How long was he in the NICU because my son is going on day 10 I am trying to get an estimated time he will be in there. I know all babies are different just wanting a general timeline.
I soooo agree with the above post. My precious grandaughter was born a month ago and spent the entire 1st month of her life in the nicu on morphine and phenobarbital, suffering from seizures and would nod off while you tried to feed her. Although both my son and his g/f are obviously still addicted, he is homeless, she lives in an econonlodge in Springfield, the 12 most dangerous city in America this year, the hospital released her "home" to the econolodge last week. Unlike when she was hospitalized, no familily members have been allowed to see her since she was released from the hospital, only people who are only known by gang nicknames like "Chenga" have been allowed to see her. I worry sick about my grandaughter night and day and have been attacked via text messages and fb for merely expressing my concern. I finally had to block/remove my son and g/f from my phone and fb and have called DCF. My son has had a drug problem I have tried to help him with for years to no avail. His g/f walks around nodding off with her eyes half shut all the time and gets irritated if she has to be up prior to noon. Her FB status reads "Happily Unemployed". I am going to fight tooth and nail for Arianna NOT to be brought up by 2 drug using, essentially homeless, gang affiliated parents. My son has a criminal record a mile long. Not sure about hers but I'd bet my next paycheck she is close. It's a disaster waiting to happen for Arianna and I will not give up. Anyone with any ideas for me please let me know. I will allow them to have custody of Arianna back (DCF IS involved and I have agreed to take care of her should they remove her from her parents, which is what is expected to happen) when they can prove 2 years sober. I am afraid of gang retaliation once DCF has done their investigation and they do the SURPRISE home visit at the end of the week. Drugs=Crime=Poverty=Gang Activity, never a good environment for a child. For everyone talking about how safe morphine remember, your child did not ask to be born suffering from withdrawals and no, it is NOT a good thing. There are many non-narcotics ways to deal with pain if it is not cancer or immediately post operative.
What are some mental problems that children can have that are born on Methadone?
fightforarianna wrote:
Thank you so much for the above reply. I have not yet heard anything regarding my precious Arianna and I stay up nights worried sick about her. DCF says that the investigation is in progress, and it has only been a week, I realize they need time to investigate, but my mind keeps going back to the conversation that I had with the program manager at the econologe where "mom" is staying a week or so ago.. She has told me that she has not seen "mom", and I use that term very loosely, with Arianna and that my son WILL be arrested should he be caught on the property again and they are not only using the night security to locate him, but are closely monitoring the cameras for him. She was a very nice woman and she told me that "mom" is a rat's hair away from being kicked out of the program at any rate due to the fact that she has broken almost every single rule they have, let alone allowing him to sneak in. In response to the above post, bless you and your friend for taking care of these innocent victims of drug abuse, they did not ask to be born with painful withdrawals, seizures, etc. It is child abuse, plain and simple. They have not made any contact with any family members since they said she was discharged and coincidentally almost $1000 was taken out of my account using my debit card # right in the vicinity where they "stay" between the hours of 5:30 am and 10:00 am.. Yes, my bank opened a new account for me and credited my $$ immediately as I tried to use my actual card and was declined for a transaction at the same time my card numbers were punched in and declined almost an hour away in Springfield. I did file a police report. My heart aches for my son as I know he is not ready to get help and will likely end up dead or in jail, but it aches more for poor Arianna, who does suffer siezures and was kept in the NICU for a month after her birth. I will fight tooth and nail to save her. I also agree that moms to be who are using methadone, heroine, opiod pain pills, meth, weed, crack, cocaine or alcohol find a way to detox without relying on a substitute. There are many reputable doctors and programs willing to help you detox without a replacement. Yes, it may be horrible suffering from withdrawal for several days, but as the above post states, as mothers you love your children and in many of your cases that would mean going through withdrawal (alcohol withdrawal is the most dangerous, so PLEASE seek the help of a professional), that will be extremely painful, but so beneficial for your chilld. Please rely on reputable drug rehab providers and other medical professionals and not the posts you see here that say using methadone while preganant is ok- it is NOT ok, I have seen my grandaughter have siezures, be too sleepy to eat, and she was kept in the NICU for a month. Of course she is suffering. Why did "mom" feel she had the right to allow her habit to negatively effect a newborn child?
Guest wrote:
I am a foster parent and have been caring for a child from the time he was 8 months old until now which is 16 months old. This child was born addicted to methadone. He suffered greatly when he was born and was on morphine. He has suffered a few withdrawals while in my home and was delayed. He is in the -3% for height and weight. He has digestive problems.
The mom has had 7 kids, all of whom were born addicted to methadone. THREE OF HER NEWBORNS HAVE DIED.
