Dr. Robert Needlman
Specialist in pediatric behavior and development.
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 Ask Dr. Needlman
Adopting Child with Possible Developmental Problems | | | QUESTION | | | Dear Dr. Needlman,
We are looking to adopt a baby that we have met. Her mother is diagnosed as Schizophrenic, and she admitted to taking drugs and alcohol while pregnant. The baby was born with shakes, blind, and deaf. However, the baby's sight and hearing have returned, and she no longer suffers from withdrawal. She seems to be developing on schedule. What is the long-term prognosis?— May50 | | | ANSWER |
November 29, 2001 | | | Dear May50,
The decision about whether to adopt a child who may not be completely healthy is a very difficult one. On the one hand, it's important that you are well informed and realistic. On the other hand, you need to be optimistic and hopeful to make an adoption succeed. All adoptive parents wish for a guarantee that things can work out in the end, but the truth is that there can be no guarantee. Just as with a child you give birth to, a child you adopt may grow up healthy or may not.
The factors you mention could indeed turn out to be important in the long run. Children exposed to alcohol before birth can show signs of fetal alcohol syndrome, and certain drugs can have similar effects. However, not all infants exposed to drugs and alcohol end up with long-term problems--many appear to have mild learning problems, or no learning problems at all. This can be the case even if they initially went through withdrawal from the drugs.
Having a mother with schizophrenia does increase the chance that a child will develop schizophrenia. But most (about 90 percent) of children whose mothers are schizophrenic do not develop the disease. It also seems true that children who are raised in loving and stimulating homes are less likely to develop long-term learning and emotional problems than are children who grow up in unloving or un-stimulating ones.
Parenthetically, I'm not sure how to understand your statement that your baby was blind and deaf at birth. Abnormal hearing and vision have been found in some drug-exposed infants, and these problems often go away in time. But I don't think that these children really are blind and deaf.
In the end, you have to search your own feelings. If you can see yourselves as loving parents to a child who may end up with long-term problems, then it may make sense to go forward. If you find that you are not ready to accept that risk, or feel that it would be too taxing either emotionally or in other ways, then you should think very seriously about looking for another child to adopt.— by Robert Needlman, M.D., F.A.A.P. |
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