Adoption Consultation Service

Adopting a child is most often an enormously rewarding experience, though the process can be emotionally trying to potential parents and their extended families. Children may have been exposed to social and physical influences very different from our own and certain health risks are inherent when adopting children from other parts of the world. As part of our Diagnostic and Referral Service, duPont Hospital for Children is pleased to offer a pre or post-adoption consultative service to assist parents with information about their child and to help them make informed decisions at this important time. The service is available for any adoptive individual or family, including children with special needs, foreign adoption and American infants and children.

Pre-Adoption Evaluation

duPont Hospital physicians are available to serve as consultants to prospective families to help assess the health and well-being of the potential adoptive child, including a review of medical records, photographs and videos provided by adoption agencies. This review process may help identify certain medical or developmental problems. It also provides parents a chance to ask questions in confidence about a potential adoptive child. Consultations can be conducted in person or by telephone, with a written summary provided. Given that time is often of the essence in these cases, evaluations will be completed as quickly as the family needs them. While medical records, videotapes and photographs can be helpful in providing some information, videotapes or photographs are not predictive of the childs future but instead are only a glimpse of a childs condition at that time. Emotional, behavioral, and cognitive abilities are difficult to assess by medical records, videotapes or photographs, and future emotional, behavioral, and cognitive issues are nearly impossible to predict.

Post-Adoption Evaluation

Once the adoptive child has arrived at home, parents or the family's personal physician may wish to have a consultation regarding specific medical or developmental concerns. In addition, our Adoption Consultation team can initiate diagnostic studies often recommended for children being adopted internationally. duPont Hospital sub-specialists in orthopedics, cardiology, infectious diseases, gastroenterology, neurology, nutrition, allergy and asthma are available if the child's condition requires further evaluation. A written summary of all valuations will be sent to each family's personal physician.

Fees

Pre-adoption services are generally not covered by insurance. Fees will vary depending on the nature and extent of each consultation.