Any new advice for a drug dependant baby????

[Minnerva]

Hello all,

I have just been asked to take a 4 day old baby-mum is on methadone but continued to take heroin and cocaine whilst pregnant.Baby is showing few signs of withdrawal right now(acording to sw) but then I suppose she wouldn't be as mum is breastfeeding at the mo.SW said that she has a bit of a cold and cough and is drawing her knees up to her chest a noticeable amount-this sounds like withdrawal to me but as I have no experience what to I know!!.
I suppose when baby arrives and is no longer breastfed is when the problems may start big time for the lo so any tips or advice would be gratefully received.

Many thanks
Minnerva x

Look here for earthmotherimnot, she looking after a drug dependent baby.

The baby may be very jerky and cry a lot in a high pitched way, baby may have trouble feeding either overfeeding trying compensate withdrawel or nor being able to coordinate sucking swallowing and be very tongue-ie.

Baby may have nappy rash and have very sensitive skin. Baby may try to avoid eye contact and be unusaully stiff. swaddling can really help and minamising external stimulation, ie feed in dark and quiet room.

Also keeping to regular routine instead of going with the flow.

Also need to remember that none of this may happen and baby may be fine becuase as you know all babies are indervidual.

Hi Minerva, sorry only just noticed your op.

By 4 days old baby would be showing very noticable signs of withdrawal but, as you say if mum is breastfeeding that may be easing any symptoms.

As far as I'm aware the amount of drug that actually reaches baby via breastmilk is miniscule.

The drawing up of the legs may simply be colic as it turned out to be with our lo and giving Infacol eased this for us.

Main things to look out for are baby will shake as though freezing cold, they scream unlike "normal" babies, very high pitched screams that go on for ages and can't be soothed.

Some babies sweat a lot and feed very quickly, almost frantically.

The hospital where baby was born should have determined if baby needs medication before it comes to you.

Please let me know if I can help any more.

Good luck

Thank you for your swift and helpful replies.
I am off to collect her today from the hospital-mum apparently is a lovely person so I am dreading taking the baby from her-I cannot imagine anything harder than handing your baby over to someone that you have never met before.
I have a list of questions to ask the hospital sw and and hopefully she can answer them.
I will buy some Infacol just in case EMIN-thanks for the tip.
SUMUM-also a helpful tip-I will try to feed in a quiet room so little or no stimulation is around.
Wish me luck...........

Good luck.

Whenever I read threads like this, I am always, always overwhelmed with sad feelings for the mother.

I am not saying that you looking after the baby isn't for the best, or that it's right for the baby.

But, it's just so sad that her baby wasn't a powerful enough incentive to be able to beat the drugs

I hope that she is able to find the strength to get / accept help and hopefully have a relationship with her baby.

Good luck for today, collecting from the mother is always hard but it is useful to meet her so early on.

Remember to take photos of mum and baby in hospital and send some to mum later, these photos are invaluable for life story work whatever the childs future.

Sometimes a little gift for mum to take home can ease the parting, toiletries or teddy or chocs.

Do you need to take clothes for baby if unsure take some discretly in your bag incase mum has nothing.

And please let us know how you get on.

One other thing babies like this often like is movement, sometimes just holding is not enough and they crave movement, so sling and dnacing/walking helps as does walks in pram (but no stopping for a coffee!) and in the house a wind up baby swing can really help.

Hope today goes well.

Good advice from sumum

Our lo has come on leaps and bounds since coming off the Oramorph medication and we found that swaddling helped the jumpiness as well as snuggling her up on my (ample) chest with her head under my chin.

Another big help was a bouncy chair which vibrates. I sit with my feet on the leg parts and gently rock the chair.

As sumum says please let us know how you get on.

Hows it going Minnerva?

Hello all,

The pick up was delayed until tomorrow for various reasons-they also wanted to monitor her in the SCBU for signs of withdrawal for a period of time.I received a call this morning from her sw and she told me that she is dispaying fewer signs than they thought and would be able to be discharged on Friday morning.

Your advice has been very welcome and I feel a little more confident looking after the lo as I know that you fab mumsnetters support eachother and pass on any knowledge that you can.

EMIN-hope that you don't mind another question-is it normal to test babies for HIV if mum has used drugs during pregnancy?
Do the hospital give you written details of the withdrawal programme that baby is on?
Is the medication given orally with a dropper ( for some reason this is the image that I have in my head).

Thanks again for the support in replying to my post-I will let you know how things proceed.

Minnerva xx

Not at all Minnerva, ask any questions you like and I'll do my best to answer.

I would have thought, but I don't know for certain, that if mum injected drugs, HIV testing makes sense.

Our hospital didn't give me anything except an emergency telephone number for if I had any worries

The medication is given orally as you describe and I learned from a nurse in SCUB that they give the drug by drawing up the correct dose in the syringe then put a bottle teat in baby's mouth and "inject" the full dose into the teat so baby can suck it through a teat.

Apparently, this helps to prevent baby spitting the drug, which I'm told tastes revolting, out again.

If baby is showing fewer signs today it looks positive to me. Fingers crossed for you and baby.

