[louise]

IMO, RAD and FAS/E are not the same thing. I do agree that there are many overlaps and many of the interventions used with one or the other will work with either or disorder/DX.I also believe that attachment issues can be a direct outgrowth of FAS/E and as such BOTH disorders need to be adressed.

Like Lucy said, however, RAD presents as being in some measure under the child's control (and I do agree that RAD can actually cause a measure of brain damage/rewiring) and FAS/E is utterly beyond any of the child's control. That right there is a very basic difference. In the former, one can and should expect some progress with appropriate treatment, full healing even (although this is also in dispute among the professionals in the arena). With the latter, it is, pure and simple, irreversible brain damage. No amount of interventions can repair the brain damge done in utero. With this difference, IMO, there is a vast discrepancy between what parents and children can hope to accomplish.

It frustrates me to hear that the doctors you saw were not at least open to the possibility of discussing the variables involved in these two possibilities. No one is served when the powers that be are in an adversarial position as to what "camp" our children fit into. Just my 2 cents.

Dianna, ARND stands for Alchohol Related Neurological Damage. Suicidal Ideation is just a fancy way of saying thinking and possibly planning suicide.

I honestly think most of the professionals within the adoption community are as clueless as the rest of us....we are ALL looking for answers and solutions to the struggles our children face every single day. The best and most compassionate professionals seem to be those who keep an open mind and acknowledge that, in may ways, we are all fumbling around in the semi darkness when it comes to understanding fully the quagmire of labels, DX, disorders, possibilities that are out there for our children. The future, I hope, will bring more light to these concerns. For now, IMO, we need to learn to live with ambiguity and uncertainty....a difficult challenge for each of us, I suspect.