[Tammi5143]

Hi Everyone!

Well, with all of the support that is out here on this forum, I thought I would ask for some of your advice, suggestions, and/or comments.

About 10 days ago, our 19-month old foster daughter "L" came to us. She is very, very sweet. However, she does have some delays, and I am trying to pin-point them (yes, I am making a list) and I wanted to see if anyone else has fostered/adopted a child with any of these symptoms:

• She crawls to get around - or basically, scoots around on her knees, hopping to get from point to point.
• She does not walk. (When she first came to us, she was only taking about 3 steps unassisted - since then she is now taking about 10-15 steps unassisted. Progress! (We bought her one of those walk-behind walkers and are trying to work with her with that.) When she walks, she has that "cowboy" type walk - seems that maybe she was in one of the walkers all of the time and that is the way that her legs are just proned to go. UGH.
• She does not talk. Although today, she did say "ma". We are teaching her basic sign language to break through that barrier of not knowing what she wants - she signs now for "more", "eat" and "cup". Somewhat of a progress.
• She does not look you directly in the eye - it is as if she is looking at you, but past you. And her eyes tend to roll upwards when she is trying to focus in.
• She has slight shakes to her body. Not all the time - various times during the day, but they do not last long.
• She does not feed herself - I have to spoon feed her. She does pick up food that is put on her tray with her fingers, so that is good! But when she goes to put the food in her mouth, it seems that she is not sure where the food is to go and it kind of goes around the mouth, before actually getting in there.
• At various times throughout the day, she actually rolls her eyes into the back of her head. Is this something that she is doing because she can or does it have something to do with a neurological problem? I haven't quite figured that one out yet. But when she does the eye rolling, she laughs and smiles. I am still taking her to a pediatric neurologist to be on the safe side.
• And something new to add to the list - she has decided it is time to bite and pinch. And not for any reason whatsoever. I can just be holding her walking down the hallway, and she will either bite or pinch. UGH again. And when you put her in timeout, watch out! She has a tantrum, so I guess the "naughty" chair was never used with her. She is learning here though that biting and pinching are not part of our family household. (This I am sure is just a phase that she is going through.....)

She is not classified, as of yet, as SHP (special needs home). I am going to try to help make that determination. If she does need SHP (after taking her to the specialists, etc.), then I will let my resource worker know and we will make the correct placement at that time.

I don't have any specifics concerning her past 19-months. Not sure if she was full-term, drug exposed, etc., etc. I am working on that information, so I at least have that to give to my pediatrician so he can refer me accordingly. I think she basically spent time in a walker (from the positioning that she keeps her legs in), and in front of the TV (you should see how she jolts her head when the TV is turned on!). So, maybe no stimulation/interaction regarding play, etc. (Oh today, she did say a new word sitting in front of the blank tv screen - "TV" - UGH was that an eye opener! Guess she did spend time in front of the tv!)

I am not sure if part of this is psychological and/or environmental, or a little bit of both. I think it may be a little of both from what I am seeing. I am starting to do research on the internet regarding different things (autism, etc.), to see what I can come up with.

She is such a sweet, happy child. She has the cutest laugh, and cutest smile! And she does respond to my other children (all 4 of them). She goes down easily at night for bedtime, and takes a nap during the day, and I hardly ever hear her cry (I am not sure if this is a good thing for a 19-month old if you know what I mean).

I will be taking her to our pediatrician w/in the next few weeks. Once I get her to the pediatrician, then I can get her to other specialists (orthopedic to check out her legs and hips, etc.).

I am already working with Early Intervention to have her case transferred from one county to the next. She was receiving DI services 2x/week. So hopefully there will not be a delay in getting the services going again. Until then, I will keep working with her.

Can anyone offer any insight or direction that I should take?
Has any one ever had a child that had any of these symptoms and what was the diagnosis?

Any advice or websites that anyone can refer me to would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks much!

Tammi

[Annabell]

Dear Tammi --

Bless her heart, and yours. See my response to "For a Friend" above.

No, the lack of crying is very, very much NOT a good sign for a 19-month-old.

My heart goes out to you and her.

[DianeScraps]

Can you get that appointment with the peditirican rushed? Even if you have to go to a difffernt Dr.

Also you may want to see if you can figure out what DR the child may have seen before (if any). I fell on the info with our girls, but if she has state insurance you may be able to find out from them. ( I know HIPPA and all - but it's possible)

[lisajm54]

Tammi

I have a 16month old in foster care with me since she was 2 days old. She shows many of the signs that your 19 month old has. She is linked with MR/DD and Help Me Grow. She has no vocabulary but yells quite loudly. She has not taken any unaided steps because she stands on her toes and has no balance. Her PT says that is because she has poor muscle tone throughout her body. The muscle tone has also affected her ability to feed properly. She is still spoon fed. When she feeds herself, she crams it all in her mouth at once and sometimes gags. She has a very hard time grasping things on her tray also. We have no real diagnosis as yet. She may have to have braces on her legs to assist in learning to walk. I would be very interested in anything you find out about your little one. Maybe if we can share information, we can help each other.

[truegirl]

I don't know if this would help or not, but the eye rolling could be strabismus, I know I am going to the severe here, but it is involuntary eye movements. My adopted daughter has horizontal strabismus, her eyes roll up into her head and it can be quite scary looking at times. But mostly is when she is tired. You might consider having her eyes checked. And optomotrist or an ophthomologist could easily diagnose strabismus, and it is correctable with surgery if there is no other problems. We are lucky enough to also have Nystagmus and optice nerve hypoplasia. So surgery for us would just be to make her appear more "normal" when she is old enough for school. If you go to my blog, there is a link in the first or second post I made in Oct that tells about strabismus.

Just a thought, from my experience, but of course I look at the vision stuff.
Nichole

[truegirl]

Ok I have been sick and I mixed up the names. I MEAN Nystagmus. THAT is the involuntary eye movements. Strabismus is the crossed eye. Sorry I got a flu bug and am not thinking clearly.

Nichole