Eating is a struggle

This sweet victim of FAS will never be able to take care of herself. Her adoptive mother, worries about what will become of her after she's gone.

Gabi sits in her chair at the kitchen table, fiddling with the Cheerios on her plate and licking yogurt off a spoon.
Like many children with FAS, eating has been a struggle since the day she was born. At 31 pounds, she is rail thin.
"Gabi has absolutely no desire to eat," Hoeft said. "She simply has no desire for food."
So Hoeft makes sure every bite Gabi eats is loaded with as much nutrition and fat as possible. She stirs mashed avocado and softened cream cheese into foods, adding the fat Gabi needs for her damaged brain and tiny body.
When Gabi moved in with Hoeft, she was a "happy-go-lucky baby who rarely cried."
"She was too easy, really," Hoeft recalled. "She didn't demand anything, including food."
Doctors determined early in her life that Gabi was badly damaged.
She is microcephalic - her head and brain are too small. She is borderline mentally retarded and developmentally delayed. Before this year, she spoke little. Skills normally mastered by children much younger than she, such as potty training, remain out of reach.
Gabi's immune system is weak. She is plagued with sinus trouble and ear infections, a result of an improperly formed head.
And Gabi has incontinentia pigmenti, a rare cartilage deformity that could cause her to go blind and have severe joint and ligament problems. In the world, there are only 500 reported cases of the disease, which is apparently not related to FAS.
Despite her handicaps, Gabi was happy in her early days. She immediately formed an intense friendship with a foster child named Addi in Hoeft's home. Addi also was of mixed race and looked like Gabi.
"They were inseparable," Hoeft said. "People always thought they were twins."
But when Gabi was 2, the state removed Addi from the home and placed him with another foster family of the same race.
It's been two years since Gabi's best friend disappeared from her life. She misses him terribly.
"Since Addi left, Gabi's very emotionally fragile," Hoeft said. "I think she's afraid to trust me, because I let Addi go. She doesn't ask for hugs or kisses like she used to. Sometimes when I hug her, she doesn't want to be hugged. She used to cuddle, but she doesn't want to anymore. I miss that."