Prenatal Exposure: Diagnosing and Treatment

Creating a Family: Talk about Adoption, Foster & Kinship Care

11/23/22

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50m

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Do you wonder if your child was prenatally exposed to alcohol or drugs? There may be nothing in the files, but something feels not right? We talk about diagnosing and treating these kids with Dr. Larry Burd, a professor of pediatrics at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and the Director of the North Dakota Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Center.
In this episode, we cover:

Most of our audience is foster, adoptive, and kinship parents and professionals. Often they don’t know for sure if a child has been exposed. The US government estimates that about 10% of all children in the US have been prenatally exposed to alcohol or drugs. Do you have a feel for the percentage of children in foster care or who have been involved with the child welfare system? International adoption? Domestic infant adoption?
Does prenatal exposure increase the likelihood of a disruption to a foster or adoptive placement?
How is prenatal exposure to alcohol detected or diagnosed?
What type of training do pediatricians receive during their education or residency on prenatal exposure and on how to diagnose?
Can you tell at birth or in infancy if a baby has been exposed to alcohol in utero?
How is prenatal exposure to drugs detected or diagnosed?
How does birth order change the likelihood that a child who is at risk has been exposed during pregnancy?
What are the long-term impacts of alcohol exposure? What are the symptoms that are most noticeable to parents, teachers, and other professionals working with these children?
Alcohol exposure affects multiple systems in the body.
Does it matter what type of alcohol was consumed?
Who can diagnose a child with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder?
What are the long-term impacts of the following drugs?
- Opioids
- Heroin and Fentanyl
- Depressants (benzodiazepines, such as Valium, Xanax)-Prescribed and unprescribed
- Stimulants-Prescribed and unprescribed
- Methamphetamines
- Marijuana
- Tobacco/Nicotine
Do pediatricians have a body of resources to offer parents regarding raising a child with prenatal exposure?
Tips for parents

Additional Resources Mentioned in Interview:

Still Face Experiment
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:

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Resource pages on all aspects of family building

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Support the show

Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:

Weekly podcasts
Weekly articles/blog posts
Resource pages on all aspects of family building

Previous Episode

Transracial Adoption and Fostering: Understanding Race & Racial Identity

November 16, 2022

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53m

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Are you a transracial adoptive or foster parent? Have you wondered how you can help your child form a healthy racial identity. Does racial identity formation change depending on the race of the child? Today we talk about all this and more with Dr. Gina Miranda Samuels, a professor at the University of Chicago and Director of the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture. She is a transracial adoptee and co-author of the book Multiracial Cultural Attunement.
In this episode, we cover:

How do children in the US come to understand race at different ages and developmental stages?
How early do children develop a racial bias? How early do children associate certain characteristics to race and show a preference towards a person of a certain race?
How does transracial adoption or fostering or kinship care impact a child’s understanding of race?
How does transracial or transcultural adoption or fostering or kinship care impact children?
- Racial identity formation: How does being adopted transracially impact the adoptee’s racial identity formation?
- Coping with racism
In your research and in your experience, do you see a difference in the experience of race is perceived by both transracial adoptees or adoptive or foster parents depending on the race of the child? Asian, Latinx, Black, Bi-racial?
Why is taking the colorblind approach to parenting not helpful?
“It’s About More Than Hair”
Transracial parenting requires the family to be fluent in “race talk” – socialization is not a conversation, it is a daily, incremental, and developmental family process.
As our kids age, what is it like for our tweens, teens, and young adults to have parents of a different race?
How does transracial adoption or fostering impact siblings in the family who are the same race as the parents?
How does transracial adoption or fostering affect extended family members, such as grandparents and aunts and uncles?
Practical tips for parents raising a child of a different race or ethnicity.

Additional Resources:

Diverse Book Finder
The Brown Bookshelf – highlights Black voices writing for young readers.
The Conscious Kid
Multiracial Cultural Attunement by Gina Miranda Samuels and Kelly Faye Jackson, 2019
Tips for parenting your transracially adopted child by Dr. Gina Samuels
EmbraceRace was founded to create the community and gather the resources they needed (need!) to meet the challenges faced by those raising children in a world where race matters.
Dr. Erin Winkler, Children Are Not Colorblind: How Young Children Learn Race
Hamilton ER, Samek DR, Keyes M, McGue MK, Iacono WG. Identity Development in a Transracial Environment: Racial/Ethnic Minority Adoptees in Minnesota. Adopt Q. 2015;18(3):217-233. doi: 10.1080/10926755.2015.1013593. PMID: 26300622; PMCID: PMC4540225.

This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:

Weekly podca

Support the show

Weekly podcasts
Weekly articles/blog posts
Resource pages on all aspects of family building

Next Episode

Understanding Psychotropic Medications

November 30, 2022

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55m

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Are you a foster or adoptive parent whose child is taking mood altering medications or medications to help them sleep? You will learn a lot about these medications and what you can do to make them as effective as possible. We talk with Dr. Adam Langenfeld, a Developmental Pediatrician at Children's Minnesota hospital. He also has a Ph.D. in chemistry.
In this episode, we cover:

What are psychotropic medications?
What are the classes of psychotropic medications?
What are some commonly prescribed medications in each class?
What mental health issues are these medications addressing?
Symptoms of anxiety and depression in children.
Situational anxiety or depression.
- SCARED checklist anxiety
- Childhood Depression Inventory
How do psychotropic medications work? A basic overview of Psych Pharmacology.
- Simulation of a brain synapsis
How are medications in each of these classes administered?
Does timing of the day matter?
How effective is melatonin?
Does proximity to meals matter when administering these medications?
What are some of the side effects of the most commonly used psychotropic medications?
- Psychedelics?
- Supplements (such as CBD)?
Why are children in foster care more likely to be on psychotropic medications?
Does use of psychotropic medications in childhood increase the likelihood of substance abuse in adolescence or adulthood?
What can parents do to help these medications be as effective as possible?
How to know when a child should taper down or get off of psychotropic medications?
If parents believe that the child is on too many psychotropic medications, what should they do?