What happens at a clinical genetics appointment for an adopted child?

[Jacketpandbeans]

My child has been referred for a Clinical genetics appointment. The letter says it lasts about an hour. Has anyone had one of these and can say what's involved please?

They will probably ask for details of relatives with the same or closely related condition to the one for which your child has been referred. They may do a blood test. It would be worth phoning the clinic to let them know your child is adopted and find out what will happen as you can't provide details of family history.

Hi. My children attended a genetics clinic. They ordered blood tests and examined them for signs of foetal alcohol disease and took some family history.

We went back a few months later to get the results. The tests showed up a genetic deletion.

Thanks for the information @Arran2024 and @ConBatulations

Did they do the blood test at the appointment? I want to prepare DS as much as possible.

They already know my child is adopted (or should!!) as I've had to fill in a form and said that we have very limited family history. I'm wondering how best to answer questions. I'm very open with DS his history but always try and present it in an age appropriate way. I think it's going to be tricky to answer some questions without giving him anything to worry about.😔

No. But our appointment was at 4pm and the blood test dep was closed by then.

Hi @Jacketpandbeans

In my experience with my two it depends slightly what the reason is for the referral, with things like FASD they will obviously asking about the pre-natal experiences, for others it's more about just the child and their history, development etc. Or if they suspect a familial condition they may be asking about facial features, similarities throughout families etc.

-Take as much info with you from the CPR, adoption medical etc.
-Do you do letterbox and do BP's respond? Do you have any contact with siblings placed elsewhere etc. It may be that you can ask them important questions but I appreciate it's not quick to get replies.
-Don't assume they know your child is adopted! All sorts gets lost within referrals
-You can type some information to hand to the Dr if there is sensitive stuff you don't want to keep saying in front of your child.
-They may take bloods on the day or ask you to come back, it all depends on the timing of the blood clinic and how busy it is. If you wouldn't be able to manage the uncertainty you can ask for them to book you an appointment rather than getting them done on the day so you can prepare your son properly.
-Your child may have bloods for chromosonal testing as well as any individual checks for specific conditions the dr wants to check- these are very commonly done, these take a couple of months to come back. One of my DDs has just gone for full genome sequencing which is a much deeper check, it has quite an in-depth consent form as it may reveal conditions that other family members should get checked for- obviously this won't apply to you as adoptive parents but if something comes up you may want to let any siblings or birth parents know.

Just to add, we subsequently asked birth mother to be tested for the genetic deletion and she agreed - we did this through the placing LA. She was negative so it meant it came from the birth dad. We had no contact with him.

Thank you for your responses everybody. They are incredibly helpful. @Beetham I have now put some information together and passed it onto the clinic in preparation (along with a reminder that my son is adopted!!). I'll also be having another read through of the CPR and medical information before our appointment to help with answering questions.