Please, if you are being prescribed methadone take a closer look into what is happening to you AND to your unborn child. Don't rely on the "OK" situations of a few which you have read here on this board. Don't think that just because a child seems to ONLY suffer for a FEW DAYS or a COUPLE WEEKS that it makes it OK to continue being on methadone. Being a mother, you should WANT to truly educate yourself on the effects of methadone on your unborn child as well as yourself.
There is help out there for you. As a mother, I know that you do not want to hurt your child either. You also would like to stay off meth, heroine or whatever. Please don't risk the health/life of your unborn child. Find a support group, go to the state to see if there are any drug programs available to you to help you get off the methadone. Do it because you are a good parent and truly love your child. Sometimes to truly love your child you have to do incredibly hard, seemingly impossible, extremely painful things. But, you CAN do it!
As for the person who originally started this post: My neighbor has adopted two children who were born addicted to methadone. One child is 9 years old and the other is a sibling who is 2 years old. Both children still suffer from painful withdrawals. Sometimes they have to stay up all night with a suffering child. I would seek professional help from a doctor who does not believe that methadone is a cure-all for people suffering from drug addiction. There are a lot of drug rehab places that are experts with methadone listed on the internet. If I were in your shoes I would call one of those drug rehab places and ask for their recommendatoins on certain doctors to speak to, what information they can give you about withdrawals in a child's life, and what questions to ask your doctor. Good luck and keep loving your kids.
I soooo agree with the above post. My precious grandaughter was born a month ago and spent the entire 1st month of her life in the nicu on morphine and phenobarbital, suffering from seizures and would nod off while you tried to feed her. Although both my son and his g/f are obviously still addicted, he is homeless, she lives in an econonlodge in Springfield, the 12 most dangerous city in America this year, the hospital released her "home" to the econolodge last week. Unlike when she was hospitalized, no familily members have been allowed to see her since she was released from the hospital, only people who are only known by gang nicknames like "Chenga" have been allowed to see her. I worry sick about my grandaughter night and day and have been attacked via text messages and fb for merely expressing my concern. I finally had to block/remove my son and g/f from my phone and fb and have called DCF. My son has had a drug problem I have tried to help him with for years to no avail. His g/f walks around nodding off with her eyes half shut all the time and gets irritated if she has to be up prior to noon. Her FB status reads "Happily Unemployed". I am going to fight tooth and nail for Arianna NOT to be brought up by 2 drug using, essentially homeless, gang affiliated parents. My son has a criminal record a mile long. Not sure about hers but I'd bet my next paycheck she is close. It's a disaster waiting to happen for Arianna and I will not give up. Anyone with any ideas for me please let me know. I will allow them to have custody of Arianna back (DCF IS involved and I have agreed to take care of her should they remove her from her parents, which is what is expected to happen) when they can prove 2 years sober. I am afraid of gang retaliation once DCF has done their investigation and they do the SURPRISE home visit at the end of the week. Drugs=Crime=Poverty=Gang Activity, never a good environment for a child. For everyone talking about how safe morphine remember, your child did not ask to be born suffering from withdrawals and no, it is NOT a good thing. There are many non-narcotics ways to deal with pain if it is not cancer or immediately post operative.
Thank you so much for the above reply. I have not yet heard anything regarding my precious Arianna and I stay up nights worried sick about her. DCF says that the investigation is in progress, and it has only been a week, I realize they need time to investigate, but my mind keeps going back to the conversation that I had with the program manager at the econologe where "mom" is staying a week or so ago.. She has told me that she has not seen "mom", and I use that term very loosely, with Arianna and that my son WILL be arrested should he be caught on the property again and they are not only using the night security to locate him, but are closely monitoring the cameras for him. She was a very nice woman and she told me that "mom" is a rat's hair away from being kicked out of the program at any rate due to the fact that she has broken almost every single rule they have, let alone allowing him to sneak in. In response to the above post, bless you and your friend for taking care of these innocent victims of drug abuse, they did not ask to be born with painful withdrawals, seizures, etc. It is child abuse, plain and simple. They have not made any contact with any family members since they said she was discharged and coincidentally almost $1000 was taken out of my account using my debit card # right in the vicinity where they "stay" between the hours of 5:30 am and 10:00 am.. Yes, my bank opened a new account for me and credited my $$ immediately as I tried to use my actual card and was declined for a transaction at the same time my card numbers were punched in and declined almost an hour away in Springfield. I did file a police report. My heart aches for my son as I know he is not ready to get help and will likely end up dead or in jail, but it aches more for poor Arianna, who does suffer siezures and was kept in the NICU for a month after her birth. I will fight tooth and nail to save her. I also agree that moms to be who are using methadone, heroine, opiod pain pills, meth, weed, crack, cocaine or alcohol find a way to detox without relying on a substitute. There are many reputable doctors and programs willing to help you detox without a replacement. Yes, it may be horrible suffering from withdrawal for several days, but as the above post states, as mothers you love your children and in many of your cases that would mean going through withdrawal (alcohol withdrawal is the most dangerous, so PLEASE seek the help of a professional), that will be extremely painful, but so beneficial for your chilld. Please rely on reputable drug rehab providers and other medical professionals and not the posts you see here that say using methadone while preganant is ok- it is NOT ok, I have seen my grandaughter have siezures, be too sleepy to eat, and she was kept in the NICU for a month. Of course she is suffering. Why did "mom" feel she had the right to allow her habit to negatively effect a newborn child?
