[potentialsinglemom]

Well folks I have entered a new territory. I picked up a 3 weeks old beautiful baby girl from the hospital who is heroin and methodone addicted. She has gorgeous dirty blonde hair and right now she has gray eyes. I am told they will change by the time she is 6 mos...I hope not.

But, WOW!!! I really don't know if I am the best person for her. I have had a total of 12 hours of sleep over a span of three days. I picked her up Sunday from the hospital. She was on morphine while detoxing in hospital. Now she is on another controlled drug to detox her from morphine.

I would love to hear from parents who are working outside the home and caring for infants with addictions. Did you have problems finding child care for them? I had to turn to Muscles' daycare workers for assistance. A Supervisor and an infant teacher have arranged their schedules to provide care in their home for her until she is 6wks old and can attend the daycare.

I wished I could stayed at home with her for the next two and a half weeks but my supervisor is acting like a "butt". I think he feels like I am abusing my leave, FMLA and abusing my excuse that it is about the children. Muscles and I are in a Doctor's office at least once a month because of his asthma or severe congestion.

Other questions that I have for the experienced moms are: do addicted babies tend to have the hiccups a lot? She has them at them twice a day and they frustrate her a lot.

Do these babies scratch themselve when irritated or do they look like they are swatting and grabbing at something?

I have so many questions, but I just start with the above few.

Thanks for reading.

[hermommy]

With my experience the babys have unvoluntary movement while detoxing. It is like a constant jerking with there arms and legs. Swaddler her and that should take away a lot of the frustration and she will be a little calmer. I would try to keep her from being over stimulated while still detoxing. One of my babies I could not make eye contact while she was eating, she needed to be in a dark room, with very light sound on. I bought a water fall thing and put beside her bed and ran that. She seemed to do really well with that. It gave me a few hours to catch a nap. After my babies were off the drug and through detox things got a lot easier. Congrats and Good luck

[cecegarrett]

The hiccups are a sign of iver stimulation in most cases of NAS. I would see the hiccups or coughing as a cue that she is getting too much sensory stim. She will feel much more comfortable if she is swaddled. Tight.

Newborns recovering from exposure and more so from addiction can only really do two things at once ie: swallow and breathe, control their bodies and breathe, poop and breathe... you see where I am headed here... SO in order to keep her comfy and eating well you need to help her control her body. That means the only time she really needs to not be wrapped tightly is when you are changing her or bathing her.

I know this sounds kind of mean and odd.. but this is my forte. 6 years in NICU. As the PP mentioned, eye contact is something you need to watch as well.. your first instinct is to bond and make eye contact asap. And that means you care. But, dim lights and passive attachment is the way to go right now. Slings ( I prefer the Moby Wrap) are an awesome way to swaddle her and passively attach while getting things done.

When I worked out of the home, fragile babies were my work. Now that I am a stay at home mom, I am just newly licensed for medically fragile babies... so I am of no use on that front.

Blessings to you!

If you need anything feel free to PM me.

[Mkap]

my neighbor recently had a 2 week old fs born addicted to heroine and methadone. They kept him in the hospital for 2 wks to help with his withdrawal. They had him on phenobarbital (sp?) to help symptoms. He was supposed to remain on the phenobarb for at least another month. He slept constantly as a result.

[mountaineermom]

I work outside the home and I had two infants at the same time that were detoxing. Well, one was a little older and not as bad, but the younger one spent 4 weeks in the hospital detoxing. FS was already off morphine when I brought him home, but he did the jerking and twiching a lot. The hiccups are probably from overstimulation. I would try to swaddle her tightly and that may help. All the movement is probably freaking her out. One of our therapists told me to lay them at the bottom of the bassinet so she can kick and push her feet up against the end of the bassinet, that helps too.
My daycare took him when he was 6 weeks.

[potentialsinglemom]

Thanks for responding.

She is on phenobarbital to help with her detox. She is supposed to be on it for three weeks.

