Hi Heather,
What I have found is that there is a lot of rhetoric about child-foster
carer attachment but that there is a large amount of ambivalence about it in
reality. You've only got to look at the language that is used- there is a
reluctance among many to speak of foster mother/father/parent and instead
talk about "carers". There is a concern about "over attachment" despite the
fact that the wonder research that has been carried out by Mary Dozier shows
that the outcomes for children are not good if their foster parents are not
strongly attached to them. I wrote a paper on assisting foster parents to
attach to their children and it was slammed by the reviewers who clearly
didn't want to think that strengthening foster parent-child attachment was a
good thing. In addition, there is a dearth of research on foster parent
grief- children often move on from foster care and the effect of that on the
foster carers can be profound- yet there is but 3 or 4 opinion type papers
and a single PhD thesis that has examined this subject. Why?? IMO it is
because those within the child protection system really don't want to know
about it. They don't want to know that the loss of a foster child can be
just as painful and just as difficult as a child dying. 
Karleen Gribble
Australia


-----Original Message-----
From: Lactation Information and Discussion
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of heather
Sent: Thursday, 3 February 2011 1:06 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Foster parenting and breastfeeding?

Marianne writes:


>
>It seems like the reasoning of the social workers is this: "Okay, we 
>have this infant here, in a very insecure environment, where the 
>parents cannot look after it and we now bring the child elsewhere, 
>but it might be tossed back again, for whatever reason, so we'd 
>better not give the infant what it desperately needs, because in the 
>future, there might not be a possibility to guarantee that the 
>infant/child keeps getting what it needs, so we'd better not give it 
>to him now, either, to make sure he does not get used to the really 
>good thing and will miss it later.


I don't think it can be that. I have studied with specialist social 
workers in adoption and fostering, have close friends who foster and 
who have adopted, and they are all very aware of the importance of 
attachment and the importance of enabling the 'secure base' for 
infants,  *especially* when that infant may be removed at some point 
in the future.

Attachment theory would totally support the idea that it's crucial 
for the baby to  'get used to the really good thing'  - even 
if/especially if it does not last.

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