Health: Cocaine Babies Revisited

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The effects on the baby of a mother using cocaine during pregnancy may not be as devastating as we once thought--and, says a new study in J.A.M.A., may even be mitigated by good parenting. Studying 376 preschoolers, researchers found that youngsters who were exposed to cocaine in utero scored slightly lower on tests of visual-spatial skills, general knowledge and math skills than nonexposed kids. But drug-exposed children who were placed in nurturing foster or adoptive care--or whose caregivers had rich vocabularies--had IQs similar to children whose mothers never took drugs.