Was the crack baby angst overblown?
Strollerderby/Babble
One of the big news stories in the 80s and 90s was about crack babies -- kids whose addict moms continued using during pregnancy and after. The babies -- crack babies -- were born with varying amounts of the drugs in their systems. Much hand-wringing (and social-servicing, and child removal) ensued.
Researchers have been following a significant number of these babies-now-tweens. What's the one thing these researchers have found in the crack babies that truly surprised them?
Nothing. That is, the hugely harmful outcomes for these children that everybody feared were never borne out. That's good news!
From the NY Times:
So far, these scientists say, the long-term effects of such exposure on children's brain development and behavior appear relatively small."Are there differences? Yes," said Barry M. Lester, a professor of psychiatry at Brown University who directs the Maternal Lifestyle Study, a large federally financed study of children exposed to cocaine in the womb. "Are they reliable and persistent? Yes. Are they big? No."
Of course, cocaine is bad for the fetus. But get this: alcohol and cigarettes have been found to be worse. But that's still no reason to re-establish contact with your hook-up.
Again, the Times:
"The argument is not that it's O.K. to use cocaine in pregnancy, any more than it's O.K. to smoke cigarettes in pregnancy," said Dr. Deborah A. Frank, a pediatrician at Boston University. "Neither drug is good for anybody."
The study showed no significant difference in language development or IQ scores between crack babies and those born to mothers who stayed clean during pregnancy. However, there were notable differences in visual attention and "executive function" - the brain's ability to set priorities and pay selective attention, enabling the child to focus on the task at hand. Cocaine exposure may also increase the frequency of defiant behavior and poor conduct. Boys may also be more prone to the behavior disorder effects than girls.
This study has interesting implications, especially in light of the fact that crack babies' mothers were often punished more severely than other abusers and more vulnerable to have their children taken out of the home.
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