Arie's developmental evaluation was today.

So today was Arie's second Early Intervention eval (he had when he was under a year and was about 6 months behing then). Quick history... Arie's Korean mom drank 2-3 shots of sojo per week. Not a TON, but after more research I have learned that poor nutrition can GREATLY effect how a fetus reacts to alcohol, and I'm sure that the nutrition status of his Umma (Korean mom) was not great.

I always see lots of "attachment" stuff in relation to international adoption, but nobody really EVER talks about alcohol exposure which is very common for our kids, and may be cause for lots of the problems I see and read about in the adoption community. PLEASE read below about Arie and, if your child was exposed to alcohol in-utero, read the CDC check list I provided. Let me quickly make it clear that I don't fault/blame Arie's Umma for drinking. I have never lived in her shoes, and I'm sure she did the best she could with the situation she was in. I, personally think that FAE/FASD/FAS needs to be talked about more in relation to adoption(assuming there are others whose children are coping with it) because it is a medical diagnosis, and not something to be ashamed of or something that needs to be hidden. Just my opinion.

Anyway, we have so many issues with Arie including:

-difficulty sleeping/ poor sleeping pattern
-eating aversion (as evident by his feeding tube :? )
-MAJOR hyperactivity
-clumsiness (he runs and falls, is off balance, trips, and basically just flits -about like a rabbit on crack :roll: ).
-irrational behavior/tantrums
-difficulty calming down from tantrums
-self harm such as hitting himself, pulling his own hair, scratching his face

All of this, once again, leads to a possible diagnosis of Fetal Alcohol Effects (basically the same as Fetal Alcohol Syndrome without any of the physical features). We need to have him evaluated by a geneticist (from what I've been told) to get an official diagnosis, but he is probably still too young for that.

Here is a link for more info on Fetal Alcohol Effects or Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder from the CDC: www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/fas/fasask.htm

And here is a list of symptoms/signs from the CDC:

Small size for gestational age or small stature in relation to peers
Facial abnormalities such as small eye openings
Poor coordination
Hyperactive behavior
Learning disabilities
Developmental disabilities (e.g., speech and language delays)
Mental retardation or low IQ
Problems with daily living
Poor reasoning and judgment skills
Sleep and sucking disturbances in infancy

Ok... onto Arie. Well Arie (now 22 months) was assessed as falling between a 12month - 18m level, so he was shown to be functioning at a 15m level with global delays in social, gross motor, fine motor, speech, feeding. There were some things between 12-15m level that he couldn't do, and some between 15-18m that he could do.

They are going to do a PT eval because of his clumsiness and poor balance, but most likely all of that (and everything else) is due to attention/ lack of self-regulation/ hyper activity/ sensory integration.
So I guess we're in for lots of Occupational Therapy in addition to all of the Feeding Therapy (which includes speech, and Psych) that he's already getting. AHHHHH!!! :shock:

That's pretty much it. They are also going to test his hearing because of the balance problems, but I'm fairly certain the results will be normal.

He is such an energetic happy boy most of the time. I hope that I am giving him everything he needs to succeed in life. It's hard because I'm scared that I'm missing something. UGH!

Thanks for your continued prayers and support the past year +. It's been a bumpy road, but hopefully he will soon be getting all of the services that he needs.

Attention Mr. Pepto

Who's brilliant idea was it to make Pepto Bismol HOT FREAKIN' PINK??? Let's just think about this for a second. Your sweet little daughter is complaining of a stomach ache. After dragging your exhausted butt out of bed (where you've been laying for all of 3 minutes) you find some medicine that may or may not help, but will at least stop the whining for a bit. After giving your sweet child the brightly-colored-flamingo-pink-liquid you return to bed and fall fast asleep.

Fast forward to 5:00 a.m. In walks your sweet child saying that her "throat hurts" (huh? throat? What happened to "tummy"?) After pondering what to do for about 5 seconds your sweet child turns into "Reagan" from The Exorcist movie and projectile vomits ALL OVER YOUR BED AND FLOOR. Thankfully the sore throat is gone (because 5 year olds can sometimes get their body signals mixed up thereby thinking nausea = throat ache), but now you have a flourescent mess to clean up. After scrubbing the stains on the floor three times with LOTS of Oxyclean, the hot pink mess has finally turned into a nice subtle pale pink. At least it matches my room now.

So to the makers of Pepto Bismol, I would like to offer a suggestion. CAN YOU PLEASE MAKE CLEAR DYE-FREE MEDICINE??? Isn't that common sense???