New Page 1

Baby Sarah came into the world on a kitchen floor and arrived in the emergency room 10 hours later, still bleeding through an unclamped umbilical cord. Jittery, irritable, and unable to eat, she was already showing the early signs of withdrawal. A toxicology screen showed that Sarah had opiates and methamphetamine in her system — drugs her addicted mother had taken during pregnancy.

Sarah is one of more than 200,000 infants born in the United States every year with prenatal exposures to illicit drugs (National Institute on Drug Abuse). Without intervention and expert care, babies like Sarah can suffer life-threatening effects of withdrawal, failure to thrive, abuse, and neglect. The first thing all of us can to do help these little ones is to learn about prenatal drug exposure.

PICC offers classes for caregivers, foster parents, medical professionals, social service providers, and others involved in the care of drug-exposed infants. Call for class information. If you are a caregiver and need immediate help, PICC is here to support you. Our information hotline (253-852-5253) is available 24-hours a day.

PICC has produced a comprehensive training DVD, “Caring for Drug-Exposed Infants.”

Information on prenatal drug-exposure is also available online at www.drugexposedinfants.com.

Signs of Prenatal Drug Exposure

Opiates

(Heroin, Methadone, Opiod Pain Medications like OxyContin): Symptoms of withdrawal appear soon after birth. These include a high-pitched cry, frantic movements, tremors, sweating, fast respirations and heart rate, inability to sleep or suck, abdominal cramps, loose stools, bloody diarrhea. These infants may require weaning doses of neonatal morphine to safely ease them through withdrawal.

Stimulants

(Cocaine, Methamphetamine, Amphetamines):

These babies do not exhibit symptoms of withdrawal. Their identifying feature is inability to eat. They don’t wake to feed; and when they are fed, they take an ounce or two and stop. These infants require nutritional support to avoid malnutrition, dehydration, and failure to thrive. Other signs of stimulant exposure may include low birth weight, prematurity (cocaine), limp tone, lethargy, and excoriated buttocks (meth).