Ok, here is another adoption-related article from yesterday’s news.

I have to admit that the title of this one made me cringe. “Foreign Adoption Often Means Unhealthy Children”.

The article is better than the title, but it is a bit scattered. I think that the term “unhealthy” is not necessarily an accurate one either. They quote that...

“Some 60 percent of the children adopted abroad have health problems, says Dr. Nancy Curtis, who heads Children's Hospital of Oakland's International Adoption Clinic. And 80 percent of their parents had no idea those problems existed until they got home.

The 3-year-old clinic, one of just 28 in this country, specializes in diagnosing and treating those problems, which range from malnutrition and developmental delays to fetal alcohol syndrome.”

To say that “these problems” range from malnutrition to fetal alcohol syndrome is awfully broad, and to me, misleading. I know that many children adopted internationally come home with MINOR medical ailments, such as intestinal parasites, lice, scabies, ringworm, anemia, colds, diarrhea, TB exposure, etc. But any good agency prepares adoptive parents that these minor and treatable conditions are possible, if not probable.

To me, a child with lice or parasites is not an “unhealthy child”. They have something very treatable and are not overall unhealthy.

Of course it is possible for a child to come home with something undiagnosed. I know of two Ethiopian children who came home and tested positive for TB (not just exposure, but an actual active TB infection) but both are doing well after treatment. There are other such examples, but in our experiences and those of the people we know, I really think that most internationally adopted children come home surprisingly healthy, and not the other way around.

It is always good to be prepared for the worst "just in case", but I don't like when the media tries to scare people either.

Despite the title of the article saying “Foreign Adoption” (I hate the world foreign in regards to adoption…it just bugs me), the article does seem to focus mostly on Russian adoption. And absolutely with Eastern European adoptions there is greater concern about Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and other unknowns in regards to the child’s health. (And don’t get me wrong…FAS is a concern in many countries, including the US).

The article does briefly discuss two families with “happy endings.” Both families adopted from Russia. One adopted a child with known special needs who is now doing very well, and one adopted a toddler who turned out to be “perfectly healthy” and is also doing very well.

So, this article gets a mixed review from me. It starts off with a misleading headline, and then gives some broad, discouraging statistics without going into any specifics. It focuses mostly on Russian adoptions, but does have information relative to any adoption.

And it does end nicely and happily, sharing two international adoption success stories. I especially like the part about the little boy with arthrogryposis, because I love hearing about special needs kids finding forever families and thriving.

So, there you go. Some more reading for your Thursday. :)