What would you do? - Babies switched?

[Makdyn]

If you enjoyed this movie...read Look Again by Lisa Scottoline. It's about a woman who gets one of those missing children flyers in her stack of mail. When she turns it over the face of her adopted 3 year old son is staring right at her. Excellent book...takes you through the emotions, thinking would I really call the authorities if I knew he/she may actually be this missing child?
That is one of my favorite reads.

I reading this now! I very much enjoying the book

 

[kidshop]

I always thought: If I have a child born in the hospital, I'd bring some type of indelible marker, dye or tattoo ink, the kind that can't be easily rubbed/washed off skin for several days, and as soon as the kid plopped out, mark him/her right away on the arm or thigh. Then I would keep re-marking the area through our entire stay.

Just as an aside, the hospital where my last was born in 2006 had a new system, where the baby (well baby, no issues) never left the room! They did all the checks right in there, everyone came to you for whatever it is they do with new babies. I'm one who likes that sort of thing, and I thought it was wonderful! They also taped some sort of sensor to her leg, along with 2 ID bracelets. I took her into the bathroom with me when I went as well. That one was not getting away!

 

[Kit'smommy]

I would want to gradually and gently transition each child into the correct home, over a period of a few months.

And then I'd ideally like to maintain a friendly relationship with the other family, so that each child ends up with something like a family and a stepfamily.

Before I had children of my own, I would have thought "family" was all about who's raised you, and I'd have voted for the babies staying where they are. But now that I've raised two teenagers, I can tell you that blood counts for a LOT.

Not to diminish adoption in any way, but I understand now why my best friend in highschool was so excited to get her medical records from her birth parents. She didn't feel any need or desire to "connect" with them, but it meant a lot to her - as a technology-minded girl growing up in a family full of artists and academics - to know that her father was a mechanic. She said suddenly she felt like her desires and talents made sense. She wasn't weird, she was just her father's daughter.

My children are a fascinating mix, not only of me and their dad, but also of their grandparents on both sides. It's really lovely to see echoes of their deceased grandfather in them, particularly my son, who seems to have got the larger dose of his father's side of the family.

So yeah... transition the children back. And hope like heck that the other family are decent folk.

I would want both children, but if that wasn't possible, I really think I would want my biological child.

I agree with this post above. My grandmother died nearly a decade before my son was born, but I see her constantly in his expressions. Also, one of my nephews could pass for DS's brother. The boys are 2 years apart and have had minimal contact until a year ago, but they are wired just alike. I have to say that blood counts for alot.

 

[JustCallMeMommy]

There is no acceptable answer. I think both families just need to move into a giant house where both children can have both families.

Honestly though, I question the plausibility of that even happening now. Not even considering foot prints and ID bracelets, I simply would have known if they brought me the wrong child. For the sake of argument, let's pretend that I had so much medication that I wasn't able to recognize my child, I have so many pictures of my child from moments after the birth until we went home that I feel certain the pictures would tell the story. Even if something had happened to one of the children that required the baby to be whisked out of the room immediately (which I would imagine happens occasionally, but really shouldn't happen frequently - there was a neonatologist in my room waiting for Alison because it was a high risk birth, and she was whisked a good 4 feet away in the same room), what are the chances that the same thing both babies were whisked away without the parents seeing them/taking pictures?

 

[JVL1018]

Uggghh, it hurts my heart to even think about it, but I look at both my kids and they are MY kids whether or not I gave birth to them.
I would want to keep the child I was raising, but be involved in the life of the other child. Ideally, I'd want them both, but odds are the other mom and dad wouldn't go for it.

I worried about this before I had my children, but they do put their ID on in the same room as the mom very shortly after the birth.
Plus for my added peace of mind, my daughter had to be delivered using a vacuum extractor so she had a round red scab on her head for a few days-made her stand out.
My son had folded down tops of his ears(which for some reason freaked me out because I thought I remembered reading that was a sign of something not good) so for both kids, I was always sure I had the right one.

 

[Robindianne]

My daughter in law and her sister played one of the switched girls in the Switched at Birth movie (each sister played her at diff ages) and cried to their parents for weeks afterward that they weren't sure they were their real daughters. Well, not really funny at the time because the girls really were terrified but they laugh about it now. (Bethany and Arianna Richards)

^The movie about the case that involved the girl who died from heart defect was called Switched at Birth. At the end of the movie the other girl who shown in the process of getting to know her biological family while still being with the dad who raised her. I have seen that movie several times and a friend read the book about the case and I read a few articles online and I saw a 20/20 segment about in the mid 90's. The case got extremely complicated over time. The biological parents of the other girl once said in an article that they wanted to change the girl's name to the name of the girl who died if they got custody and once they questioned about what they would have done if the girl they raised hadn't died and the mother replied that she would have kept that girl and filed for custody of her biological daughter and raised the girls as sisters. I remember seeing a 20/20 episode about the case and at the time the surviving girl was bouncing back and forth between families. Years later on CNN I saw a story about the girl's troubles as an adult in which she lost custody of her child and she had legal troubles due to drugs.

I have also seen the movie that the OP mentioned and it is very good. I thought since the boys were 2 they should have been switched back at first but later I liked the arrangment that came out in the end.

Books, TV shows and movies have tackled this subject and similar subjects and often time the children end missing the families that raised them. I think if the children are older like 10 or so I think they should remain with the families that raised him while getting to know their biological families.