Parents with Guatemalan born children are often confronted with skin problems that they are unfamiliar with. I’ve blogged about this in the past, but I’m a little more knowledgeable now that Ella and I have paid several visits to the dermatologist.

If your child has white patches on their skin, chances are they have pityriasis alba, a form of eczema. It initially presents as a patch of raised bumps, often quite small in diameter that eventually becomes red and rash like. After the rash disappears, the pigment in the skin also disappears and what is left is a white spot.

There... more

First of all, let me preface this blog with the statement that to my knowledge there are no studies that verify or even suggest that Guatemalan born children as a group are more prone to language delays. Secondly, I’ve heard of several Guatemalan children that have no delays at all – on the contrary they spoke early and well.

But because this was an issue in Ella’s development and it keeps coming up in emails from readers, I’ve blogged about it several times before. My first blog covers the subject of delays and particularly in internationally born children. My ... more

Back in June I wrote a blog about language delays in children adopted from Guatemala. Ella was nineteen months at the time and definitely speech delayed. I’ve yet to find any new information about the subject, but have had an interesting development in Ella’s case regarding the connection between sign language and speech.

One of the most enjoyable learning processes we’ve had with Ella is watching her acquire sign language. She loved it from... more

One of the finest people you will come across in the adoption world is Dr. Jane Aronson, often referred to as the “Orphan Doctor.” Founder of the Worldwide Orphans Fund, an adoption specialist and adoptive mother of two, Jane has treated thousands of adopted children and provided support to as many parents.

I have yet to meet Jane personally, but she was the doctor who evaluated Ella’s referral information. She also reviewed all the monthly reports during the process, responded immediately to my questions and concerns and blessed me with great peace of mind.... more

A week ago Ella developed a round white spot on her upper left arm. It was a little dry to the touch so I treated it with lots of cream several times a day. The spot still hasn’t gone away.

A few days ago I noticed that Ella now had a similar white spot on her left cheek as well as several small ones on her back. I posted a query on our adoption agency’s post adoption web group about these spots and got several responses. Some of the diagnoses they had received for their children’s spots were: a type of fungus, eczema, or an allergy to milk and milk... more

Most adoption agencies recommend taking your child to an international adoption doctor as soon as possible after you bring them home even though they have been seen by a pediatrician in Guatemala. These doctors who specialize in adoption medicine will give your child a thorough physical examination and then schedule blood tests. They will also give you bags to collect stool samples over an extended period, as some parasites such as Giardia are hard to detect.

The extensive laboratory tests helps uncover conditions that haven’t presented... more

Working with the Early Intervention program in our city has been a good experience for the most part. Yes, there is a lot of paperwork to sign and bureaucracy to deal with, but we have been pleased with the speech therapy Ella has gotten.

However, yesterday I had second thoughts about continuing with them. Once a year the state dictates that each child must be evaluated to see if they still qualify to be in their program. Stupid me thought they would evaluate her speech and be gone.

For two and a half hours two women sat in my house,... more

In my previous blog, I wrote about language delays in Guatemalan born children. I did not do a scientific study and want to stress that it is just my impression that a lot of our children have language delays; not all of course.

Diagnosing language delays is not a particularly difficult process. As a parent you are bound to notice that your child is not making baby sounds as an infant, or beginning to produce words as a young... more

It seems to me that an unusually high percentage of adopted children from Guatemala have language delays. I haven’t done a scientific study, but from talking with other parents and following posts on various websites, it seems that there is a pattern here.

A language delay is language development that is significantly below the norm for a child of a specified age. I pulled out my textbooks from my years as a student of linguistics and... more

With summer here and most of our children exposed to many hours of sunlight, I thought it timely to remind everyone that, yes; our children’s skin must be protected from the sun even if their skin is darker. While many of us erroneously assume that the people with fair skin, freckles and moles are the ones who get the skin cancer, this is far from the truth. I came across an excellent article in BBC news that reported this:

“Contrary to common perception, people... more