With drawing baby

[maypole1]

Right ladies tell me all you know about babies tha are withdrawing from drugs never looked after this type of baby before and they have started putting the feelers out for me to have a week old baby

Thanks

I have a baby who was withdrawing when we got him from hospital at 5 days. If I can help, please ask.

Lots of high pitched crying and frequent feeds needed plus lots of carrying in a sling and cradling in arms.

Baby had terrible tremors in his limbs. If it had been his head shaking as well it would have looked like a gran mal seizure that's how severe it was. Heartbreaking to see.

The worst was over in a month and now he is 4 months and happy and healthy.

Think it depends on whether it is heroin or methadone. Methadone dependency has shorter effect

In haste, as usual x

Hi, we had a baby withdrawing late last year, she was very small and had a really high pitched scream, very jittery, strong sucking reflex, seemed to want to feed constantly but only small amounts (dummy really helped) and for the first few weeks she only slept for an hour (at the most) at a time.
We had to give her morphine, measured out and recorded every 4 hours, the morphine gave her costipation so she had more medicine for that.
I carried her in a sling almost constantly around the house as she seemed to get comfort from being held (swaddling worked well too)

She did really well and it was a joy to see her come through it all even though it broke are hearts at the time to see her in so much pain.

Hello

I am currently looking after a lo who was suffering from severe withdrawal (kept in hosp for two weeks on meds) but is now a bouncing happy healthy 8 month old!
The main things I noticed was a high pitched cry, jitters and projectile vomiting. Also a constant need to be comforted

The two things that I would recommend is that you get are a good sling (I used a moby wrap) and swaddles (I had the ones with the velcro) as this was the only way that lo would settle (albeit for short periods!)

This was my first placement, and although being terrified, we got through it and seeing the improvement in lo is worth all the effort!

I still have the swaddles if you would like them?

Good luck and let us know how you get on!

Thanks ladies I will invest in a sling

Do the baby sleeping bags help any ?

My lo would not sleep in a sleeping bag. They would only sleep when tightly swaddled.

I've had a few babies who were withdrawing and have to say the worst ever was one withdrawing from Methadone - far worse than the others who were withdrawing from Heroin or Cocaine (or both). Side effects also kept appearing long after I've seen before (12-16 months later and new behaviours would still appear). I was warned this is likely to continue for the rest of baby's life :(

I always swaddle them as babies - very, very tightly. I usually keep them away from bright lights and noises but latest baby actually preferred lights and noises! He also had a weakened sucking response - none at all at first - so be prepared to invest in different types of bottles. He eventually learnt to suck from those slightly squashed teats.

I think the best advice I was given was to buy ear plugs! Its much easier to sit cuddling squealing baby when the decibels are reduced. And the cries r e a l l y do get to you after a bit - they sound like little piglets!

Same with the swaddling. Also my fc was so tense you couldn't pry his arms from a clenched bent arm position and it was difficult to dry underarms and prevent soreness.