An issue that parents often wonder about with new kids is immunizations. While children are in Ethiopia waiting to come home, they do receive medical checkups and immunizations.

Both of my girls had shot records that were up to date for their ages. It took a little doing to convert the Ethiopian dates to US dates, but once we figured all that out, it appeared that the girls had gotten shots in a reasonably timely manner.

However, many doctors don't feel comfortable trusting immunization records from third world countries. First of all, in some cases there could be errors, simply... more

Eating issues are some of the most common problems reported by parents of newly arrived children. I wrote before how to tempt the reluctant eater. But equally common is the child who can't seem to get enough to eat. Just how much is too much?

A helpful article at OlderChildAdoption.com has this to say about the challenges many older-adopted children face:

Second helpings, food served family style, grocery stores, pantries, refrigerators, bowls of fruit or candy just sitting around – all of this is new to them.... more

Erin over at the Transracial blog has written a great pair of posts about parenting an HIV positive child.

Parenting a child with HIV
Parenting a child with HIV-Part Two

Don't miss it! There's lots of good news for HIV positive kids these days, not the least of which is that the US government is now allowing them to be adopted from Ethiopia.

An HIV test shows if someone is infected with HIV, the virus that attacks the body's immune system and causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or what is more commonly known as AIDS. There are several different tests that can be used to determine if you are carrying the HIV virus.

The first test developed is still the most frequently used for the initial detection of HIV infection: the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay or as it's more commonly known, the ELISA.

The ELISA is usually done by drawing blood, usually from a vein in the arm. If the ELISA test is negative – meaning that antibodies are not found – the testing is complete.

If the ELISA... more

Many people imagine that most of the orphans in Ethiopia must be orphaned due to HIV/AIDS. AIDS is a terrible scourge in Ethiopia, but also a big problem in Ethiopia is malaria.

I was able to talk to the doctor who found one of my daughters. She told me that in the case of young infants being relinquished, often the culprit is malaria. She said that pregnant women are particularly vulnerable to malaria. If they are exposed to malaria in late pregnancy, they will often die soon after the baby is born.

Children are extremely vulnerable to malaria as well. In the 1990's nearly one in three deaths among children in east... more

Head lice is an issue that many parents will face when they first get their children. There are differing opinions on ways to treat the lice.

When I got my 20 month old in Ethiopia in 2004, I immediately used Nix on her hair. I didn't want to take any chances of bringing home lice to my other 6 children, and figured it would be easiest to treat there in Ethiopia, where I could leave all the bedding in a few days!

Along with the Nix, I also used a lice comb and thoroughly combed out her hair. Fortunately for me, she didn't have much hair at that point, so the comb-out was not a difficult process. That first day I found about 3 adult lice, and a dozen or so nits.

Every... more

Have you visited orphandoctor.com yet? This website was founded by pediatrician Jane Aronson, a doctor who specializes in advising families who have adopted or are considering adopting a child internationally. She is herself the mother of two sons, Desalegn from Ethiopia, and Benjamin from Vietnam.

New on the Orphan Doctor site this week is a great FAQ titled Medical Issues Common To Ethiopian Adoptees. This FAQ was put together by a mom from my adoption agency with the approval of Dr. Aronson.

This is probably the... more

When adopting an older girl, one of the issues that families sometimes face is early sexual development. Several different factors make this a fairly common concern.

First of all, as I mentioned before, it is extremely common to not know exactly how old your child is in the first place. In Ethiopia, birthdays are much less important than in the US. So unless you adopt a child with a known birth date, or a very young infant, chances are the age you're told is just a very rough estimate.

Kids who've lived in an orphanage for awhile tend to have a slower growth pattern that makes... more

Recently the Centers for Disease Control released new TB guidelines which allows medical practitioners to use a TB blood test called QuantiFERON-TB Gold, instead of the PPD, the traditional under-the-skin TB test.

Because the test is just a simple blood test, the person doesn't have to come back to the doctor in 2-3 days to have the test read, which is more convenient. One other benefit reported by the experts is that the new TB blood test exhibits fewer false positives.

From a USA Today article- December... more

Last week I read a long story in my local newspaper about a woman who is doing what I might like to do in an alternate life. Or maybe she's doing what I'll be able to do when my kids are grown, I don't know.

Her name is Mary Dirksen, and she recently returned from a 21 month work trip in the Somali area of Ethiopia. There she served as project coordinator and the medical person responsible for a regional tuberculosis control program.

This was not her first similar assignment. She is affiliated with Doctors Without Borders and has also worked... more