Comments | little_details: Meth babies and NICU care.

velkoria in little_details

Meth babies and NICU care.

Jul 12, 2012 12:16

I have a few questions about a baby who would be born to an addicted mother (probably heroin and methamphetamine) that was born a couple of weeks early after the mother was beaten. The mother delivered the premie via c-section and later on died. How long would the child be in the NICU and what would be some of the things that may be affecting him ( Read more... )

~medicine: drugs, usa: health care and hospitals, ~recreational drugs, ~custody & social services

Comments 8

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velkoria July 12 2012, 19:21:59 UTC

This is perfect, thank you!

I am still not 100 percent sure where the setting would be but definitely somewhere in the US. What if they can find the biological father while the baby is still in the hospital. In the story the father is a well known celebrity and also ex junkie (he has been sober for months) and the mother does have family. If someone was able to figure out who the father was before the baby was released from the hospital then he'd be the first one the child would go to, right? The way I had it was that the mother wasn't sure but left three names of men that could be the father (she was an aspiring model) in a journal. After they find her beaten and then died of the wounds it would be ruled a homicide and the diary could be searched as evidence, right?

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velkoria July 12 2012, 20:28:51 UTC

You are AMAZING! Okay so from reading I was definitely going to go with New York ( ... )

praysolace July 12 2012, 19:16:00 UTC

Babies born to addict mothers are also addicted when they are born, yes. The baby would be going through withdrawal. However, a couple of weeks isn't that premature, so he'd only need to be in the hospital for as long as it takes to get him through the withdrawal, which should be one to two months. They'd put him on methadone and then gradually wean him off it.

Afterwards, the baby would be very irritable, want to suck a lot, and want to be held for comfort. It would take somebody with a lot of patience and a lot of time to take care of him. As for other possible problems, learning disabilities are quite likely as he gets a little older, ADD in particular. Such children statistically also tend to have more addiction problems later in life. There shouldn't be any visible signs, though, just behavioural.

Source: My mother is a NICU nurse, and I asked her :)

velkoria July 12 2012, 19:23:12 UTC

Perfect, the time line adds up perfectly for me. And yes, I am planning for him to eventually follow his parents footsteps and become an addict later in life.

Thank you so much this helps heaps!

praysolace July 12 2012, 23:25:07 UTC

I'm glad :)

siderea July 13 2012, 05:54:44 UTC

The search terms you are looking for are "neonate" "preterm" and "Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome methamphetamine". Lots of good stuff out there in Google Scholar. Be aware, there are two classes of medical problem secondary to neonatal intoxication: withdrawal (or even intoxication for some longer-lasting drugs) and developmental effects. But in addition to that, infants with NAS often have other problems due to terrible prenatal care. Addicts aren't necessarily so hot at keeping their ob/gyn appointments, you know?

Methadone is a treatment for opioid addiction, not methamphetamine addiction. I've never heard it used for methamphetamine dependence -- methamphetamine is a different class of drug than opioids. I'm a therapist who does court-mandated substance abuse treatment. I don't know for children, I treat adults, and often enough parents whose kids have been taken by protective services ( ... )

evila_elf July 13 2012, 07:55:41 UTC

I watched part of this special on TV about babies being born with addiction. An additional fact: Mothers who become pregnant while addicted to drugs are encouraged to continue using, because stopping will also trigger withdrawal symptoms for the fetus.

And I second the 1-2 months in the hospital as mentioned above.

anonymous July 26 2012, 18:38:45 UTC

my step-daughter was born to a mother who used methamphetamines and herion throughout her entire pregnancy as well as alcohol, cigarettes and marijuana. We have had her since she was a month and a half old. When she was an infant we had problems with bronchitis and were constantly fighting upper respiratory problems, however, that seemed to be the only problems. Now she is a year old and her behavior is off the charts. Its almost like she has a personality disorder, she will be happy one minute and extremely angry the next. I have never seen a baby act this way, i always thought they acted how they were taught, but she was definately not taught this, and is not exposed to any kind of violence, she is a very violent baby ( if you could imagine such a thing). The constant screaming and fit throwing are getting to be too much to handle, i try positive reinforcement and time outs, all the things that worked with my older children, but nothing works, the little girl will just get extremely angry out of nowhere. Any ideas on what I can do ( ... )