babies born with methadone addiction

I have been on Methadone for 2 years and got pregnant and delivered while on it. My son had NO WITHDRAWLS! AT ALL! He is progessing just fine and if your children havent showed symptoms yet you are in the clear sweetheart.

My niece which I am now raising was born addicted to methadone as bad as I hate I honestly believe that the methadone may have saved her life. Her mother was taking many kinds of drugs and even shooting up while pregnant the doctor told her the only way to save her baby was to take the methadone. When she was born she was addicted to the methadone and had to go through all the withdrawals in NICU, uncontrollable bowels, jerking, and sleep apnea and they treated her with the fenabro. When she came home after about 10 days in the NICU then she had to be on a heart monitor for the sleep apnea, she came off of it when she was 2 1/2 months old. She was an excellent baby never cried ate her bottle very good. We were told that she would be very irritable, slow developments, and behind intellectually, however she is now 3 1/2 years old never been behind on anything and is very very smart above average on everything. The only things we face now is she is very clingy to me but still will play very well with others and she whines alot, but the dr's say all that is normal 3 year old stuff. So I thank God for her development and pray for the same for all of you, because I know God is what did all this not the dr's or methadone or anything else! :-P

Hi i just found out i was going to be bring a baby into this world i am 27 and have been waitting for this day for my hole life and now its hear and i am scared i take methadone and i dont want to loss my baby or it to be at all hurt i am so scared all i want to know is it going to be ok i am so scared i dont know if i should tell my family i am on it now or what i should do......

i'm 26years old, an addict, been clean 5years, been in methadone clinc the whole time clean. i have one child, xavier, who is now 4yrs old and ws born on methadone, had no side affects, no withdrawls, all he had ws low birth weight- 6lbs 9 oz. he was born march 29 2006, but ws due may 6 2006. he is now at the top of his pre-school class, very VERY smart, atheletic and sweet. methadone has changed my life wonderfully! if i wasnt offered methadone as a chance to have a normal life and be healthy, i might be dead right now. rehabs, suboxin, cold turkey, jail, nothing evr worked but methadone. i'm now pregnant again with my second child and have no fears of he/she being born on methadone. it saved my life.

Hi,
I have adopted 3 children 1 normal 1born addicted to methadone and 1 with FAS.
The one born addicted to drugs is a mess. At 3 he is cognativily 12 months he does not speak is not potty trained.

Don't get me wrong we love him to death but come on people the only ones I hear saying it is not a problem is the ones that did this to our children .The birth mothers who are to busy
getting hight to take birth control and then pretend things are OK so they are not to blame.
So sorry if you love your kids tell the truth so maybe others out there will be more carefull and all these babies could enjoy full lives.
Is methade a cure or cheep heroin?

You people have no idea what you are talking about you are all wrong and if anyone has this issue see a dotor asap. Listing to the rambling of drug addicts yes metadone users are still addicts!!!! is so wrong. I am caring for a metadone addicted baby at this time and think the parents should be charged with child endangerment, for putting these innocent children at risk....oh I am sorry if I am offending the drug addicts I am living first hand with one of your creations, you should all be ashamed for what you have done to a person that doesn't have a voice. With that said if it is so easy for a newborn baby to get off the stuff maybe some of you adults should do the same.

People seam to be making some common mistakes about both drug addiction and methadone. First the drug addiction part, yes people who take methadone are still addicts and methadone is a drug. any time a substance is introduced to the body and the body or mind is wanting more you have become addicted to that substance. so there is many people out there that are addicted to differant substances. so the addiction it self will not harm you but what you do because of the addiction can become a problem. well because of my addiction to methadone, I have become not homeless any more , a law biding citazene and i have also been able to start a new business. my new wife of18 months just had are baby and yes she is also in the program. when she first got pagenent we were going to get her off of methadone but after numerous doctor cunsultations we decided to leave her dose where it was at matter of fact the doctors were trying to have my wife go up in her dose but we decided to play it by ear and watchj to see if she would need more. the doctors said as she got further along in her pagenency she would need more because of the weight gain. but like I said she was able to stay at the same dose. Our baby was born march 30 2010. she is still in the hospital and is do to be released this week weare so excided Our daughter has no other medical problems beside the nas (neonatel abstinance syndrome) My little girl was 8lbs 4oz and 20.1 inches she is now over 10lbs and gain over an ounce a day. so if you are addicted to opiates and want to get out of a life of hell. maybe methadone will work for you but if you are looking for an alternative for your drug or cheeperand legal high then its not for you because thats the behavior we need to change.

