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[therahedwig]

Right now when a baby survives the death of it's mother, nobody will take care of it. That's because dwarves aren't capable of that kind of thing yet and it requires the AI to be reworked.

So I was thinking, taking care of patients is within the capabilities of dwarves. And all babies need is food, drink and sleep. So why not treat orphaned babies as patients for the hospital? That way they'll be taken care of by the dwarves and they may grow up to become children.

Of course, ideally the dwarves should be taking care properly of the children, but I think this is a good quickfix for the missing functionality.

(Currently has a baby dwarf run around in her fortress that had it's miner-mom die of a how-do-ramps-work mining snafu, combined with omg-so-many-dwarves-I-didn't-realise-they-were-trapped-until-long-after-I-designate-their-memorials-to-be-build-oh-fuck-baby. I named him 'Killer', Killer was born in granite and it's summer in my game, so he won't make it due to lack of food and drink)

[GreatWyrmGold]

The idea of using an already-extant system to fix a long-standing bug? Excellent idea, sir, I salute you!

That said...there's not a lot I can add, except maybe a bit of wonder of the possibility of a "nursery" activity zone, rather than using the current hospital zone, and perhaps some thoughts about other circumstances in which a mother dwarf might leave her infant in a nursery, like during combat. And, by describing what I might add, I have added it, so...um...

[Maklak]

Or have a random female pick up and 'adopt' the baby.

[Silverionmox]

Give them the very effective adoption mechanism kittens used to have. If that doesn't work, nothing does.

[therahedwig]

Or have a random female pick up and 'adopt' the baby.

Well, now that your fort actually consists of proper families with the migrants migrating as families, ideally, the family would take over. Actual orphaned babies are a rarity. But right now dwarves can't think like that yet.

There's a lot that could be suggested in the category of childcare: nurseries, toys being used, skill gain from said toys, schooling, games, celebrating birthdays, adoption, proper succesion, inheritance, etc. What I'm mostly looking for is a catch-all for the orphaned babies.

Right now they just die from starvation, which is kinda sad and actually a little disturbing. Personally, I even find it a little more disturbing than having thriving leather and food industries with only kittens.

[Corai]

Dwarves already adopt, but they must be the children of a friend for them to do it. Unless they changed it from 31.

[therahedwig]

It does?

I just checked the wiki, it makes no mention of babies being adopted. However, it does mention that babies will be fed and watered if their mother is hospitalised and they're left to their own devices. I haven't ever seen that, but I haven't played df in a while. Can anyone confirm that?

[Corai]

Read a few community stories, they wont carry them, but they will feed and give them drinks. And add them as a child on there relations.

[Uristocrat]

Actually, rather than having mothers carry them around, leaving babies in the hospital (if one exists) would make a lot of sense.  And if there is no hospital, they should leave them in a bed they own, or barring that, some barracks and carry them around mostly as a last resort.

Then again, a number of players like using babies as shields....

[Silverionmox]

Dumping babies in daycare is very 20th century. Adoption is the way to go, especially in such small communities. If there are groups that practice charity, they might qualify too.

[Mr. Palau]

Or have a random female pick up and 'adopt' the baby.

Actual orphaned babies are a rarity.

Well If you consider Dwarven mortality rates...

[nanomage]

Medical history of Urist McDontdiemammy.

1st Granite.
                     Brought to rest in bed.               Urist McOrphanHauler.
2st Granite
                     Evaluated. Diagnosed with severe form of childhood. Urist McHouse

[white_darkness]

While we're at it, could some form of menopause be added in as well?

I already had a prior .34.xx experience where a dwarf gave birth, then died of old age a few months later.

The baby crawled around the fort alone and abandoned by his father and siblings until a month before his birthday he succumbed to either starvation or dehydration (don't remember which).  I was rooting for the little sucker to grow to childhood and dash off for food and drink and he didn't make it... 

[Corai]

Well, I cant believe noone as said it yet...

So babies will have there livers removed because there orphans? +1

[nanomage]

Well yeah diagnostic errors would be hillarous. 
However, that offers an easy way to train your diagnostician's skill while never risking any even remotely potentially useful dwarf.