I came across this post because I got pregnant due to an expelled IUD while I was on painkillers. I became addicted after my third child was born because I was working full time and being a full time mother to my kids and my loser now ex husband and I found that I just couldn't do it all but when I popped a pill I could. So it went from once a week to all day everyday in a matter of four years. So I started my addiction because I was trying to be Super mom but instead became super addicted. I would cry everyday because I just didn't know how to stop. I decided that the first step would be to get a divorce and then I found out I was pregant. I used to look at pregnant women on Methadone and think how could the love of their unborn child not be enough to stop and wouldn't being miscarried be better than being born to a junkie mother? Well now I was finding out these answers. No I couldn't stop, I slowed down but I was told by multiple doctors at multiple offices that Methadone was the way to go. So during the pregnancy I turned my life around completely, started working at a very reputable non profit agency, volunteering, being very active in my church and in my children's school. I just knew my baby was going to come home after the 5 days, I didn't smoke or do any other drugs, no caffiene. I gave birth with no epidural, no drugs and she ended up on Morphine and phenylbarbitol and in the NICU for 6 weeks. Whatever could go wrong with her still be healthy went wrong. She has an allergy to milk and soy just like my oldest who was born way before my addiction began so I believe if she would have been on the appropriate formula from the beginning she would not have scored so high and been home sooner. I also believe that I needed to go through this to feel the maximum negative effects from my choices so as to not go back. She is home now and is 4 months old. She is more difficult than my other three children were, she seems like she is teething but no teeth. She wanted to be held ALL THE TIME but she is getting better. I wasn't going to post anything but after reading the harsh comments about Methdaone and Methadone clincs I had to. There is a difference between a clinic and treatment center. I go to meetings, see a counselor and am detoxing slowly. You can't blame the system. If used CORRECTLY the program and medication works. Just like with anything people will find a way to abuse it. I don't even want to imagine where or what I would be doing or even worse where my poor kids would be if it wasn't for A. this miracle baby and B. the Methadone Treatment Center. I also read something one time that compared the cost of someone being on Methadone verses how much it would cost to prosecute, jail, pay for foster care or whatever else would come along with that person being a drug addict. I know in a perfect world we would have never made the decisions that got us here in the first place but we did and we need help and don't deny me the help I need because of others that won't follow the rules. At my center you test positive for drugs or alcohol and you're gone. If they all were ran like the one I go to I think the general opinon would be different.
Of course you wold have had to go on methadone or you would have had a miscarriage. This is no excuse.l am happy that you and your children are doing well but also remember that your baby had no choice but to go through the hell of withdrawal as soon as she was born. You chose to use pills as a way out and your child did in fact suffer, bottom line, and I agree with you that if all methadone programs were run appropriately like yours was the world would be a bettter place for these innocent babies. I also believe people whio are addicted deserve treatment and NOT prison, however, since my grandchild was born, my junkie son and g/f have robbed my bank account because they were angry that I contacted DCF. He is involved with gangs and she is high or dope sick all the time. She borrows pills from other girls in her program. Great methadone treatement, huh? Just subsituting one drug for another in their case. He is homeless and lies continually and runs with gangs. I have hired an attorney to gain custody of Arianna and Arianna's extended family in fact does care about HER, can support her, and there will be no cost to the state for us to care for her. Good luck to you, you are in my thoughts, and I REALLY hope that you use the methadone as a taper to get clean and not as a substitue for painkillers forever.
