CRITICAL CONVERSATIONS: Talking with your foster child about his or her birth parents. . .
Most foster parents know from experience that interacting with their foster children regarding the children’s birth parents can be a real...
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Dr. Mark Andrews
- Aug 7
- 2 min
Raising Children with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome: Hope and Help for Parents (part 2) . . .
Raising a child with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome or Fetal Alcohol Effect is a long-haul process. Depending on the volume of alcohol consumed...
Dr. Mark Andrews
- Jul 20
- 2 min
Raising Children with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome: Hope and Help for Parents . . .
Each year in the United States, up to 12,000 babies are born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), and as many as 50,000 are born with...
Dr. Mark Andrews
- Jun 26
- 2 min
The Lost Art of Play: Having Fun with Your Kids
On my daily “power walk” through our subdivision, I frequently pass one particular house where I often see two boys around the ages of 8...
Dr. Mark Andrews
- May 27
- 2 min
Foster Parents are my heroes! –
Over this past month of May, foster care organizations and agencies across the country have been celebrating these dedicated,...
Dr. Mark Andrews
- May 10
- 2 min
Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD): There is Hope!..(part 2)
Recently, in an adoptive parent support group I lead, the subject turned to children with RAD. I remarked, that to parents unfamiliar...
Dr. Mark Andrews
- Apr 23
- 2 min
Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD): There is Hope . . . (part 1)
For parents with children who have major emotional and behavioral challenges, having their child diagnosed with Reactive Attachment...
Dr. Mark Andrews
- Apr 3
- 2 min
Words of wisdom from an adoptive parent . . .
Recently, one of the parents in an Adoptive Parent s Support Group I lead shared a blog that an acquaintance of hers had written about...
Dr. Mark Andrews
- Mar 6
- 2 min
Foster Parents, Blocked Care, Compassion Fatigue: When you Just Want to Throw in the Towel (part 2)
According to reliable data, over forty percent of foster parents throw in the towel and quit fostering within their first year. That’s a...
Dr. Mark Andrews
- Feb 13
- 2 min
Foster Parents, Blocked Care and Compassion Fatigue: When You Just Want to Throw in the Towel . . .
I’ve often thought that I could never be a foster parent. It’s often tough, in-the-trenches work. I have the utmost admiration and...
Dr. Mark Andrews
- Jan 31
- 2 min
Helping our children to really feel safe: Developing “Felt Safety”, part 2 . . .
In my previous blog I shared the story of Samantha, who had just come into foster care from a chaotic and abusive living situation. She...
Dr. Mark Andrews
- Jan 17
- 2 min
Helping our children to really feel safe: Developing “Felt Safety”
Samantha is ten years old and is entering foster care for the first time. The first ten years of her life have been characterized by...
Dr. Mark Andrews
- Jan 3
- 2 min
Reaching out for help: When your child needs more than you can give . . .
It is no secret that adopted and foster children have unique challenges and needs that are not always characteristic of kids raised in...
Dr. Mark Andrews
- Dec 6, 2022
- 2 min
Who’s in charge here anyway? . . .Parenting the Parentified Child, part 2
In my previous blog I wrote about “Lilly” the parentified child. Because of her background of survival, Lilly had to grow up quickly. ...
Dr. Mark Andrews
- Nov 16, 2022
- 2 min
Who’s in charge here anyway?! – Parenting the Parentified Child, part 1 . . .
On an increasing level over the past few years, older sibling groups have been transitioned into foster care together in order to prevent...
Dr. Mark Andrews
- Oct 25, 2022
- 2 min
16, 25 or 10 . . .How old is he? . . . The Impact of Trauma and Transience on Foster and Adopted Chi
Is it possible for a child to have more than one age? This may seem like a strange question to ask, but when considering kids who have...
Dr. Mark Andrews
- Oct 4, 2022
- 2 min
Nutritional Priorities, Part 2 –
The Blood Sugar-Behavior Connection . . . I mentioned in my previous blog that the majority of children coming into our care for the...
Dr. Mark Andrews
- Sep 22, 2022
- 2 min
Nutritional Priorities, Part 1: The Importance of HYDRATION for your child’s brain functioning
If you’re like me, you don’t drink nearly enough water. From the research I’ve read, the average adult should be drinking a gallon of...
Dr. Mark Andrews
- Aug 22, 2022
- 2 min
What to do about LYING! . . . Part 2—Responding to our children when they lie
In my previous post I discussed some of the reasons why our kids lie. Fear, internal stress, and even survival are some of the...
Dr. Mark Andrews
- Aug 2, 2022
- 2 min
What to do about LYING! . . . Part 1—Why Kids Lie
Many of the adoptive and foster parents I’ve worked with and spoken to over the years have shared with me that the number one behavioral...
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