Most adoption agencies recommend taking your child to an international adoption doctor as soon as possible after you bring them home even though they have been seen by a pediatrician in Guatemala. These doctors who specialize in adoption medicine will give your child a thorough physical examination and then schedule blood tests. They will also give you bags to collect stool samples over an extended period, as some parasites such as Giardia are hard to detect.

The extensive laboratory tests helps uncover conditions that haven’t presented themselves yet, and also determine if your child does indeed have a condition that was reported on the pre-adoption paper work. If your child is being treated for an illness already, tests will help confirm if the treatment is appropriate.

Some of the things blood tests reveal are: sickle cell disease, anemia, lead in the blood, HIV, VDRL (syphilis), Hepatitis B&C, rickets, kidney function, thyroid disease or other metabolic problems and TB. Stool samples detect intestinal parasites such as Giardia (which is very common, especially in institutions) and intestinal bacteria.

If you talk to the nurses, they should be able to tell you exactly what the doctor will test for. Some will also test for development milestones while others will refer you to another doctor or recommend Early Intervention.

Where you might find yourself in a dilemma is with immunizations. Many adoption doctors will want to do titers and this requires taking even more blood and the tests are very expensive. Our doctor told us to revaccinate Ella, even though we had a clear and reliable record of every vaccination she received from her pediatrician in Guatemala.

We chose not to revaccinate after speaking to Dr. Jane Aronson who is a very experienced adoption doctor and was the doctor we used throughout the adoption process. She said that children from Guatemala do not need to do titers or be revaccinated as the vaccinations there are excellent. I also read the same thing in an article in Adoptive Families not long after, but I have been unable to find that article online to quote.

With so much research being done on the possible connection between vaccinations and autism, I question doctors who claim that revaccinating won’t hurt your child. I suggest reading articles and being well informed on these subjects before you let someone revaccinate your child.

Parents often prefer to take their child to the pediatrician or family doctor they plan to use anyway. The only drawback to this is that they rarely know what tests should be done and have little experience with children born abroad.




Post Adoption Check-Ups


Multiple vaccinations at the same time.

Post Adoption Medical Examination

Orphan Doctor (Dr. Jane Aronson)


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