Polygamist sect children to face culture shock?

CPS has sent instructions to feed the youngsters fresh fruits and vegetables, chicken, rice and other foods that may have been grown on the 1,700-acre ranch.

"They don't eat a lot of processed food and we're not going to encourage that," Tulliam said, but noted that if the children want to eat processed or junk food, no one is going to stop them.

Those who cling to the old traditions may also pose another problem for the state — they might run away. Driggs said polygamists' children have fled foster homes before because "they want to go home, and they want to go to people and circumstances they're used to."

The children have been educated in a schoolhouse, using a home-school curriculum, on the compound, and may actually be ahead of public-school students their ages, lawyers and CPS officials said.

Hays and Tulliam said the children will continue to be home-schooled by the temporary foster-care providers instead of being put through the trauma of trying to fit into big schools, where they could be bullied because of their differences.

While their diets, dress and prayers can be accommodated with a little planning, other experts said their emotional needs may be trickier to deal with.

Dr. Bruce Perry, a child psychiatrist who testified for the children last week, said FLDS children may be easily taken advantage of by outsiders because of the strict control church leaders have over their daily lives.

People who have left the sect "felt emotionally incapable of decision-making," he said.

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