Damaged Angels or Migraine

Damaged Angels: An Adoptive Mother Discovers the Tragic Toll of Alcohol in Pregnancy: Case Histories of FASD Families

Author: Bonnie Buxton

Part heartfelt memoir, part practical guide, Damaged Angels recounts Bonnie Buxton's struggles to raise an adopted daughter whom she didn't realize was afflicted with fetal alcohol disorder. Her book also offers guidance to parents who have children with FASD. By the time Bonnie's daughter Colette hit first grade, her parents were coping with her frequent stealing and lying, and the necessity of special education. At fourteen, she discovered drugs and sex; by eighteen, she was a crack addict living on the streets. After many frustrating years consulting numerous therapists, a TV news story gave Bonnie the answer she was looking for — and sent her on a quest for a diagnosis and help for Colette. Damaged Angels can aid and comfort all those affected by FASD — the most common cause of intellectual impairments in most industrialized nations — and reduce the number of babies born with this disorder in the future. The most important book on fetal alcohol disorder since Michael Dorris's The Broken Cord, Damaged Angels is a book for every parent, practitioner, and teacher working with a child with FASD.

Publishers Weekly

One day, clicking around on the family computer, Buxton found her 14-year-old adopted daughter Colette's will. What might have been a typical angst-filled document by another teenager was quite worrisome in this case: Colette suffered from fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD), an impairment that affects one out of every 100 North Americans, according to Buxton. The disorder made her violent and antisocial. By the time Colette wrote the will, she was addicted to drugs and prone to violent outbursts; before she was 18, she had endured multiple brushes with death. Canadian journalist Buxton thoroughly describes her frustrating attempts to get help for her two daughters (another adopted daughter also suffered from FASD). Her honesty and humility are blunt: "The fact that Brian [her husband] and I could make each other laugh at least once a day, often making evil jokes about our children, was what kept us relatively sane...." The devil really is in the details in this sometimes painful account. On the one hand, Buxton's insistence on logging the minutiae of caring for her daughters is impressive, and she intersperses these sections with copious research and case studies on FASDs. On the other hand, her recounting of umpteen doctors' appointments, forms and phone calls weighs the memoir down and buries some salient gems. (May) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

In a book certain to be compared with Michael Dorris's The Broken Cord, Canadian journalist Buxton recounts the trials of raising an adopted daughter who displays puzzling self-destructive tendencies. Despite the best nurturing efforts of her parents, Colette begins stealing and lying as soon as she enters school; by 18, she is a homeless crack addict. In trying to help her daughter, Buxton does extensive research, learning eventually that Colette suffers from fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). Including a superb bibliography, this is perhaps the definitive lay reader's guide to FASD research; highly recommended for all academic and public libraries. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A Canadian journalist's experience raising an adoptive daughter with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) leads to an exploration of the disorder and a consciousness-raising campaign. Buxton, co-founder with her husband, Brian Philcox, of FASworld, a Canadian organization that promotes awareness of FAS around the world, had no idea that her daughter Colette, adopted at age three, had been permanently brain-damaged by prenatal alcohol. Hers is a harrowing account of coping with a child who was violent, lied, stole and had major learning problems. Buxton's pleas for help from professionals went unheeded, and by the time the uncontrollable Colette was 17, she had been in and out of a residential treatment center and was a crack addict living on the streets of Toronto. Soon after, she became pregnant twice. Seeing a television program on FAS in 1997 was the a-ha! moment for Buxton, who eventually discovered the work of Ann Streissguth, a psychologist specializing in FAS. Through her Web site, Buxton is now in touch with many people afflicted by FAS, and several of her chapters tell the stories of other adoptive parents' experiences, of adult survivors of FAS, and of mothers who gave birth to FAS babies. While most of the accounts are pain-filled, Buxton includes a few success stories from parents proud of the achievements of their FAS children. What those parents have in common, Buxton finds, are acceptance, reduced expectations, commitment, knowledge, creativity, a positive outlook and "a whopping sense of humor." While positive stories may offer encouragement and ideas to those trying to raise FAS children, this is not primarily a hands-on guidebook for parents; Buxton's aim is to make the syndromemore widely understood by all who work with children-pediatricians, teachers and social workers, police, judges and probation officers. The bibliography, however, does recommend several parenting guides, helpful newsletters and Web sites. Moving personal memoir melded with a realistic look at the widespread ramifications of drinking during pregnancy.

Interesting textbook: Life at the Bottom or The Arab Center

Migraine: Your Questions Answered

Author: Carol Foster

Providing practical guidance about the various self-help measures, conventional medical options and complementary therapies, this jargon-free question-and-answer guide provides practical advice about coping with various forms of migraines.