Girl or boy by the way?

how is it going Minnerva? Have you got the lo one yet?

In our area they test all lo's for all blood born viruses if they are high risk and maternal drug use would be classed as high risk, but mum does need to give permission and it is usually doen after a few weeks here. Baby would be at high risk of hep b too and your gp can advise how best to protect yourself.

In our area they do not medicate babies only in extreme cases (I have never come across one) so have no experience of that. But have read EMIN thread and she is doing a fab job with her lo. I am new to mn but have been a fc for a very long time. There is also a special drugs worker midwife in our area who we can call on if neeeded so perhaps you can ask what support they offer where you are.

Is the baby prem or born at term? sometimes their behavoiur will be different due to their maturity.

Hope today goes well and good luck.

I am dumbfounded that a hospital is sending a baby home with you without any kind of information about this baby's potential needs and condition. Really aghast. Here's a linkfrom the US with some info and a general idea of hosp practices there. The baby should be tested for Hep B as well as HIV if there has been needle use by the mother.

Any news Minnerva (nosy emoticon)

mathanxiety.... All foster carers in our area are asked to take a course on caring for drug dependent babies. We are expected to update this course every few years.

Of course, as I found, a course bears no resemblance to doing the real thing

Hello,

Sorry for the delay in replying,I am writing this with one hand as they other is holding the liitle one!

She is an absolute delight but incredibly hard work!Luckily dh is not at work on the weekends and has been able to help out so that I can sleep a bit.

I collected her from the hospital on Friday afternoon but understandably mum couldn't bring herself to hand her over to me so it was lo social worker who met me.They told me that she is not on any medication ad that as mum had stopped breastfeeding her on Wednesday she hadn't anything in her system since then.They told me that she was deaf in one ear but her other had responded to tests.Isigned a piece of paper and left-holding a baby for the first time in 14 years which was odd to say the least...

She is a slow feeder and doesn't ever take the full 90mls but improves a bit every feed.She is incredibly restless and sleeps fitfully seemingly woken by spasms at intervals.She has basically slept across the upper half of my body since she arrived hearing side down so that she can hear my heartbeat.I have carried her everywhere to hopefully give her a sense of security-if that's possible.

I bathed her yesterday and she is red raw under her armpit-looks like she has not been dried properly-it smells a liitle cheesy too so I will have to pay special attention to that area.

I will have to leave now as she is becoming restless but I will return later to finish off.

EMIN any thoughts or advice on what I have written so far-all opinions gratefully received!

Minnerva xx

Sounds like you are doing a great job.
make sure you get the rest you need too, take any offers of help.

Sometimes a different bottle/teat helps, what bottles are you using?, often narrow neck bottles with long thin teats help. If feeding is really hard then there is a new special needs bottle on the market but i have not tried it, looks good though.

Babies like this often miss out on bonding time because they are so uncomfortable so try and hold and interact with her whenever she seems alert and responsive.

I think the under arm thing can happen to lots of babies but perhaps her arms are stiff and so difficult to lift properly to wash, a bit of sudocrem should sort it.

Good luck and well done so far keep us updated.

Hi Minnerva, oh lucky you not to have to administer medicine, I found that an awesome responsibility.

How much does she weigh? was she born full term?

I found that our lo loved being swaddled quite tightly, it seemed to ease the jerky fitfullness quite a lot.

The redness under her arm I would lightly apply something like Bepantham nappy cream, if that doesn't help it may be a thrush type rash and she may need anti-biotics.

Also try some fast flow teats on the bottles, it may be that sucking is hard work for her.

Good luck sounds like you're doing great already, well done

Whoah-a full nights sleep (woke only once to feed and be changed) -I feel on top of the world this morning-dh managed to get her to sleep in her moses basket through sheer willpower and determination!!

She is a tiny scrap of a thing not even 5 and a half pounds and she was full term.We have changed the teats on the bottles and it doesn't seem to make any real differnece unfortunately.I am taking her to the hospital tomorrow for a bit of a check up so we will see what they say..........

She is off in an bit for her first contact meeting with mum since she was discharged-I hope she isn't too distressed by the journey-I do feel terribly sorry for mum it must awful.

Still feeding erratically so I am trying to feed her more often so that she gets the calories down her-she is sooooooo tiny.I told my youngest yesterday that she weighs half as much at 11 days old as he did at birth.No wonder I remember it as painful

LO is a true inspiration and is managing all by herself to do what millions of adults around the world say is too horrible-go cold turkey.She has had the worst stuff that you can imagine pumped into her body and without sounding too harsh is a perfect message as to why you should say NO to any sort of drugs.That may sound extreme but believe me if you were looking into her eyes you would think the same thing.

Minnerva
xx

at your full nights sleep, lo is 9 weeks here and we are lucky if we get 3 hours straight sleep.

I know what you mean about about the drug withdrawal though, it,s the most awful thing for a tiny scrap to suffer through.

I have found though with our previously tiny lo that because they are so very small they seem to grow before your eyes, lo is over 9lbs now and looks like a real baby IYKWIM. That translucent look of her skin has gone and she has chubby little cheeks