Judith K. Eckerle

Judith K. Eckerle MD is the Medical Director of the Adoption Medicine Clinic (AMC) at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Eckerle helps families pre and post adoption with consultation, referral and clinical services. She was trained at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Weill Cornell Medical Center and the University of Minnesota's Center for Neurobehavioral Development. Dr Eckerle is active in teaching and training undergrad and graduate students in the field of adoption medicine. Her current research interests include:

• Investigation into choline supplementation to repair the brain of children who had prenatal alcohol exposure
• Studying the medical, psychological and developmental needs of children in foster care and those adopted from the international and domestic systems.

She is active personally and professionally in adoption and advocacy worldwide.  She was adopted at 6 months old and grew up in Minnesota.

Title of presentation: Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD): Fostering better health by adopting a clinical model to assess children who are prenatally drug and alcohol exposed

Abstract: Children who are domestically or internationally adopted are at higher risk for prenatal drug and alcohol exposures. Delays in appropriate screening for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) and often seen misdiagnoses can delay medical, developmental and behavioral referrals and can have serious, long-term effects on children’s health and well-being. Based on research on FASD, clinical care for this population should be preventive and multidisciplinary in nature— a collaborative, evidence based model that will be described in this session.