Just to introduce myself after a long absence from Lactnet - my name is
Wendy Holmes, I live in Melbourne Australia, I'm a doctor working in
Aboriginal community health, including breastfeeding promotion.

An experience that I had a couple of years ago may be relevant to
the woman who hopes to breastfeed the baby she will adopt in China.

While in Changsha in Hunan province I stayed in the same hotel as a group
of Americans who were adopting babies that had been abandoned.  I became
friendly with one woman who was anticipating the arrival of her baby
with as much excitement as any expectant mother.  She had a picture of
the baby and had been told that she was three months old.  When she
arrived she seemed to be older but it
was difficult to accurately assess the age of the baby because she
was stunted from poor nutrition.  With good care she grew very rapidly
over the next few months and it became apparent that she was about 8
months at the time of adoption.

The other important point was that the baby had a number of health
problems - diarrhoea, scabies, eczema and thrush.  Fortunately I had some
oral rehydration salts, aqueous cream, cotrimazole cream, and some
scabies treatment with me, so she was soon better.

My advice would be to take a range of similar simple medications to China
when
the baby is to be adopted, and to wait to introduce breastfeeding until
new mother and baby are home and the child is well.  Staying in a hotel,
with a group of other new and very anxious parents, in an unfamiliar
country, in an emotionally charged atmosphere, would not be
conducive to success.

This mother has sent me a card each Christmas since, and her daughter
is developing beautifully!