International Adoption and Related Healthcare Issues

Thus, when they brought 14-month-old Renee home, her post-adoption medical care had to make up for lost time. Her pediatrician, Todd Ochs, M.D., of Adoption Pediatrics, S.C., in Chicago, knew that children´s immunizations in China are often ineffective, and that some children don’t receive them at all, so he took several vials of blood to run a thorough immunology report. Sure enough, the blood work showed that Renee was lacking several immunizations.

However, from the beginning, Dr. Ochs wasn’t concerned about Renee’s overall health. During their pre-adoption session, Andrea says that Dr. Ochs set them at ease. "He told us that she has to be a tough child just because she survived in an orphanage in a third world country," she says. “He said that if she were a younger baby, it would have been a more difficult call.”

Good for the Whole Family

The benefits of choosing a pediatric practice that specializes in international adoptions extend beyond the child’s health. Seidl says, “Going through adoption is a wrenching process.” Many adoptive parents spend years trying to get pregnant, then many months working through the confusing, frustrating, and emotional bureaucracy of international adoption. At the University of Chicago International Adoption Clinic, “They are sensitive to those issues. They are so positive about adoption, and supportive.”

Seidl appreciates the comfort level that comes with going to an office that's familiar with families who don’t share the same nose shape, or eyes, or skin color. “There are no funny looks, no questions about who the father is,” she says. They feel that not only does Nathaniel receive the best medical care, but that their family is well cared for—and cared about—as well.