Product Description Neverland, in the context of this book, is the place where many children will reside permanently, not being able to reach their full potential. Unlike Peter Pan's legendary, hidden land, there is neither legend nor hiding here. The damage inflicted on these children either during fetal life or soon after birth will remind them throughout their long journey that they have been locked out. From the Author I am a pediatrician and scientist in Toronto and the fate of these children is the focus of my research interest. But I hoped to write this book as a human manifesto and not as a scientific document. I believe that, when millions of children worldwide are afflicted by drugs, illness, or poverty every year, this stops being a scientific issue and turns into a global human disaster. And because almost everything described in this book is preventable, non of us should blame God or other extraterrestrial powers for this shame. Let's look in the mirror and ask what we can do better, and do it fast. From the Back Cover Dr. Gideon Koren is a Pediatrician and Scientist in Toronto; his career is dedicated to the well being of pregnant women, their unborn babies as well as infants and children. Dr. Koren is the author or co-author of 500 scientific articles. He is the author of over 30 children's books. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. From Chapter 7: The telephone rang at the McMartin home. It was Alice, the social worker Jim and Sally had hired to try to find them a child to adopt. Alice sounded excited. "It is a cute healthy boy of 8 months who has been doing very well with the foster family. The biological mother is a young girl. As far as I know she is healthy, although she lived life in the fast lane. No, as far as she says she did not use drugs, but she used to party quite a lot... But listen! The proof of the cake is the child himself! He is doing very well for his age. All the doctors say so too!" She was right. Joey was adorable. He was good looking, smiling, sociable, and he did all the things a baby of eight months is expected to do. The doctor told them that Joey did not have any signs of the fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) ( his face appeared normal and so was his head circumference and his development. The baby was a real delight for the McMartins. He was a very energetic toddler and Jim and Sally had to chase after him everywhere to keep him out of trouble. Sally became first suspicious when the daycare workers thought he was a little bit hyperactive. Yet, over the next two years Joey had become more clearly hyperactive, aggressive, and difficult to control. Joey began to exhibit conduct problems in the kindergarten. When he was six he was put on Ritalin to control his hyperactivity and his condition was brought more or less under control, but his aggressiveness towards other children was not settled and it also became apparent that he had learning difficulties. Jim and Sally knew by then that discipline and a hard hand were useless, because Joey did not appear to perceive causation the way normal children do and he did not make the connection between his acts and the ensuing punishment. One weekend when Joey was ten he stole 2000 dollars from his father and spent the money with two friends within three days. Since the age of twelve, he was put in a closed institution, but whenever he is on vacation he gets in trouble with the police. The diagnosis of Fetal Alcohol Effects (FAE) was not yet in the medical books when Joey was adopted. Alcohol is used by more than 100 million people in North America and an estimated ten percent of them suffer from health effects or alcohol. With more than half of the pregnancies in North America being unplanned, millions of fetuses yearly are exposed to at least some alcohol before their mothers have become aware that they are pregnant. These facts by themselves must mean that the effects of alcoho