How to Find the Medical History for An Adopted Child

When you’re in the process of adopting a child, we can totally understand why you would want to know as much about your son or daughter as you possibly can beforehand. That way, you can provide them with the exact kind of nurturing and care that they require. In order for that to happen, one of the main things that you will need is a copy of their medical history.

Due to a variety of circumstances, this is not always easiest set of records to find. However, we do have a few tips that can help you to location this kind of information more efficiently below:

Check with the adoption agency. There are a lot of reasons why it can be hard to locate a child’s medical history. For instance, their birth parents may be too young to have an established set of medical records. Or, if a child has been in the foster system for a long period of time, paperwork may have fallen through the cracks as they’ve changed social workers over the years. Many experts will tell you that the best time to try and locate this information is right when you’re about to adopt your child, so make sure to request this information through the adoption agency as soon as possible. If they don’t have the information on file, chances are they can still communicate with the birth parents to at least get some of the details that you seek.

Review the laws within your state. If for whatever reason, you are not successful after speaking with someone at the adoption agency (for instance, if it is a closed adoption), your state’s Department of Health may be able to assist you (especially your adopted child was born in that state as well). There, you can review the laws within your state regarding obtaining sealed information and in many cases, you can have access to those records with the help of a court order. The main thing to keep in mind is that you will need to provide a reason other than “I’m just curious” for most judges to comply with your request.

Sign up with an adoption registry. Another option to consider is to sign up with an adoption registry. The reason why this can be a really good idea is because in many states, the birth parents, adopted parents and even birth siblings are allowed to post their information. So, if the birth parents notice that you are seeking certain kinds of information, such as your adopted child’s medical history, they can either sign a waiver that will grant you access to getting that information or they can choose to release their medical records without providing you with any of their details (such as their name, address or phone number). If you would like more info on how to go about this process, you can contact a company such as Xcel2000 Fostering or a local adoption agency within your area. Most of them are more than willing to assist you in any way that they can.