A foster family enduring the pain of their foster son who abused their daughter, and their journey through that pain.

It was a little over a week before Christmas and their daughter had been dealing with a sore throat from a cold for a couple of weeks. The daughter started to get sick and the next day the mother was also in bed sick with a bad sore throat. The doctor said it was probably just a virus.

A few days later, it was Christmas Eve, and still not feeling well, they wanted to go out to eat just as they do every year. Their daughter finished getting ready and was on the way to the bathroom to brush her teeth, when their foster son said he had to go to the restroom and it was an emergency. After, he finished in the bathroom his foster sister went in to brush her teeth and he asked the mother if she was going to brush her teeth, she told him that she had done it earlier. Their daughter came out saying that her toothbrush had a bad taste. Her parents told her the tooth paste was a new brand. The daughter insisted that it has not that and that her mouth was burning. At this point the parents realized something was not right. Their foster son is very anxious and wants to leave for the restaurant. The parents go to the bathroom to look at the tooth paste, do not see, feel or taste anything different about the toothpaste. Then the mother remembered what her foster son said about her brushing her teeth. She picked up her toothbrush and did not see anything, but it did have a strange odor to it.

They questioned their foster son for a long period of time, after placing the mother’s toothbrush in a Ziploc and stating that the police could tell them what was on it. He decided it would be better if he told us what it was. He had put toilet bowl cleaner on the mother and daughter’s toothbrushes. The mother thought this could be why they had been sick. He did finally say that he had been poisoning his foster sister since around the first of December and the mom he had been poisoning her over a week.

They called their doctor, who told them to call poison control immediately and that she would see them the first thing the day after Christmas. Poison control told them they could not ingest enough on the toothbrush to kill them. Their daughter would need to be seen by her doctor to see if her prolonged exposure had damaged her and they explained that it could be hard for someone to taste or smell the chemicals while using some toothpaste with the mouthwash in it.

Sometimes we cannot see the things happening because so many things can over shadow them. We as foster parents have to take our blinders off and realize some of these children coming into our home have suffered horrible abuse, which can deeply affect them. Some children have been damaged so much they may not be able to function in a normal, healthy family environment. It is very important to watch for early warning signs of something being wrong or when a foster child’s behavior changes.

Related posts:

Abuse by a Foster Child

Abuse by a Foster Child: The Beginning of Abuse

Abuse by a Foster Child: The Reality