The Swedish guardianship authorities removed their own daughter from the Russian family after the girl's parents showed her to doctors from Russia. An unusual case is reported by Izvestia. The baby's parents had to seek advice from Russian specialists after Swedish doctors repeatedly refused them to examine the child. After the Stockholm social security learned that the mother had shown the girl to doctors in her native Cherepovets, the guardianship authorities and the police visited the family and took the baby away. The Russian Embassy in Sweden, as well as the Russian ombudsman for the rights of the child, have already learned about the situation.
Didn't swing for a long time
A Swedish doctor lodged a complaint with the authorities about the actions of the girl's parents. He had previously examined the child and found no serious cause for concern, but Russian experts concluded that the girl's intestinal infection was associated with intolerance to milk protein. The child's mother showed the Swedish doctor the results of tests done in Russia, from which the doctor concluded that the woman was overly worried about her daughter's health. This behavior, according to the expert, was the reason for the development of depression in a one-year-old child. The result of the proceedings was the decision of the family court to remove the girl from the family.
Without carrying out any examinations, Swedish doctors revealed in the Russian woman "delegated Münghausen syndrome" - a disorder in which a parent overprotects the child and invents various diseases for him in order to further strengthen the care. The guardianship authorities reacted immediately: the parents were given only five minutes to collect the child.
In an interview with the publication, the girl's mother Elena Shishkina said that in four months the family turned to Swedish doctors 12 times. According to the mother of the child, her daughter is lactose and milk protein intolerant. The doctors, in turn, convinced the mother that the child was refusing to eat because the woman was upset. According to the Russian woman, the social service independently identified depression in a one-year-old child.
Now the girl lives in a social center. The parents were initially promised to allow visits with their daughter once a week, but then they were offered to hold meetings once every three weeks, to which the couple did not agree. The father of the child, to whom the guardianship had no complaints, could not obtain permission to leave his daughter with him. The girl's mother fears that the weaning of the child was carried out not for his protection, but for other purposes - for example, to give up for adoption to another family. According to the woman, social services are not considering any of the options offered by the parents. “Children at this age quickly forget their parents, so they need to keep Lisa at home,” Shishkina suggested.
Payback for Doubt
The child was born in Sweden, and the girl's parents have dual citizenship. The couple have another child who remained to live in Cherepovets. The coordinator of the movement "Russian Mothers" Irina Bergset told the newspaper that the family is considered to be prosperous - the parents work and have their own living space.
At some point, Shishkina noticed that her daughter began to have serious intestinal problems, and it was not about ordinary colic. The worried woman decided to get tested in Russia, while there was no question of any specific treatment, which was not necessary. The opinion was given by a Russian professor, Doctor of Medicine. According to Bergset, Swedish doctors considered this behavior of the mother a distrust of the country's health care system.
At the meeting, at which the fate of the child was decided, the parents were not present. The girl is now in a shelter at an unknown address. The children's ombudsman Anna Kuznetsova is examining the case, she asked the consulate to assist in resolving this situation.
As noted by Bergset, Swedish documents indicate that the mother's appeal to Russian specialists led to the development of depression in the girl. The consulate has already expressed its readiness to attend such meetings, since children of this age are in high demand among adoptive parents.
Prove that you are a good parent
This case is far from the only one when children from Russian families are removed in Sweden. In 2019 alone, 324 such decisions were made - all these children between the ages of 0 and 18 were promptly sent to orphanages. The likelihood of the child returning to the family, if the Scandinavian guardianship authorities take over, is unlikely. Nevertheless, the chances of reuniting with the family still persist and even increase if the case is made public, as happened in the case of daughter Shishkina.
Bergset noted that the withdrawn girl was again fed with dairy products, and this could lead to serious health problems. At the same time, as a rule, Swedish social services try to place a child in a new family almost immediately after removal. The interest of the adoptive parents can also be understood - subsidies from the state are so great that children in orphanages do not stay long. It is possible to remove a child from his own family, according to Bergset, for any trifle - the smell of a pet in the apartment, unwashed dishes, slight mess, and so on.
The chairman of the National Parents' Committee, Irina Volynets, told Izvestia that it is in the Scandinavian countries that juvenile justice is very tough. As Volynets noted, if in Russia it is necessary to prove that the parent is behaving in an inappropriate manner, after which the child can be removed, then in Sweden the opposite is true - the family must prove that it can raise its own child. According to the expert, Russians should take these points into account even when planning a family vacation in Scandinavia. In the event that others perceive the actions of the parents as threatening the child, they simply will not be released back. If the parents show excessive persistence, the child may be taken to an unknown place and not inform the family of his whereabouts, forbidding all communication.
Foster families, to which the seized children are sent, receive significant subsidies for their maintenance - 300-500 euros per day. In addition, in Sweden, there is a practice of transferring seized children between foster families - this is done so that the child does not have time to become too attached to new parents. The chairman of the committee explained that strong attachment to the mother is not very welcomed in the Swedish mentality, which this approach to adoption fights against.