Last night was great. She slept really well. I swaddled her in a thicker and larger blanket and propped her on a bobby pillow. She looked so comfortable and at peace. She was not grunting, crying, screeching or having spasms.

Thanks for the insight on the hiccups. I did not know that it meant they were overstimulated. I got to thinking about it and realized She has them in the car when the stereo is on and when the fan is on.

As far as the contact, she actually prefers lying with her face under my neck. I tried to put massage lotion on her, but that makes her scream, however, if I use nothing but my hands to massage her she is really calm. There is not much eye to eye contact, because she keeps them tightly closed.

Now, my next question is this... what should I expect to happen in three weeks when the phenobarb is taken away? How long did it take to detox your baby?

[gwenrenee007]

My current FS was in the hospital for almost 3 mo detoxing from methadone and he is now 4 mo. and is still on phenobab. I would watch for signs of withdrawal with the new baby. Read up on methadone withdrawal and infants. She should NOT be in pain, not sleeping or inconsolable if she is then she needs the phenobarb. Some hospitals who don't deal with addicted infants wean them too fast so if you feel like they are then you should try to find a doc who has more experience. My FS will be on phenobarb until he is at least 6 mo. and likely a year old. I agree with the swaddling and low stimulation for a while. At 4 mo. old my FS is an active alert VERY happy baby! I have never seen such a happy baby! Good luck and keep us posted

[athikers]

My daughter appeared like she was having seizures when she was detoxing... she was all tremors and agitation. She was detoxing at 4 months old though... after her mom routinely gave her an OD of an allergy med to make her sleep. So her detox might be different from an newborn, idk. My daughters was also relatively short... just a week or so.

[potentialsinglemom]

Originally Posted by athikers

She was detoxing at 4 months old though... after her mom routinely gave her an OD of an allergy med to make her sleep.

OMG, she had to withdraw from allergy meds??? I always said that the things I read here can be a best seller. You just can not make this stuff up.

I hope she is doing well.

[myForeverkids3]

Originally Posted by potentialsinglemom

Thanks for responding.

She is on phenobarbital to help with her detox. She is supposed to be on it for three weeks.

Last night was great. She slept really well. I swaddled her in a thicker and larger blanket and propped her on a bobby pillow. She looked so comfortable and at peace. She was not grunting, crying, screeching or having spasms.

Thanks for the insight on the hiccups. I did not know that it meant they were overstimulated. I got to thinking about it and realized She has them in the car when the stereo is on and when the fan is on.

As far as the contact, she actually prefers lying with her face under my neck. I tried to put massage lotion on her, but that makes her scream, however, if I use nothing but my hands to massage her she is really calm. There is not much eye to eye contact, because she keeps them tightly closed.

Now, my next question is this... what should I expect to happen in three weeks when the phenobarb is taken away? How long did it take to detox your baby?

My DD was also 14 wks premie so she didn't come home until 3 months old. BUT, the phenobarb and opiates for withdrawl were slowly weened and she was off all of them by 8 weeks old. After that, you would not have known she was ever addicted. I WOULD NOT have felt comfortable having her detox at home though. It was too scary. Be in constant communication with her Dr. and ask any and all ?s that you have.
She also loved being swaddled and carried around in a sling until about 7 months old! She is the happiest most active baby on the planet. I can only describe her as pure joy!

[RNFosterMom]

We've had the recent experience of helping a little one wean from heroin & methadone -- I've written about it on this board several times. Please feel free to look at my previous posts or PM me for more information. (I don't want to bore everyone else by writing about it all again.)

Long story short, I recommend getting a pediatric pain & palliative care service involved if the baby is having withdrawal symptoms. Your pediatrician can refer you. They helped our little one and it made a world of difference. Like a previous poster said -- if they're having symptoms, they need something to manage them. The goal of therapy for these babies is no withdrawal symptoms at all, so that they can focus on their jobs of being normal growing babies.

Good luck. You'll need it!