Hi we are Foster Parents and looking to see if there are other who may have dealt with a infant or toddler going through FAS or FAE, Fetal Alchol Syndrome or Effects?
I'm not a foster parent but I just wanted to say bless you for doing this, We have good friends of the family that were foster parents for many years and I know who hard it is. It takes a special person to be able to do this. Kudos to you! :)
I haven't gone through it with a toddler. When I did youth ministry, I had a girl who was 14-18 at the time. The "Fantastic Antone" series of books helped me a lot in understanding some things. It's primarily case studies but they give a lot of good ways to create the structure needed.
My foster son has trauma but not FAS/FAE.
I am also a foster parent and have adopted 3 brothers with FAS. We have had all 3 since birth. I see that you live near me. I'd love to talk to you, send me an email.
I have two boys with FAS/FAE, now ages 9 and 11 - I brought them home from Russia when they were 4 and 5. There are alot of support groups and such (probably through your homestudy agency), that you can attend. However, it can turn into a whole "woe is me" group, which I was not interested in.
Do you have an actual FAS diagnosis? It can be hard at that age to dx if they don't have the physical features (one of my has them). If you do have the dx, then you could seek certain types of therapy now to help strengthen skills like physical therapy and play therapy. Maybe even OT if old enough. If you are fostering, the child likely has a case manager and they can be a wealth of information regarding what services are in your area.
Each child with FAS/FAE acts different when they are little (big, too, for that matter), so there is no "cookie cutter" symptoms like there are with other diagnoses. Some are very quiet, some cry all the time, some hit their early milestones right on, some do not, some have eating issues, some don't, some have sensory issues, some don't.
Good luck!
