Please offer your honest opinion as adoptive parents and as birthparents. Is it mean to deny an adopted child sugar? Would your answer be different if the child had plenty of sugar before entering your family as an older adopted child? Then would it be mean to deny the child sugar until adulthood? Would your answer be different if the child was a birth child? Honestly, I struggle with this issue. My teenage daughter entered our family as a four-year-old foster child and we adopted her at the age of six. Several years ago, we realized that sugar has a profound effect on her... more

A couple of my readers suggested talking alarms for my daughter with special needs after my recent post, “Is it Time to Give Up?” For over a year now, we have tried planners, calendars, and posted notes to try to help her but she can’t seem to follow a schedule or keep track of time. Therefore, I searched GOOGLE for “talking products for visually impaired.” My reader suggested products for the vision impaired because they talk.

I did find many products available, a wide range... more

For about a year now, I have been trying to teach my daughter with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome to keep track of time. Our dreams for her future include her holding a job and living in her own apartment, possibly with us controlling her finances. To make that possible she needs to be able to keep track of time and use some type of planner or calendar.

Her IQ is at the borderline of mentally retarded and low normal, the high 60’s. She will be 14 in a few days and I think it may be... more

Just when you think you’ve solved a problem, it comes back to haunt you. Of course, that is why parenting a child with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome can be so frustrating. One day your FAS child might know all of their times tables and the next day not be able to remember a single one.

Our daughter will be 14 next month and her body is maturing, as it should. We knew we couldn’t allow her to use a sharp object like a razor, and I didn’t want to violate her privacy in the bathroom by helping her shave. Therefore, we chose to allow her to use Nair to remove her leg hair.

I took... more

I know that when we’re living with an FAS or FAE child the good days are few and far between and we’re suppose to cherish them but not expect them, it’s just so hard. When my teenage daughter has her good days, she’s a joy to be with and such a help to me around the house. Then mentally I get caught up seeing her future as a normal woman. It’s what I would so desperately want for her, if only I could fix her.

Logically I know that it is completely unreasonable and way out of her ability level. By expecting her to achieve it... more

She bosses people around, mostly her brothers and sisters, like you’d expect a teenager to do. They rarely, if ever listen to what she is telling them to do which may cause her to go into a tirade.

If she doesn’t like what I’m saying to her she is liable to raise her voice towards me and make a smart remark that I don’t think is very smart. Depending on my mood I’m liable to burst out laughing or yell; “Walk away from me now!”

She really likes to wear dresses and nylons to church and some of the girls have commented on her legs. Well... more