If you’re thinking about fostering babies, you might have preconceived ideas about what that will look like. Perhaps you’re imagining welcoming one baby into your home and providing them nothing but love and newborn care. Maybe you believe that this is the best way to help a foster child because you’ll be giving them a chance to have a good life before they experience the trauma older children in care may already have.
The problem is that quite often, there is a big difference between what people believe fostering babies entails and what it actually does. From what ages are considered babies and types of baby fostering to busting common myths about welcoming a newborn home, our latest blog will help you understand the realities of providing this kind of foster care.
Can you foster a baby?
Yes, you can foster a baby. However, there are a few things to consider. For a start, what you think a baby is and what’s considered a baby in foster care might not quite marry up.
In most circumstances, children in care between 0 and 3 years are ‘babies’, including here at FCA Scotland. In fact, figures reveal that in 2024, 14% of children who entered care in Scotland were under 1, and 18% were 1 to 4 years.
This means that the majority of children who enter care are not ‘babies’. And when they are, they are more likely to be fostered alongside their siblings or as part of parent and child arrangements (also known as mother and baby fostering) than on their own.
As a result, if you decide that you only want to foster babies, you could be waiting longer to match with a child and are likely to experience more gaps between placements. However, if you’re open to fostering a baby alongside their brothers and sisters or have the skills to welcome a parent and child into your home, you are more likely to be matched with a baby.
Types of baby fostering
If you’re thinking about fostering babies, it’s important to be aware of the most common types of baby foster care, so you’re fully informed and know what to expect. These include:
- Emergency: If a baby is identified as being at ‘immediate risk’, they’ll be placed in emergency foster care while the local authority completes their investigations, assessments and decides on the next steps for the baby’s care. Emergency foster care typically happens at very short notice and lasts for a few nights.
- Interim: Also known as short-term foster care, babies are often cared for in interim fostering placements, which can last from a few weeks up to two years. Interim foster care is a temporary arrangement while long-term plans are made for the baby’s care, which could be returning to their birth families, living with relatives, or adoption.
- Sibling: Often, babies who move into care have siblings, and we do our best to keep brothers and sisters together wherever possible because it can have a positive impact on each child’s well-being. Siblings can be fostered in emergency, short-term, or long-term foster care arrangements.
- Parent and baby: Foster carers welcome a mother, father or both parents into the home alongside their baby or young child. They help parents learn the essential skills needed to care for their child on their own. It also prevents mothers and fathers from being separated from their infants while their parenting skills are assessed.
As you see, baby fostering is typically a short-term arrangement unless an infant is fostered alongside their siblings in a long-term foster home. This means that if you do want to foster a baby, you’ll need to be okay with saying ‘goodbye’ when they’re still quite young, unless you open your home to their brothers and sisters too.
Busting myths about baby fostering
There are quite a few misconceptions about baby fostering, so we’ve busted these below.
Myth: Babies are ‘easier’
Some people think that fostering a baby is easier, believing that they won’t have trauma or complex needs because they were too young for their early experiences to leave an impact.
However, that’s not actually the case at all. In reality, babies can also have complex needs, but they may not have yet shown signs or received a diagnosis. It then may become part of your role to advocate for the baby if you begin to see signs of FASD, neurodiversity or developmental delays.
When you foster an older child, complex needs are often already known, and professionals involved in their care will help you support them.
Myth: You can adopt a baby you foster
While sometimes foster carers can adopt babies, such as in foster-to-adopt placements, the primary goal of fostering is for children to return to their birth families.
Statistics show that in 2024, only 5% of children who left care in Scotland were adopted, whereas 45% went home to their parents.
If you do want to adopt a baby you foster, the courts will need to decide whether it is in the child’s best interests, and you’ll also have to complete the adoption process.
If you think you’ll struggle to say ‘goodbye’ to a child, regardless of their age, long-term fostering a sibling group or older child could be the best route for you. They’ll stay with you until they’re 18, and sometimes longer, with a Continuing Care agreement, which means they’ll truly become part of the family.
Myth: You’ll need less training and support
Whether you foster a baby or an older child, you’ll still need to complete the same amount of training and will need a high level of support; that support may just differ slightly depending on a child’s age and needs.
The good news is that when you foster with FCA Scotland, you’ll receive training and support tailored to your needs and whatever challenge you face. You’ll also have plenty of opportunities to build connections with other foster carers in your local area, and we organise activities and events for your whole family to enjoy.
If you’re worried about an older child having complex behavioural, emotional, or social needs, we provide training that will help you support them, and we’ll be by your side every step of the way.
Myth: You’ll receive the same income
As a foster carer with us here at FCA Scotland, you’ll receive a generous fostering allowance that’s way above recommendations from the Fostering Network. However, because costs are generally lower for children aged 0 – 4, your fostering allowance will be a slightly smaller amount when you foster a baby than when you foster an older child.
You’re also more likely to wait longer to be matched with an infant and experience big gaps between caring for a child, where you won’t receive a fostering allowance, because fostering a baby alone is a lot less common than our other types of fostering.
However, when you foster siblings, older children, or parents and their infant, it will be easier to match you with the right child because your preferences won’t be so narrow, and there are more children in these particular categories than in the lone baby category.
Myth: Fostering babies is more rewarding
One common misconception about fostering is that you can make more of a difference when you foster a baby than when you foster an older child.
This is far from the truth. It doesn’t matter how old your foster child is, whether they’re three, 13, or close to leaving care, you’ll make a huge difference.
When you provide a child who’s had a difficult start to life with a safe, stable, and loving home, you can truly transform their lives and change the trajectory of their futures. You give them the chance to have the childhood they deserve and to work towards their dreams, just like any other child.
Foster carers tell us that helping a child who has been let down learn to trust again, have fun again, and simply smile again are the most rewarding aspects of fostering.
Older children need you too
Babies aren’t the only ones who need your patience, love, and support. In 2024, 68% of children who entered care in Scotland were 5 years or older. These children have often experienced disruption, loss, and grief. But with you by their side, you can make a real difference to their outcomes.
From helping them feel like they finally belong and giving them the stability to do well at school to guiding them on their healing journey and becoming the family they’ve always wanted, older children need you, too.
Are you ready to change a child’s life?
If you think you have what it takes to turn a child’s life around, we’d love to hear from you. Call us on 0141 646 4805 or submit your details via our enquiry form to learn more about becoming a foster carer at FCA Scotland.
