developmental delay
organ dysfunction
facial abnormalities, including smaller eye openings, flattened cheekbones, and indistinct philtrum (an underdeveloped groove between the nose and the upper lip)
epilepsy
poor coordination/fine motor skills
poor socialization skills, such as difficulty building and maintaining friendships and relating to groups
lack of imagination or curiosity
learning difficulties, including poor memory, inability to understand concepts such as time and money, poor language comprehension, poor problem-solving skills
behavioral problems, including hyperactivity, inability to concentrate, social withdrawal, stubbornness, impulsiveness, and anxiety
Children with FAE display the same symptoms, but to a lesser degree.

Diagnosis and Long-Term Effects
Problems associated with FAS tend to intensify as children move into adulthood. These can include mental health problems, troubles with the law, and the inability to live independently.

Kids with FAE are frequently undiagnosed. This also applies to those with alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder (ARND), a recently recognized category of prenatal damage that refers to children who exhibit only the behavioral and emotional problems of FAS/FAE without any signs of developmental delay or physical growth deficiencies.

Often, in kids with FAE or ARND, the behavior can appear as mere belligerence or stubbornness. They may score well on intelligence tests, but their behavioral deficits often interfere with their ability to succeed. Extensive education and training for the parents, health care professionals, and teachers who care for these kids are essential.

How Much Alcohol Is Too Much?
It's clear that abusing alcohol during pregnancy is dangerous, but what about the occasional drink? How much alcohol constitutes too much during pregnancy?

No evidence exists that can determine exactly how much alcohol ingestion will produce birth defects. Individual women process alcohol differently. Other factors vary the results, too, such as the age of the mother, the timing and regularity of the alcohol ingestion, and whether the mother has eaten any food while drinking.

Although full-blown FAS is the result of chronic alcohol use during pregnancy, FAE and ARND may occur with only occasional or binge drinking.

Because alcohol easily passes the placental barrier and the fetus is less equipped to eliminate alcohol than its mother, the fetus tends to receive a high concentration of alcohol, which lingers longer than it would in the mother's system.

Mothers who drink during the first trimester of pregnancy have kids with the most severe problems because that is when the brain is developing. The connections in the baby's brain don't get made properly when alcohol is present. Of course, in the early months, many women don't even know they're pregnant.

It's important for women who are thinking about becoming pregnant to adopt healthy behaviors before they get pregnant.

Women who abstain from alcohol in early pregnancy may feel comfortable drinking in the final months. But some of the most complex developmental stages in the brain occur in the second and third trimesters, a time when the nervous system can be greatly affected by alcohol. Even moderate alcohol intake, and especially periodic binge drinking, can seriously damage a developing nervous system.

Many pictures I found on the internet are a lot worse then what you may think. They are too sad to post here. If you want to know you can look them up yourselves.

It upsets me so much to think that people can be that selfish. They don't know what they have done until it is TOO LATE. They don't know how it is to stay up all night for years trying to keep a child who doesn't sleep well safe so they don't hurt themselves. They don't know what it is like to worry every second of every day that your child might fall to the floor in a seizure so you watch them constantly. They don't know how it feels as a parent to watch their children long for friendship from their peers but not be able to have that because they don't know how to act in social situations. They don't know what it is like to watch your child grow and be so frusterated because they don't meet the regular milestones of development when they should. They don't know what it is like to listen to little kids in the store ask "Mommy what is wrong with that kid?" or to see adults turn their heads away so they don't bring attention to your child. They don't know what it is like to have adults make snide, rude comments about your parenting techniques because you can't control your childs behavior.

I do know what it feels like, not because I had a child with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome because I didn't. I know what it feels like because I had to go through these things without a choice. My daughter was a prisoner in a body that she couldn't control. She didn't have friends. she regressed. She constantly had seizures and constantly worried us. If there were any way I could have prevented this for her I would have but I couldn't.

There are those of use in this world who do have the option to not let our children have these problems. Please! Please! Please! I beg of you to be grateful for the children God will put in your care. Charish them every second of the day for life is precious and short. Give them the very best life you can which includes not being selfish in your actions to drink while you are pregnant.