Yeah you are pretty much worthless if you use drugs when you DON'T need to!! We should be happy people aren't stealing for drugs haha you should have more respect for your self and more dignitiy than to ever start. You are trying to make points here but they don't make sense noone made any addict do drugs it was completly their own choice. A Dr. can lose his licences for people faking illnesses to get high. So how is your drug use not hurting anybody else. You could make a Dr. lose his job there for not being able to support his family. Your parent/parents don't want to see their child be on drugs. Your costing tax payers money when you decide to clean up and go to rehad. YOu don't think about all the stuff and people that it affects. You may not think you have your addiction problem under control but you don't. Try and stop and let me know how it goes. People like you are whats wrong with the world you think your decsions only affect you when they afffect everyone around you. Grow up and get HELP!
kymyers2012 how uneducated, misinformed and inexperienced with life you appear to be, judging on your mis-spelt, uninformed moral judgement you are so happy to post. How about you keep your insults private until you have walked a mile in that womans bare feet. To the woman who wrote about getting addicted to pain killers by trying to be supermum, good on you for getting on a program, getting involved in your church etc. My daughter was a methadone baby & I too know the excrutiating heartache felt when not knowing if your baby is crying from withdrawl or simply because she is a newborn baby. The guilt is overwhelming, but children are resilient & lots of love & bonding between mother & baby can heal the initial trauma. Keep on healing & gathering strength, remembering not to take on too much responsibility (ie volunteering, church, school etc) as this may set you back in the direction from which you just came by trying to be super mum again! Take care of yourself & those beautiful babes ;-)
Thank you for posting this! I'm currently 23 weeks pregnant at 125 miligrams and everyone is telling me what a high dose i'm at and that I shouldn't be pregnant. It sure has been a struggle for me and I've thought about abortion many times, but decided to keep my baby. Thank you for all the strong courageous women out there! Methadone has helped a lot!
Katie, good for you, but unfortunately, although I know she would have miscarried my grandaughter without methadone, not everyone gets clean because they have a baby and my grandaughter SUFFERED for a month in the NICU with siezures, weight loss, etc. Yes, she and my son remain homeless, jobless, affiliated with gangs and manipulate family members for money. When they can't do that they sell drugs or steal. What kind of life is that for an innocent child who did not ask to be born addicted to, yes, METHADONE, The MD in the NICU even said it was METHADONE addiction. I'm happy for you, but it looks like you beat the statistics. Yes, I am an educated person, and consider addiction a disease, not a crime, but babies don't have the choice whether or not they will got through painful withdrawal shortly after coming into the world. Also, look at the statistics, if you are educated enough to do so, and you will see that most babies born on methadone will have parents who either continue using or relapse shortly after the "newness" of being a parent wears off. Many live in bad neighborhoods and in poverty. After what I have been through with my grandchild do not dare call me biased.
yes i know my grandson is 7 mths and he is 12 lbs he throws-up all the time he cant do the things that other ciks his age do
I was taking rz methadone and got pregnant. I worried the whole 9 mths but sr said id i got off it wont b good. The methadone dr assured me he wld b fine. The day my son was born he was fine. Never cried or showed any signs of withdrawl. They took blood from him to c if it was in his system and there was no trace of methadone what so ever. I take it as being lucky. Health almost 4 now n soooo smart and has no problems. Hope ur baby gets better.
@ Katie, I know for a fact you are in for a huge, very bad surprise. My son's g/f was told throughout her pregnancy that Arianna was healthy, but when she was born she suffered weight loss, continual non-stop crying, siezures, and was in the NICU for 31 days. According to them and their junkie/gangster friends, this is fine because she was born alive and didn't miscarry. Child abuse, plain and simple to use drugs and get pregnant. I am in the process of moving so I can have a place big enough to care for my grandaughter, and I hope you paid attention to the foster mom who mentions that 2 of the babies she knows of born on methadone eventually died and that at 2 years of age she still has to comfort a toddler through withdrawal. Again, child abuse, plain and simple. Junkies should always use birth control for the sake of any future children.
Being educated would mean not getting pregnant while using mind altering substances in the first place. Birth control is readily available last time I checked, and to have a baby go through withdrawals at birth is child abuse, plain and simple. Hope your baby wont go through withdrawal, but when the baby is born, you will finally see the facts that he/she will. This is no longer about your struggle with addiction, you get clean, good for you, THEN have a baby substance free. Until then, birth control is the answer so innocent babies wont suffer for their parents decisions to use mind altering drugs.
honestly women/girls on methadone should not be getting pregnant.They should have to sign some kind of agreement not to get pregnant while on this DRUG,which it is.I know people use it as an excuse to get off of other drugs and they claim to be clean but guess what your not, it's just a substitution.People need to be screened a little bit closer while on methadone and maybe the women/girl that are on it should be give random pregnancy tests.The whole thing makes me sick,get your own lives together before you bring a innocent child into the world.The whole thing is disgusting!