Would a 5 month old baby with a disability be adopted or fostered?

[ktwsgirl]

I am hoping that someone could answer my question about how likely it would be that a 5 month old baby girl with a probable severe physical and intellectual disability would be adoptable, as opposed to being placed in foster care. I believe that in the case of there being no disability babies are more 'sought after' than older children- is this the case also with babies with disabilities?

Thank you for taking the time to answer this difficult question.

It's impossible to say.
Babies are always prioritised for adoption rather than long term fostering. Whether or not there is a match for this baby depends on the prospective adopters who are approved and waiting for matches in the area. It's not impossible that she would be adopted but possibly she might be harder to place than a NT baby, sadly.

I think that, if she can't be cared for by her birth parents, she would be fostered while an adoptive family is looked for. It is a very emotive subject but short answer, yes. She is adoptable.

Are you talking about your own baby ?

Thank you for taking the time to answer this question- you are right that it is very emotive.

I was deliberately not mentioning the context of the situation because I am all too aware that people will have their own strong feelings about it. Myself included. For what it is worth though the person I am asking on behalf of is my sister.

I am not asking because of my own feelings. I ask because the information and advice I might give to the parent in this situation is different to what I might write to another party or some one asking out of idle curiosity

It is hard to predict the level of disability when the baby is only 5 months old.

SS should first ensure that your sister is getting all the support available . They are more likely to do this with a disabled baby as they are , as you suspected, harder to place .

If your sister cannot or will not care for the child, SS will seek to first place the child within the extended family of the mother and the father. Your sister will have an input into this but she cannot veto any placement .

The baby may go into foster care while this is explorered with the families . If that doesn't work out, the baby will be placed for adoption .

I would say that it depends on the level of disability how much interest this baby would get from potential adopters... But I can say on a personal note that my DH and I are approved to adopt a baby/toddler with significant disabilities, and every child we were "linked" with so far has had quite a lot of other potential families involved. So I would certainly not rule adoption out for this little one.

If it was the case that no one in the immediate family was in a position to raise the baby, then she would be placed in foster care and after investigating options within the extended family, the plan would be for adoption, because of her very young age.

I can't say how likely it is she would be adopted. A moderate or high likelihood of her having a severe physical and intellectual disability will make her 'hard to place'. There are absolutely families who go into adoption specifically looking to be a family for a child with significant disabilities, it depends on how many such families in the system at the same time as your sisters baby, where they live, and there are quite a lot of young children with more significant disabilities and not enough families looking to be their family. It is definitely possible she would be adopted (my own DD2 was described by one professional as 'unadoptable' before I came along) but on the other hand it's possible that she wouldn't find a family. Childrens services will set a time limit on how long they will look for a family, before they change the plan to long-term fostering, but it should be quite a long time frame for adoption for a young baby. However they won't wait indefinitly because they will want the baby to have stability, and a long term foster family who want to care for her until she is 18 is better than having to move between short term homes waiting for a possible adoption.

I use to foster children with disabilities and they are extremely hard to get adopted I think it's about being realistic it's not impossible but most adopters do want children who have few issues

Sorry very grim view

We have adopted 8 with disabilities, 4 Down Syndrome 3 with cerebral palsy (one who is deafblind) and the youngest has a rare chromosome disorder. We actually wanted SN children and their age range was the youngest was 3 months and the eldest was nearly 6 years.

I must admit where I live I have quite a few friends who have like us adopted several children with SN. It has been a fantastic journey.

If fostering is the only option I am certain your sisters LO will find devoted foster carers.

Good luck to you all

My adopted daughter was labelled as 'unadoptable' (by her SW!!)due to her health conditions....

We were told that there are so few adoptors coming through, that the ones that do 'cherry pick'

In our case... they missed a corker of a little girl thank goodness

Are you able to share the diagnosis (or potential diagnosis) of the baby? It may be helpful...