to the "guest" posted at 23:10 on may 8th. You need to educate yourself before speaking on complex issues such as this one. First and foremost, a woman who is a drug addict is alot better off on methadone when pregnant than street opiates. It is not the ideal situation, but if it happens, this is a better option than abortion. I'm a chemical dependancy counselor and have seen many women give birth to happy and healthy babies or normal weight and size. There can be withdraw in come cases, but not all. In those cases, it pays to find a doctor who has experience with methadone born babies...not just experience with babies bron into addiction in general. The last baby I saw was observed at the hospital for 2 days before bing dose4d with methadone. The doctor decided to dose the baby at the hospital for 1 week, then gave the mother, who was clean for over a year, methadone to dose the baby with at home. The baby has been off the medicine for 3 weeks now and has had no troubnle sleeping, or eating. EVERY BABY IS DIFFERENT. SOME BABIES CRY MORE THAN OTHERS, SOME BABIES EAT BETTER THAN OTHERS. There has been no studies that show that children are worse off if they are born with methadone withdrawal. educate yourselfs before speaking on a topic which most people know nothing about!

I am a mother of a 13 yr old girl and i was on 30mg of methadone all through pregnancy and from the age of 3 onwards she has showed
signs of ADHD we have had no end of problems with behaviour at home and school and I KNOW it was because of methadone and I feel so guilty knowing what I have done to my daughter and I will not sit here and justify my actions by saying least i'm not on heroin or cocaine METHADONE IS JUST AS BAD!!! I have living proof and know other parents in the same position. I do not mean to offend antone i am sure some of you do your best for your kids but looking back, I know I messed up BIG TIME.

if methadone is used properly not just to get high its not like that.... just because ur sister was not addicted to herion does not mean that she wasn't addicted!!! I was perscribed percocets for 6 years and yes it was the doctors fault who perscribed it to me in fifth grade and its there fault i got addicted and started doing stronger drugs but the methadone clinic saved my life. You have obviously never been addicted to anything because i would not wish dope sickness on my worst enemy its like dieing slowly and you can't do anything about it... Now that i'm on methadone im a normal functioning human again because i didnt go to the clinic to get high i went there to get my self off of the drugs that was ruining my body. When u do pills u get high it goes away u buy more it goes away u buy more and u get to a point where if u dont buy more u get sick i mean SICK. But if ur on the right dose at the clinic (which your sister obviously is not) u take a dose in the morning and function like a normal none addicted human being so instead of knocking everyone on methadone why not do some more looking into it and instead of lecturing ur sister on stopping let her know u love her ur worried about her sleeping all the time and ask her to talk to her doctor about ajusting her dose to make her life a little less sleepy

