Medically fragile fostering in FL

Thank you for considering becoming a foster family, especially a medical home. There is a huge need for medical homes. Even though I am not familiar w/medical foster homes. I have previously asked my cw about how to go about it. You first have to licensed as a foster home, then take the specialized training for medically needy children. They may have special requirements for your home, handicap accessible or stay at home mom etc. I suggest calling your local foster care agency and they can set you up or provide you with all the information to become a medically needy foster home. Best of Luck.

I'm in NJ so I don't know how relevant my med. frag. fostering experience is in Florida but here's my two cents anyway: In NJ, we are licensed as foster parents and then take general specialized training for the most common health conditions (drug addiction, disease infection or exposure, nutrition, severe asthma, etc.). We also take training specific to the child placed with us and we must always hold a current CPR certification for infants and children. We are only allowed 10 hours of "alternate care" (babysitting, etc.) by a state licensed daycare with CPR certified staff or an individual who has first been cleared by our agency and is CPR certified. My husband and I both work full-time jobs so I work the day shift and my husband works the night****ft. Our baby goes to daycare for 2 hours per day Monday through Friday to facilitate our transition between jobs and she's with us one (or both) of us the rest of the time. We have found that we are the exception--most med. fragile foster parents in NJ are stay-at-home single parents or "older, retired women" in the words of one caseworker. We wouldn't change our situation for the world for many reasons. But pertaining to the rewards of fostering medically fragile children, the huge "payoff" is seeing a child thrive against all odds. Our baby is not only meeting but exceeding developmental benchmarks relative to her agegroup and that is reward in itself for the love, time and major lifestyle change we have invested. I would say the only negative is that my husband and I don't see each other as much and can't go on "dates" alone as we will exceed our 10 hour alternate care allotment. Traveling hasn't been a problem but of course we take our baby with us. If you would want the freedom to travel without your med. frag. child you would want to keep a good network of med. frag. foster parents around you as a resource for "vacation homes." Again, I'm not sure if any of this insight is helpful but wish you the best of luck in your journey. You sound like you'd be a fantastic candidate for this type of fostering and I assure you, you will reap a great reward. :) Jennifer

I am not a medical foster mom. We are going to foster "typical" babies. I do have a bio daughter whom is medically fragile. When we attended our classes they tried to talk us into being medical fosters. With the care my bio daughter needs it would be too much for us. I say if you are willing and able to go for it. It is A LOT of hard work and at times EMOTINALLY draining. All that being said, my daughter has taught me more than I ever learned from any teacher. She is amazing and being her mom is one of the most rewarding things I have ever done.