Skin/Hair Care for future child

Join the following yahoo group: adoptionhair_skincare@yahoogroups.com There is a wealth of information on AA hair/skin care provided by lots of adoptive parents who know what they are doing!!!

Thank you!! I knew there was a group, I just couldn't remember what it was!

You'll find lots of help and support here! I have two biracial kids, ages 16 and 23, and a "full AA" son, 18. I'm not good with AA girls' hair but, fortunately, my biracial daughter's hair is much more like her Filipina birth mom's hair than her Haitian birth father's. My youngest son has extremely coarse, thick and very tightly coiled hair. It has always looked good real short, but from about age 4-15, he fought me on it. He's 18 now and keeps it very short and nicely trimmed. The only bad thing is that he looks so darn good that there are girls shamelessly throwing themselves at him all the time!Skin, I know a lot about! Only one of my three white kids had dry skin, but all three of my dark-skinned kids do. My biracial son's skin was the worst. He's 23 now and his second child will be delivered by c-section on June 8th, if she doesn't go into labor beforehand. His daughter's skin has been a challenge to keep healthy and looking good, like his. We'll see what happens with his son.Anyway, good luck on your adoption. Having a baby placed with you and having to give it back is heartbreaking, any time, but especially when you have no other children to go home to. You must have been devastated! I've always been grateful that, the time it happened to me, I had others at home, including a toddler under 2. I'm not crazy about practices that encourage expectant mothers to match with a family before they are ready. I would be sure and talk to whoever you are working with about what happened before.

You'll find lots of help and support here! I have two biracial kids, ages 16 and 23, and a "full AA" son, 18. I'm not good with AA girls' hair but, fortunately, my biracial daughter's hair is much more like her Filipina birth mom's hair than her Haitian birth father's. My youngest son has extremely coarse, thick and very tightly coiled hair. It has always looked good real short, but from about age 4-15, he fought me on it. He's 18 now and keeps it very short and nicely trimmed. The only bad thing is that he looks so darn good that there are girls shamelessly throwing themselves at him all the time!Skin, I know a lot about! Only one of my three white kids had dry skin, but all three of my dark-skinned kids do. My biracial son's skin was the worst. He's 23 now and his second child will be delivered by c-section on June 8th, if she doesn't go into labor beforehand. His daughter's skin has been a challenge to keep healthy and looking good, like his. We'll see what happens with his son.Anyway, good luck on your adoption. Having a baby placed with you and having to give it back is heartbreaking, any time, but especially when you have no other children to go home to. You must have been devastated! I've always been grateful that, the time it happened to me, I had others at home, including a toddler under 2. I'm not crazy about practices that encourage expectant mothers to match with a family before they are ready. I would be sure and talk to whoever you are working with about what happened before.

I'm sorry you had that experience. I'm sure that was really painful. Good luck to you! And congratulations on jumping into the process again.The two sites mentioned are great to get some basic info. And then, you kind of have to wait and see what works for your kiddo. For example, AA skin is not necessarily any drier. I think the dryness just shows more on dark skin. My son's skin isn't any more prone to dryness than mine is. (Not much, in other words.) But it shows up more, so I use lotion for that reason. His skin doesn't require any special care, though. And I've heard many, many times that water will dry out AA hair. But my son has recently started taking daily showers and his hair, which is much longer than usual at the moment, looks fantastic. Which is why I've been reluctant to shave it down again! I just put conditioner on it before it dries and it looks glossier and healthier than it ever has. (Of course, he's not washing it every day!) So take in the information, but don't take it as cardinal wisdom. :)

I think Shannon's right about their skin not necessarily being drier than caucasians' but it being a lot more obvious. My darkest son's skin is no where near as dry as his biracial brother's, or mine, but it shows up so much that it looks that way. On that line, another thing that is important for keeping the skin looking healthy is exfoliation to get rid of the dead cells. One of those net bath puffs is usually fine, with a buff puff or something like that, for especially dry areas, like knees and ankles. Now that girls usually don't wear nylon stockings with dresses, my teenaged daughter always carried lotion with her, to keep her knees and ankles from being ashy.