Have you checked out adoption:the movie yet? Part of the many YouTube videos that are associated with this film project are interviews of Dr. Ron Federici and Dr. Jane Aronson, both well-known medical professionals in the world of international adoption.

Dr. Federici’s videos focus on PTSD issues. He links PTSD and post-institutionalization as the same, which they aren’t, but no one here is arguing that institutionalization produces trauma. These video clips are interesting and confirming of much that many of us know about trauma and post-institutional behaviors.

I found what Dr. Aronson had to say about medical issues to be much more telling. In this clip she talks about the effects that malnutrition has on developing brains. She specifically identifies the “most serious” medical concern of international adoptees as being the lack of certain nutrients…she names iron, calcium, Vitamin D and zinc. She goes on to say that a chronic lack of these nutrients “punishes” the brain and is probably responsible for putting internationally adopted children at higher risks toward developmental delays.

Then she backs up long enough to assure all those nervous pre-adopts out there that most adoptees “recover” from their lack of nutrition. But, then, she says it…that the residual effects of this is often learning disabilities or attentional problems.

Wow, I was blown away that she was so direct (or maybe you wouldn’t have caught it if you weren’t trying to). She linked poor nutrition and low levels of key nutrients with developmental delays, learning disabilities and attentional problems. (I think you can add behavioral problems to that list as well.)

Aronson’s insight adds to the validity of biomedical interventions, designed to first identify the nutritional deficiencies through testing, then to heal the underlying problems by supplementation, diet changes and other interventions targeted at the digestive and immune systems. Doctors know (and are learning more all the time) that what happens in our GI and immune systems affects our brain chemistry.

So it stands to reason that children who have had very poor nutrition (on top of the lack of stimulation, care, nurture and likely abuse/neglect) will be at greater risk for a variety of brain chemical problems.