thanks,

concerned reader

I don't know whether to be outraged by the things I have read or feel sorry for the people that wrote them. I have to start out by saying that I have never ever been addicted to any type of drug. For that matter I have never tried anything other than a cigarette. I was very fortunate to have made wise decisions in my life that kept me away from that type of life. Again I stress a decision I made... A choice that everyone in life CAN make. However, a defenseless unborn child doesn't have that "choice". Because of the selfishness of others these children have to suffer. I know this first hand! I adopted a child that was born to a "woman" who was addicted to methadone. I can tell you everything first hand because this "woman" is my first cousin and I was as involved as possible during the pregnancy. My cousin has had drug problems since she was 18 and now at 33 has found her "legal" high with methadone. That is exactly what it is to her. A cheap and legal high. One that the government has allowed to continue for years. My cousin doesn't use methadone as a way to take her away from the many other drugs she does. She now uses it as boost to get her higher. And she does get higher... As for my son... He was born addicted to methadone and went through the worst withdrawal . Worse than I have ever seen in a adult! I watched as the seemingly healthy baby boy soon turned into a screaming, non sleeping, non eating and irratible being. It was not a life I wished on anyone. I spent the first 4 nights of my childs life holding him through fits and tremors that occured DAY and NIGHT. His maximum amount of sleep was 15 mins at a time. 15 MINUTES! We had help from doctors that tried to comfort him the best they could. Eventually we ended up in Pediatrics ICU for 15 days. At the age of 5 days old my child began a methadone withdrawal treatment. My child not only was taking this horrible "drug" but was connected to every machine imaginable to monitor his every move. I had to hold my child with tangled wires, tubes and an oxygen mask on. I have never felt so helpless in all my life. At all hours of the day and night my child was poked and proded. Test after test and blood work after blood work was done. His little body was black and blue from veins rupturing while trying to insert IV's. Eventually, after 20+ attemtps to IV by over half a dozen nurses and specialist, that he was finally IV'd in his head. He endured 15 long days and nights of this. Eventually his tremors became less and less and his sleeping was longer and longer. But his respiratory system was a longer process. One that we still deal with today. He is now 6 months old and has overcome a lot of his issues but still has issues with his oxygen levels. He has been to Pulmonary specialist that have all determined that due to the methadone he has lung damage. Thus we have to give our son 3 different breathing treatments. We have to be extremely careful who he is around and his environment. At any given point my son can begin to wheeze and his oxygen levels drop low enough to be hospitalized. Which we have been once more since his original stay. His episodes could continue until he is 3 or better. 3 YEARS MINIMUM!

I felt like I needed to post my story so that those who feel like methadone is fine for an uborn child could see the true reality. Methadone is dangerous and so are the lasting side effects to a small child. Before everyone starts to blast me for posting my honest reponse to methadone and chilren born to it, let me say this. I do know that if used correctly that methadone can be an effective tool to assist people off of drugs. However, it is rarely used correctly. And unfortuantely too many people fall prey to this drug and like many other drugs they need more and more to keep that euphoric feeling.

