[Big Dreamer]

Hi... though it usually isn't diagnosed until after age 12 a child can show tendencies at a young age.

We considered adopting a 4 year old whose bfather was Schizophrenic and struggled with depression. This 4 year old showed many signs of possible Schizophrenia and severe depression.

We had the little girl with us for a month, while observing her in her home I noticed some things that seemed out of sorts for a child her age.

To see if her issues were environment related we brought her to stay with us for a month. M would have horrible meltdowns at the drop of a hat with kicking, biting, screaming and scratching at home, the park in the car, she was often fighting people and voices that weren’t there.

Medical testing proved that psychologically she was on a 15-month-old child’s level and she had delayed verbal and motor skills.

After two weeks I realized that we were not cut out to parent a child with these types of problems. Star was due in a couple of months and I knew that I would not be able to give M the type of attention and care that she needed while tending to a newborn. Though it broke my heart I knew that we could not keep her.

She eventually went to a home with a Dr and they planned for her to be an only child.

If it is possible try to get FULL copies of the childs past medical records. M’s records came a couple months after she left our home and we were shocked to see that so many doctors had recommended inpatient treatment or a living facility.

We were never told about her meltdowns and other behaviors, lucky for me I was studying to be a psychologist so I had a pretty good idea how to handle some of the behavior.

When she came to stay with us we treated it as a vacation and a way to get to know each other.

My husband was crushed because he really thought things were going to work out. When they didn’t he had a great sense of failure and loss because he couldn’t fix her, at the same time he could look at me and see bruises on my face, neck and body where M would grab me during one of her melt downs and would beat me up while crying for help from whatever she was dealing with in her mind.

It was a very sad situation for everyone. Please do your homework…

Maria