What did your child come home with?

[ck72]

Hi, not sure if this has been discussed before so sorry in advance if this is going over old ground.

We are in the process (hopefully) of being formally linked and matched with a 16 month old child and as we have been told that we are the first choice, we are beginning to think of what we might need to buy and what they may come to us with.

We have seen the CPR and more recent photos were sent to us as well and we are meeting the SW next week.

I know that closer to the time we will be given info on what they have but I really need to distract myself with something, and even just looking online and window shopping in order to budget at this stage would probably help keep me sane while we wait!

Our boy had loads of stuff. Clothes, four pairs of shoes, boxes of toys.

On placement day, we took his bedding off the bed at FC, so it smelt familiar. We were cautious about buying him new stuff, but added in a few small things really slowly. I didn't use a different duvet cover for months (it was washed a few times in that time of course, using the same washing powder as FC).

We bought car seat, child's cutlery and a few small toys,but that was it for the first month or so. A year on and he has some of the clothes he came with, but as he grows out of things, they are solely replaced. I've kept a few things in his memory box though. He has the teddy bears he came with, but is most attached to one his cousins got him when they first met.

Of course the toys, clothes etc weren't all to our taste, but as previous posters say, these are his things, his link to familiarity and we felt it was important that he didn't feel,we were rejecting his past, or trying to erase it. I suspect we thought it through too much!!

We asked FC what he would come with and that helped. He also came with a box of books, which was a lovely touch and meant we could read him familiar bed time stories his FC had read.

All the best with the match!

Slowly not solely!

Ck72 exactly what we did. All neutral and suitable 0-3 buggy, 0-4 car seat and cot is 0-12yrs with an extension kit! We were also swayed as when we thought we needed to be looking kiddicare had just been sold and was clearing out so we saved £200 on the car seat and bought the buggy complete with another 0-18month car seat and carrycot for the same price as just the buggy because it was last years "black"
We are unlikely to use the carrycot and if we don't can sell on eBay and won't have cost us anything and can use the other car seat as spare for grandparents car.
I've never thought of these things being specifically for that lo just things we would need for any child we were to adopt.

DD2 age 2 came with loads of clothes and toys but no 'hardware'. We purchased cot-bed and pushchair second-hand (honestly save your money for when they are old enough to demand specific new items) and were given other bits and bobs. We bought new car seats, potties, bedding, stair-gates.
Luckily at 2 they can grow out of some toys quite quickly so some toys I didn't like were rehomed after a few months. (Generic toys, not special ones).

DD1 age 8 also came with loads of clothes and was reluctant to part with them. It was about 6 months before I was able to buy her new clothes. It was so nice to buy clothes I had chosen rather than FC (though FC taste wasn't too far off mine).

DD had loads of clothes (though mostly too small and not really the sort of thing I would have chosen for her), and even more toys. Plus a few things like bottles and bibs.

We had a week to get things sorted - buggy, cot, high chair, car seat. Bit of a rush, but fine

I spent quite a lot of time looking at girls clothes but not buying until the match was confirmed

re FCs sending children with clothes that are mostly too small.

I know that once our FC knew a match was on the cards for my DDs she said she stopped buying new clothes unless absolutely necessary as she knew we would want to choose for ourselves which I thought was really thoughtful.

This has been really helpful. I think the the most obvious thing is THEY WILL COME WITH CLOTHES :) So I can tick that off my list and maybe buy something . I was expecting that they would come with some bedding but I've noted that some children haven't had this (I think I'll ask the FC for it though as I think that it would really help with those first weeks and months settling down to sleep) Toys... We were thinking that we'd have something special for intros but then slowly get age appropriate ones as time goes by.

Thanks for all your replies. Much more useful info than when I asked our SW during the home visits!

We also sorted the bedroom out before matching panel so new rug for floor, pictures and bed as we needed to put a photo in our introductions book. Maybe this is less necessary for a younger child. Good luck, it sounds like you may have a very busy Christmas this year.

We recently had a 23 month and 3.5 year old move in. Unlike the vast majority here our's came with pretty much nothing and what they did have fitted in a small bag plus one large toy that they have not played with as its for a baby. They had outgrown their summer clothes and the foster carer offered to buy autumn clothes but as we started intro's at the end of sept it made sense for us to buy them to our taste and we took a bag of clothes for each to the fc at the start of intro's. So the clothes each had including under garments was a couple of days worth, a jacket each, pair of shoes and pj's that were too small. They come with no toys, books etc only a scooter and trike. No bedding, car seats etc as it was all the FC's that they had used for their on children before.
Regardless they have settled exceptionally well and beyond everyone's expectations so far. I had brought a lot in my desire to keeps buys ad get prepared and have used everything. We had their room with duvets, pictures, books toys etc done in advance and took photos of the peppa and George pigs we gave them in the introductions books moving peppa and George around the house in the pictures. On the first day they came to our place the used their books to move from room to room and look for peppa and George who we had hid in different rooms and it was a big hit.
Good luck!!

Velvet so sorry for you.

ck72 sorry about the bug. Hope all will work out well for you.