Thanks for listening to my story,

Scared Adoptive Mother

this is bs. the information i have is from addiction specialista, drs, people i personally know who were pregnant on methadone and had babies that had little to no problem withdrawing and it is PROVEN that there is NO LONG TERM AFFECTS OF METHADONE ?IN BABIES AFTER WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS. the abuse of your cousin is super unfortunate thaqt she used this drug thaqt can be an amazing lifesaver for such horrible things- you cant get high, she just overdoses to the point she passes out- mixes with other drugs like you said, and gets adverse reactions- of COURSE the poor baby had healthy problems! shnot because she was on methadone, but because of her uncaring lack of proper use and care for her unborn child. SHE is the PROBLEM NOT METHADONE!!! methadone and the treatment that methadone is used for i can GUARANTEE had little or NOTHING to do with you loved ones problems and/or deaths. methadone is a life SAVER. especially in pregnancy. you do NOT get high on methadone, in fact, if you are on the effective dose for you(whoever was prescribed) it PREVENTS the person on methadone FROM getting high- especially if they were to relapse while on methadone- it would be a waste because the methadone blocks their receptors from getting "high" or feeling ephoria that heroin or other opiates. Not only that but it levels out the chemical balances in the ex addicts brain, allowing them to function and sort of work like antidepressants do- fix the imbalance then u can be slowly weened off after being stabilized and have a much better chance of staying successful in recovery than even someone who worked their butt off in rehab for months because they are doing the cognitive behavioral work in rehab, but not the fixing the physical part of it- but just like anti-deps and counseling go hand in hand- so does (for some, the ones who drs determine methadone treatment would be effective for)MMT and counseling/rehab treatment go hand in hand for the best odds for success in recovery. While it is physically addictive- it is much better than the ups and downs of heroin use- essentially all H users go through cycles the entire addiction of withdrawal-high-withdrawal-high---its inevitable roller coaster of sick or "well". i was addicted to heroin and rarely even did i do enough (or could i do enough the way i was doing it) to get high or OD cuz i wasnt shooting it- so i was never high i was just either sick from not using or did just enough to feel normal and be not withdrawing for as long as the amount i had would last me til i got sick or got more- miserable cycle- only continuing it out of fear of withdrawal pain and sickness- it is the worst! i do know how horrible cold turkey withdrawal is as well as knowing how uncomfortable medically assisted detox is- but completely better- which i assume for baby(as long as the hospital and doctors do the best they can to keep baby comfortable and ease off the meds with least amount of pain and suffering- they can do it so easily to the poin your body barely notices you are being detoxed from something! so as babies i have seen detox from methadone that had no other health problem besides needing to detox- they are there for a short time- with the right drs and medical treatment can be out of the hospital with mom even times. if baby has such a hard time that he needs to stay cuz hes kicking so hard but theres no other health probs- its prob cuz drs arent doing it right! the drs are LETTING the child kick too hard, which in turn means longer hospital stay. i just pray that my baby will not have to be in hospital for very long. i am 9months pregnant- will have the baby any day now-no later than 2wks from today at latest- and everything in my pregnancy has been watched and cared for well and gone perfect- everything from measuring perfectly to testing every test in the book- textbook perfect to the point that my OB considers my pregnancy a "normal pregnancy" when most all mothers on methadone are considered or at least treated as high risk- at first he did was now he says theres no reason to, cuz were acing all tests and measurements and taking great care of baby and pregnancy- eat right, rest, take prenatal vitamins, have lost of love and support around for emotional peace so baby can grow healthy and strong so that his unfortunate need for visiting detoxification upon arriving into this world will beshort lived, never revisited, completely and quickly put behind us and without any effects thereafter! I just pray it is easy for him and us and the doctors and hospital is perfect, does the right thing and truly knows the best thing every step of the way and does it, allowing for easiest smoothest detox, like one woman here described, mild discomfort for a couple days and no other issues from then on..which is the story of 3 women i know that had to experience the same thing. i just know that this experience has been huge transition for me and plays a major role in the fact that i will not ever use heroin again, and how my life has changed already in the past 8months for the better- only amazing miracle and blessing after the next of my life getting better and better and my fiance's and the rest of my familys lives getting better stronger closer by the minute- things r looking up and ive never been better or had a brighter view of the future than right now! not that i recommend to get on methadone, but in MY case- it was the best thing to do, in order to not lose my baby, and under the circumstances- to get the best possible outcome and healthiest option for me and my son whom we are expecting any day!
so please people dont ignorantly come on here making blanket statements and judgements about methadone and pregnancy when you only know of someone who happenstance was on methadone alongside all of the other probably circumstances that ACTUALLY was the problem when something bad happened- its easy to blame something when u know nothing about it! if ppl think they can get high on it they try to and take too much of it or convince the doc to prescribe too much, just as many ppl do with any prescription, really its just the same- it works if used as prescribed in the most effective way- that is the symptom of overdosed too much meds or methadone for instance is sleepiness- thats when u know u have been prescribed to too much is when u sleep all day- u dont want to get to that point! ive been on methadone and feel more awake and able to function on an even keeled balance of energy and mental, emotional, physical health that i otherwise would not be able to on heroin or other opiates of abuse- that is the epitome of instability! on my methadone dose alongside my life changes, going to church, bible studies, 12step groups, and reaching out staying connected, plugged in and committed(most importantly) to changing my life for the better- filling my life with what i want-positive forward-moving uplifting things, rather than using drugs, misery of seaching for the next way to get the $ i need for the next fix in order to not be sick, feeling sick all the time inevitably, distancing myself from joy peace love family friends things i enjoy- all out of living in that space of shame guilt depression lack of everything good in life- just taking those things away -stopping drugs stopping drug lifestyle and yet still not replacing the void with something else- just leaves the void(that we as humans in our lives have no room for a void-)cuz the void acts as a vaccuum and will just suck back the garbage that previously filled the space before, cuz thats what it knows- then u have to get rid of it again which gets harder each time u have to do it and will have to continue doing it cuz the void will vaccuum again if left empty again and over and over the cycle until the void is no longer a void and is filled with love joy peace and whatever things that you desire your life to have and then it can get used to the GOOD things and it will allways keep drawing more and more good things cuz thats what u fed it and thats what it now knows! thats the work, the healing that needs to take place for true healing to exist- not focusing on the drugs and the life that you DON'T want- cuz whatever u forcus on is what you attract- you tell the universe what u want and thats what comes-(not just words but in thoughts, actions and true content of your heart and inner self) so thats the reprogramming that it takes to succeed! at anything, not just for drugs and recovering addicts.ALL of us have something- we are human and humans have sin- so the anger, the resentments, ocd, overpowering need to feel in control of life and things, power, money, shopping, sex, gambling, greed, food, body image, relationships, overcoming abuse, any of these issues and MORE at any level- never compared to others stories saying "well i never was like THAT so its not THAT bad i must not have a problem or my problem must not be bad enough or worthy of acknowleging and needing to change"-as long as whatever it is you are unhappy with about you yourself your life- its just the same, even in our own judgements it SEEMS that his or hers is worse or nothing compared to you or vice versa- if you are unhappy- then its worth fixing- and its not all that hard- and totally worth the effort...remove the problem- and replace it with what u want and that will be the seeds that u cultivate and that will in turn sure grow in abundance manifest and multipy as you do and never again do u have to worry about the old thing u got rid of, cuz theres no longer room for it!!! anyway- sorry for going off topic a little- just originally intended to enlighten everyone as best i can to the truth about methadone, hopefully eliminating even the least bit of ignorance and judgemnts of methadone and methadone in babies who need to detox- it is a sad thing to see them withdraw, but it is maintainable and getting past it the whole life ahead of them! and seriously- in most cases if the baby was never exposed to methadone, it wouldve been worse off for longer or probably wouldve died in utero, NEVER having the chance at life. and every baby deserves that. right? pray for me and my son, if you will, that God will take care of him and send us the best most compassionate knowledgable drs and nurses and caseworkers that they see how loving and capable my sons mother(me) and father and family is and the support and unending care he will receive with me and my family- that my son and i will be treated with care, dignity and respect as we deserve and need during labor, delivery, and post partum healing. pray my son is healthy strong and survives easily smoothly with no suffering or struggle or little if any is inevitable- i pray dear Lord that you hold him close and keep him close to me, his mother, and YOU LORD. That he will only need to be in the hospital for a very short time because he is so healthy they allow him to go home with me right away and maintains his good health from his day of birth on to live and throughout his long happy healthy life! AMEN!

