Welcome to the weekend!  With so many unbelievably interesting writers contributing to our knowledge base out there, The AFA has decided to devote our end-of week blog each week to some of the other blogs we adore.  The content featured in this weekly shout-out will be as interesting and ...

by Michael Traister, M.D. One of the most common questions I am asked by parents adopting a baby boy is “Does my baby need to be circumcised?” The answer is not easy and evokes a lot of emotion. Last year in San Francisco, there was a proposal to place on the November election ballot ...

By Carolyn Berger, LCSW  When my biological son, Zach, was born I remember looking at him and thinking how he didn’t look anything like I’d imagined.  With his dark wavy hair and olive skin he looked very different from the pink baby with just a touch of blond hair that I ...

By Carolyn Berger, LCSW, with Lisa Schuman, LCSW The blended family, one that’s created through birth and adoption, has been a part of the adoption landscape for a long time.  There are different types of blended families—those where an adopted child is the first child and those ...

By Harry Fisch, MD Circumcision is the surgical removal of the foreskin of the penis. It is part of religious custom for Jews and many Muslims, for reasons that have been lost to history. The popularity of circumcision in other groups of men has waxed and waned depending on prevailing ...

by Lisa Marsh Part of a sereies on Single Fathers Raising, Caring For and Talking To Pre-teen Daughters About Their Bodies Way before breasts begin to appear, like little soft hills on the flat landscape of a girl's flat chest, she will have an awareness that she is different from her ...

by Carolyn Berger, LCSW I’m a single mom and until recently I thought I had done a pretty good job of educating my two teenage sons, ages 18 and 21, about sex and sexual health. We never sat down for “big talks” about these subjects.  Rather, I tried to weave them into our ...

By Michael Traister, MD Starting about 10 years ago, in response to the markedly increased numbers of children being adopted from abroad, a minor sub-specialty emerged in the field of pediatrics, pediatricians interested in adoptions, or “adoption pediatricians.” In 2000, The ...