[MomofTwo+]

Our newly placed daughter will be two soon. She tested positive for meth at birth and bio mom admitted to a lovely mix of other drugs during pregnancy. DD seems basically normal other than some nighttime screaming and the (hopefully) normal behavioral issues of toddlerhood. But, she is easily frightening by noises -- garbage truck, lawnmower, leaf blower, school bus, etc. to the point where we want to wear earplugs some times . . . her screaming gets old very quickly. She's been in our home 8 weeks now and we sort of thought this would pass.

Any thoughts?

[Shai's Mom]

I'm not sure if noise sensitivity is due to drug exposure. There are some kids who have very sensitive hearing and noise is almost painful for them.

My husband's niece, who is seven and was not at all drug exposed used to get almost hysterical over loud noises. This got better after age 5 or thereabouts.

My older son, who has a drug addicted birth mother, is also very noise sensitive. I figure the first rock concert he attends will take care of that.

It could simply be that your little princess used to be in a very quiet environment and is simply not used to the noises she is now exposed to. It could also be part of her adjustment period, getting used to her new family.

Did you by chance hear of the book "Weaver's Craft Toddler Addoption"? Since we thought we'd be adopting children in this age range, it was one of the books we bought to prepare. It gives some really great insights into the unique challenging of adopting a toddler.

Good luck!

[Bug-n-Bears-Mommy]

Both of my boys were exposed to meth, and both are VERY sensitive to noise. We were told that it is a side effect. It is funny the things that you think will set them off and it doesn't, then the slightest thing will hit just right and they are screaming!`

[joyful mom]

Two of my children were drug exposed and I have never noticed that they are sensitive to noise. However, a friend of mine has a four year old daughter who has always been extremely sensitive. I know she was drug exposed but don't know which. This little girl does not just startle but screams, hits and kicks uncontrollably. My friend feels it is because of her whole nervous system being so damaged.

[Camile21401]

We just adopted our niece whom was exposed to alot of meth in the home and she is also sensitive to sound and light. I think there are more side affects than we know of that stuff is bad. She has alot of anger out bursts as well. and is only 3. I am interested in any other experiences you are having, we just finalized and she has been with us for almost a year.

[MomofTwo+]

Camille, was your niece exposed to meth in utero or after birth? Our dd definitely screams a lot, not just with noises. It does help when we tell her a noise is coming -- when she expects it, she doesn't freak out as badly. We are really struggling with her other behaviors -- hitting, screaming, defiance, nightmares.

[Camile21401]

We are not sure about utero exposure her bio mom used before she was pregnant, so I would guess there was some in utero exposure but I do know for sure. I do know that a home that they lived in was busted for cooking the meth in the house about one week after they moved, and bio mom admited to smoking it in the house were she was. Our dd is very sensitive and gets angry very easy to the point that she is shaking and she grinds her teeth sometimes when she is mad. Does your dd poke and pick at herself with her finger nails? Ours does, she bends her fingers back and picks/scrapes at herself all the time. She is very fidgety. And any type of tickle like hair on her face or tears on her face makes her really angry. The other day we were at lowes to pick some stuff up and she had to sit in the cart because she wasent listening and she went to stand up and hit the cart, not very hard at all, she dident cry for like 2 minutes we asked her if she was ok and she said yes, then she saw the guy that teaches her speech therapy and she started screaming that it hurt, it was wierd I know she was trying to get his attention. I think she likes people to feel sorry for her mabe.?

[Barksum]

Jumping in on this thread a bit late. I don't often check this forum.

This sounds like it could possibly be a problem with sensory integration. It would be worth researching, anyway.

Children born drug and alcohol exposed have a greater "risk" of having dysfunction of sensory integration, but in theory anyone could have sensory integration problems. Everyone recieves information from all of their senses (there are more than the 5 we all learned in preschool) and the brain integrates all that incoming information and figures out how to tell the body to function according to all the incoming information. The short explanation of dysfunction of sensory integration is that the brain of a person with SI problems does not process the information coming from the senses in a normal and orderly way. So for example, if your brain is getting disjointed or fuzzy information, or being blasted off its feet by super surges of incoming information your body will react accordingly. In children this is exhibited by behaviors, sometimes negative behaviors. Children may have very nasty looking behaviors (hitting, tantrumming, etc.) over a noise, smell, or other over-powering sensation.

As an example, our son who was meth and alcohol exposed was tactily defensive. That is, his perception of touch was hyper-sensitive and he perceived pain whenever he was touched by another person. This would result in him screaming and having a hysterical meltdown when other children would touch him, sometimes serious hysteria if the touch was harsh or prolonged. (Hugs from preschoolers were totally intolerable. Try explaining THAT at a play date.) With time and patience and gradually increasing the time we would touch him he now does very well. He is still sensitive and "over reacts" but it is getting better. And I do mean t-i-m-e; he came to us at 2 and is now 8. It took until about age 5 or so before the hysterical crying fits over having other children touch and hug him abated.

There are a couple of books by Carol Stock Kranowitz, the first is "The Out of Sync Child" and the other is "The Out of Sync Child Has Fun". The first book explains what dysfunction of sensory integration is, the second gives a brief explanation of SI, but then gives tons of activities to do with children who have these problems. If you had to choose only one book I'd suggest "The Out of Sync Child Has Fun".

An occupational therapist can help figure out what is happening with a child who is abnormally sensitive to something in their environment. I'd suggest looking for an OT who has been trained in SI diagnosis and who works with CHILDREN. (This makes a difference.)