Frequently
Asked Questions
How long will it
take to withdraw my baby from the drugs he was exposed
to?
That will totally
depend on your baby. The average time is usually between
30 to 60 days.
Can I withdraw my
own baby?
Caring for a baby through this period can be very
challenging even for those that are trained to do so.
Caring for your baby at home and having the ability to
keep him in a low stimulus environment 24 hours a day
while offering him the support he needs would be
extremely hard. If your baby requires medicinal support,
he will need professional medical help to get him safely
through this process. Without this, your baby is at risk
of a seizure or stroke if not managed correctly.
Do you recommend
breast-feeding for a baby prenatally exposed to the
mother's substance abuse?
Absolutely not! Why
would anyone intentionally offer a baby heroin, cocaine
or methamphetamines, methadone or any other dangerous
drug? To think that these drugs do not pass through the
breast milk to the baby is wrong! Cocaine, for instance
passes through the breast milk at a much more
concentrated rate than in utero. To encourage a mother
on drugs to breast feed is allowing her baby to ingest
drugs.
What will my baby
be like when he is through his withdrawals?
With the proper
structure and parenting, your baby should do well. You,
as a parent, now are the make or break factor in your
child's life and learned behaviors. Drug exposure in
utero is not an excuse for a child's negative behavior.
Stimuli will be your child's greatest challenge in life;
therefore, early in his life, the parent must introduce
stimuli slowly and on a regular basis so the child can
do well.
Is my baby going
to have learning problems as he grows?
Not necessarily.
Compare the long
term effects.
In regards to illegal
drugs, there does not have to be any long term problems
if the caregiver possess good parenting skills. Offering
the child structure, continuity, parameters and
boundaries along with introducing stimuli (light, sound
, touch, etc.) slowly, these children are going to do
very well. Without this, yes, there may be residual
effects, but this is not the effect of the drug but the
result of the assigned caregiver. Please remember in
most cases the caregiver is the make or break factor
whether or not there is drug involvement or not.
Could my baby have
some deformities/retardation from my drug use?
If you are talking
just about street drug use, we have not seen this happen
to any of our babies at the Pediatric Interim Care
Center. If your baby was premature and had medical
problems due to prematurity and you were taking drugs,
then yes, drugs may have caused the early birth, but not
the problems identified with a neonate. If you are
talking about alcohol, than that is a different story.
Alcohol has entirely different effects on a baby.
Can you tell me
what my baby will be like since I am on methadone?
No, I can tell you
common symptoms (see
"methadone") but no one knows what your baby is
going to be like until he is born.
Is my baby going
to need to be on medication for methadone withdrawal?
The Doctor will not
know this until after the first 24-48 hours of life.
My sister is using
cocaine. Is her baby going to have tremors and be hard
to manage?
A baby with this exposure (see
"cocaine") does not have tremors and is not
irritable but does have problems that you need to be
aware of:
- Generally small for
gestational age.
- Doesn't wake to feed.
- Generally can not eat more than an ounce at a time.
- At risk for dehydration due to feeding problems
- At risk for failure to thrive. |
