[leenab]

We've only had major dental issues with one child. But she required major oral surgury for which she had to be put under. In cases like that the bioparents had to give consent for and it had to go before a judge. I was able to get her a check up, x-rays and cleaning. But none of her 13 cavaties could be filled. And she was just 2.

We've had to call Early Intervention for children as well as arrage therapy. We've taken a few children to the ER for asthma attacks.

Cwers are always a bit reluctant to put young children in therapy. At least that was our experience with our youngest son. His cwer repeatedly told us he was fine and things were normal. We begged for therapy and were told no. It wasn't until we threatened to disrupt that we actually got the therapy (which helped a ton!). The therapist was great, gave us ways to deal with our son's behaviors and talked to him about a lot of things. We have had therapists though who aren't that great. Ones who don't want to ask the children the tough questions or stir up issues.

After that another cwer told me we could just arrange for therapy on our own and let DYFS know who the therapist was.

One thing I've come to realize since being a parent is that children from fostercare need a lot of structure and schedule in their lives. If our schedule is even a bit off things can get crazy fast.

Have you talked to your fd about drugs? The library usually has a lot of great children's books on how bad drugs are. We've read quite a few to our sons and have an ongoing dialogue about what can happen to people who use drugs. I think DARE and MAD both have websites with coloring pages for young children. This might be a way to breach the topic with your fd.

You mentioned that the judge ordered therapy for the whole family, including fd. You may want to call/write to the judge to let him know that fd is not getting therapy. Judge's are often kept in the dark about things until the next court date. You can also attend at the next court date and bring the therapy issue up with the judge. If you plan to do this it would be a good idea to have sent a letter to the cwer and super requesting therapy as well as the GAL. Where does the GAL stand in the therapy issue? Usually they have the best interest of the child in mind (as that's their job). You may want to call her/him and ask about therapy. We've been lucky enough to have some great GAL.