Foster Parenting E-Magazine, June 2012
Foster Parenting Announcements
Photolisting: Is raising foster and adoption awareness one of your New Year's resolutions this year? If you have your own blog or website, perhaps you would like to add our Photo Listing Widget to help raise awareness of foster children nationwide.
Would you like to help more children from your agency get adopted faster? Click here for a form to add children to our photolisting. This service is FREE to all states and includes a team of technical support and customer service staff to maintain the Photolisting.
Don't see any children from your state? Please contact your local officials to let them know you would like to see children from your state.
Blogging: Interested in Blogging? We're currently looking for volunteer bloggers for the following categories: Foster Adoption and Foster Care. This may be the perfect time to voice your adoption experiences and share with our community.
Regression and Attachment
Foster care comes with a myriad of emotional problems, issues, and setbacks. Foster care can negatively affect everyone involved; it doesn't discriminate. However, it's important to remember that it comes with ample joy, too. So, don't forget that. Even so, attachment issues and regression are fairly common for those in the foster care system, no matter their ages. As a foster parent, you will get first-hand knowledge and experience with regression and attachment issues. But first, it's important that you have a full understanding of what those two things really mean, and what they mean to you.
Regression - If your foster child regressed, this could mean a variety of things.
- For starters, your child could go back to wetting the bed or his/her pants, forcing you to put him/her in diapers again or try to re-potty train them.
- You may also notice some regression when it comes to speech and vocabulary.
- Sucking thumbs and acting younger than s/he is, acting like an infant when s/he is a toddler or older child.
- Sleep disturbances are also common. Your foster child may no longer sleep through the night or s/he will need to be held in order to fall and stay asleep.
- The inability to emotionally cope can also be a part of the regression experience.
- When regression hits, your foster child will have more and more dramatic trigger points. Watch out for these. It can be helpful if you can identify them so you can be prepared and try to avoid those trigger points in the future.
Attachment Issues - When a child suffers an emotionally traumatic event, like being taken away from family and placed in a foster home, s/he may have issues forming emotional attachments with you or anyone in your household. When trying to identify if your foster child suffers from attachment issues, like Reactive Attachment Disorder, keep an eye out for the following behaviors:
- As an infant, your foster child may not want to be picked up, cry uncontrollably all the time, avoids eye contact, and would rather be left alone.
- If the child is older, you may notice that s/he has a difficult time expressing genuine care or concern for others.
- Your child may prefer to not be touched, and is uncomfortable when touched.
- Lacks feeling regret or remorse when his/her actions negatively affect someone else.
- Anger and control issues go hand in hand with attachment disorders.
While regression and attachment issues are separate, they can also go hand in hand. And this can be very difficult to deal with. While you can't help your foster child change overnight, it's important to be as helpful as you can. Encourage your foster child to see a professional therapist or counselor, maybe even join a support group. Doing so can help everyone in your household. One of the best things you can do is be understanding and patient. You need to understand that your foster child suffered tremendous loss and hurt, in one form or another. S/he isn't acting a certain way to upset you. S/he has emotional issues that have taken over. Be patient with your foster child and with yourself. It's a learning process, so take it one day at a time.
The Adoption Photolisting
Hoping to Adopt? Create Your Profile Today and get 30 Days FREE!
Sign up with Parent Profiles to create your adoption profile today and start connecting with expectant and placing parents. Your profile will be featured on many of the best known adoption websites. Mention you saw this ad or when completing your paperwork use code PPCN and we will give you 30 days free*.
*Contact ParentProfiles.com for details.
The information and links displayed above relate to profile posting services provided on the ParentProfiles.com web site, which is a service of Adoption Profiles, L.L.C., who sponsors this section and is solely responsible for its content.
Foster Parenting Blogs from AdoptionBlogs.com
The Residue of Anger
There is a lot of difficulty for children in the area of competition. This is obvious by the way that bullying is on the rise. It is intrinsic to people to want to win or be the chosen one. [more]
Making Time to Regroup
Sometimes it is hard to keep my focus amidst all of the things that I must do in a day. I have to constantly remind myself to stay on task and finish what I start before I move on to the next pressing matter. [more]
Foster Parenting Community, News & Events
Texas Foster & Adoption - New here and to the process
Foster Parent Support - Child waiting listings- Surprised!
Foster Parent Support - OH MAN.......NO wonder why slow around here .....
Add your non-marketing adoption related event at no cost. Get started today by registering for an account.
Foster Parenting Tip of the Month
If you're considering fostering, remember that there are several types to explore, including emergency care, long-term care, and pre-adoption care.
In Your Words
Have a question? Comment? In Your Words is your way to reach out to the adoption community and get tips from others and share important information.
Share Your Thoughts with Us
Have something to share in the next issue of the emag? Please use the form below to tell us about your thoughts, comments, experiences, feedback, etc. Your submission may appear in an upcoming issue of the emag.
for all of your adoption needs including:
