[CHG]

I'm curious if anyone out there has turned down a referral due to concerns about health issues or the child's age. If yes, what what were your reasons and how long did it take to get another referral?

We want to be aware of all our options. We are requesting a healthy child but have heard that attachment disorders and autism are appearing in numerous children adopted from China.

Thanks.
CG

[SofiasMom]

I would think it would be extremely difficult to diagnose a baby/child with attachment disorder or autism from the referral information. Or even when meeting a baby/child in China since they may be "shut down" and over whelmed due to the extreme upheavel in their life.

[CHG]

Sorry, I should have made my question clearer. Autism and attachment disorders concerns are not good examples of medical conditions. Yes, the medical report is sparse at best. You are right about these two disorders being difficult to diagnose.

Re-phrased question - has anyone turned down a referral while in China or prior to traveling for any reason? Example, did you ask for an infant and get referred a four year old and decided against the referral? Or, when you arrive there, you discover the child has severe developmental issues not noted in medical info?

Perhaps that will help.

Thanks.
CG

[Jeanniebee]

CHG, can you explain more about the numerous children you are hearing about with attachment and medical disorders? Are these children of friends of yours?

I think unless your homestudy specifies that you will accept a child with medical problems, your baby is presumed to be healthy. I have also heard that if your baby does not pass the medical, you will not be able to bring her home.

I have heard China is a safer choice than EE for children due to less FAE issues. And generally better prenatal care as the b-moms are hoping for boys.

[aristo]

CG-

I only heard of one situation which our agency told us about.

I dont know the detals, but our agency mentioned that one such case (albeit rare) did occur. When in China, the adoptive parents and others noticed immediately some developmental issues with their daughter.

To make a long story short, the adoptive parents was assigned another child....while still in China.

Obviously, the adoptive parents developed an attachment to their intially assigned child for months....fixated on the picture sent to them. We were told that the adoptive parents was generous enough to finance the much needed medical attention to help this little girl, and has kept in contact with the orphanage to her progress and development.

aristo

[SofiasMom]

I wouldn't place too much on the medical exam in Guangzhou. The doctors look to see if baby has two ears, eyes and the sex. That's about it.

[CHG]

Jeanniebee:

Thank you for your response. Regarding your question about children who have been adopted from China with attachment and autism issues, I have been a member of PAC, a chat group of people who have already adopted from China, for about a year. These specific topics come up quite often in this group. There are no research reports, that I aware of, that gives firm statistics of Chinese occurances. Here is a link to an interesting article on the subject: http://www.attach-china.org/article.html.

I believe in going into an international adoption being educated and prepared for anything that could possibly happen. I traveled to Russia to pick up a child, and upon arrival, discovered it was the wrong child and not the one in my referral picture/medical report.

I am going to China now because it appears the vast majority of children being adopted are "healthy". But not everything about international adoption is "sugar and spice". A person needs to go in prepared to possibly make some tough decisions about what they are willing to do to make the adoption work.

Thanks for all your input. I appreciate your time.

CG