In past blogs I’ve discussed some of the issues we’ve faced regarding hygiene. I really thought we were making some good headway. I believe that I have used appropriate consequences. We have checked for a medical origin, and went through a course of antibiotics. But still the issue persists.

Though there have always been discussions about sexual abuse, nothing has ever been proven or stated as fact. However, I have a background in both Early Childhood Education & Development, as well as Child Psychology. From everything I know about typical and atypical development, I’m seeing classic signs of child sexual abuse. Further, little snippets of things have been coming out in therapy.

I’m not a big on blogging about what comes about in therapy, because I blog under my full name and I firmly believe my children have a reasonable expectation of privacy, though, obviously, I do talk about general issues of concern to many adoptive parents of children with special needs.

Our therapist at the Famous Hospital to the North just finished his six month rotation. Though we dealt a lot with the PTSD, we really didn’t get into anything else.

I am hoping after the holidays, when we get back to our clinical schedule, we’ll be able to make some inroads with the hygiene issue – whether it ties into anything else or not. There are so many contradictory behaviors: being very fussy about not having one spot on any clothing, yet peeing/pooping clothing; being sensitive to smells, but not wanting to take a shower, or not being able to smell one’s own body odor.

Others have blogged about this extensively, but I’d be interested in hearing what your experience with this has been.

For further reading:

Adoptive Parenting: Trauma

Foster care: Abuse

Parenting a Child with Special Needs: Trauma

Older Child Adoption: Abuse

Previous Dilemma of the Week Columns:

Encopresis

Insomnia