I adopted my daughter who was born addicted to methadone. She is currently 5 years old and has problems with auditory processing, language formulation and almost absent short term memory. She cannot remember peoples names, numbers, alphabet etc. The short term memory is her biggest problem by far but the auditory processing is difficult as well. If you give her directions or ask her a question she will always reply, "what?" at least twice. She also has poor fine and gross motor skills. I cannot imagine she is the only methadone child with these issues!

We adopted our beautiful baby boy in November. He was born addicted to methadone. He is almost 9 months old and doing great. He has met and is exceeding all milestones so far. However he did suffer NAS and was on morphine to get him through the withdrawals. We were able to stay with him at the hospital and care for him during his withdrawals. I found it extremely hard and difficult (first time mom). He had periods of non stop crying, irritability and many other of the NAS symptoms. We came home a little over a month after he was born. We went through a few months of terrible crying, which could of been attributed to colic and so we change his formula until we found something that worked for him. We are also being followed by physio, OT and speech to ensure he's meeting his milestones and catch something early if he does have issues.

Much of the research I have found on the outcome of children born addicted to methadone comes down to the environment that baby is raised in and the prenatal care and activities of the birth mother. I am not here to judge any woman who has been on methadone while pregnant as most research suggests it a healthier alternative to other drugs and attempting to stop cold turkey. Of course in a perfect world this would not be needed as no one would be addicted to anything.

All I can say is a thank you to my son's birth mother for the most precious gift I have been given. She's not perfect, neither am I, but she made the best choices she could in her situation. Many children are born with issues and the parents never did drugs. Not everything a child has can be blamed on that. Do I know what the future holds for my son? No, but currently he is doing great and we will love and care for him as he grows.

Methadone is completely safe for babies and the detox is under a doctors care and is never done at home. It is not horrible at all and if babies are having serious problems then it's probably because the mother was doing much more than methadone.