Comments for blog.limedaley.com/post/crack-babies

Comment #111

2005-02-16T00:13:55Z

I never heard anything after that first contact. I don't know the mom personally, heard about her through a midwifery newsgroup.

Comment #110

2005-02-15T23:24:45Z

what happensto the mother

Comment #109

2004-10-04T21:12:22Z

Certainly the environmental effects have a lot to do with it. It seems hard to find research that says the whole crack baby thing is not a myth.

I guess I don't really care all that much, don't have to worry about that for myself. (:

Comment #108

2004-09-30T14:10:14Z

Yes.

You

have to use <br/>

Comment #107

2004-09-30T11:23:48Z

Okay, you managed to separate your post into paragraphs. How come mine got all smushed together? Do I have to use HTML in my comments to make it work?

Comment #106

2004-09-30T11:21:35Z

A few years ago, a teacher at our local elementary school told me that life at the school had become much more difficult since we were there. "For one thing," she said, "we are starting to get the crack babies." No one can deny her experience with increasing numbers of children who were hyperactive, uncontrollable, undisciplined, and unable to concentrate. However, I have read since that this phenomonenon is most likely due, not to the drug's physical effect on the child, but to the general environment in which he is being raised. It's still a problem, and it's still a drug problem, but the key is the parents, not the child.

I can't agree with the idea that crack isn't any worse than alcohol or tobacco. Certainly neither of those is good for developing babies, and Fetal Alcohol Syndrome I believe is well documented. In people prone to alcoholism, alcohol can destroy lives and parenting skills as effectively as anything. But unless everything I've learned about the addictive effects of cocaine, particularly crack, is wrong -- not to mention the personal experiences of a friend who is raising her own "crack grand-baby" -- crack has a much more devastating effect on family life.

Being of a generation where moderate alcohol and tobacco use were extremely common, including throughout pregnancy, I don't see that it did the kind of harm that drug use is doing to this generation.