babies born with methadone addiction

i had my first child born to methadone and i want to say that not all babies are suffering when they are first born my daughter had mild sneezing and occasionall crying but apart from that she was a normal baby it only when the mother is taking alot more than methadone ontop that the baby will experience severe withdrawals. mt daughter is now 7 and a healthy little girl with no problems

You must be a really stupid man who knows nothing about methadone or newborns who are addicted. Yes this happens all the time, any mother who is on methadone and gives birth will have a child that is addicted to it as well. There have been many studys done on the safty of this medication and the effects on pregnet woman. It is much more dangerous for the unborn child to detox in the womb then for it to be safly detoxed in the hospital after birth. Yes the baby will be uncomfterable for a little while but many have been threw it and came out just fine. The doctors will give neonatile morphine and fena barbatal to releave any withdrawl symptoms. They may also be cranky and not sleep that well for a while. Another thing " medman" no one has ever died from any type of opiate or methadone withdrawls you may feel like you are going to but you most def. wont die.... if you could do you think they would take that chance with all the heroin addicts and methadone addicts who go to jail and get cut off cold turkey???? So before you post back to a person with a serious question do your research and dont write bull sh*t!!!

Have the surgeries helped w/ his eye movements? My 4 month old nephew was recently diagnosed with nystagmus... and my sister used methadone during her pregnancy. I had never heard of it before and I'm trying to get information on it (because I know she won't). Methadone is a terrible drug. I don't think she'll ever get off of it.

my son is only 5 days old and was born addicted to methadone. we are currently in the nicu. he was able to stay with me the whole time since i had him and didn't even show any signs of withdrawl until about an hour before I was discharged 48 hrs after he o.O born. the only withdrawl that he was showing at that time was constantly wanting to suck on his hands and not sleeping longer than 2 hrs at a time. when they started him on the methadone he started sleeping longer, eating even more which is letting him sleep longer instead of eating less everytime he woke. He also has even been sleeping with his hands down to his side, away from his face, showing me that he is more relaxed. now after only two days they are going to lower his dose to begin weening him off of the methadone. He seems to be doing wonderful and is a baby that has been easy to comfort and console since the day he was born. it must be really hard for ignorant people to understand that if you have an opiate addiction that you have been trying to conquer and you get pregnant, methadone treatment is the best way to go and the only way to know that your child will be born with no effect from your own mistakes or choices you have made in the past that got you hooked in the first place. if your baby is born with something wrong it is most likely something else had went wrong with the fetus while in the womb, it happens all the time to women on absolutely no drugs or medication, why is it so hard to believe that it can happen when a mother is on methadone?!!!!!!!!!

Methadone is just a maintenance program. Why not just detox and be done with the drugs?? I guess I understand the pregnancy detox. But in my opinion, people are just using it because they are afraid of a life without drugs. What kind of life is the child going to have. Is the mom constatnly nodding out??? It still makes you high. Furthermore, I think everyone could stop underestimating the effect of the withdrawal on the infant. If the baby could talk I'm sure they would tell you it sucks. In fact, crying is the baby's way of communicating. Do something brave, take a leap of faith, see how wonderful your life would be without any mood or mind altering drug. You may miss out on your baby's first smile while you're nodding off in the chair. Bye the way, why are we withdrawing the baby from the methadone and the mother just gets her usual dose so she doesn't have to feel the effects.

u must be one of those ignorent people i was talking about if u would do a little research before speaking then u would know, if you detox while pregnant the chances of u miscarrying is very very high, so either you do the methadone or u lose ur child. so u cant be just done with it. I am not afraid at all with life without drugs, but i sure the hell wouldnt want to lose a child becuase of selfishness, but that must be the kind of person you are. and if your knodding out in the chair its one of two things, your dont want to be clean so your on to high of a dose or your still using drugs....period!!!! If you know so much about methadone and babies who are born addicted then you wouldn't have to ask questions, my opinion is you have nothing to do with your time so u sit back and judge people and you write some BS in which u know nothin about.

I have been on methadone for a few years now. First off, I have to say that methadone IS NOT a "way to stay high" as I've been reading in some of these posts. It is the opposite. Not only do you not feel high at all on methadone, you just feel normal. But if you were to choose to still try and use heroin while on methadone, the methadone actually keeps you from feeling high.
I am glad I found this forum. My 1st son, now 3 was born while I was on methadone. And I am amazed at how many posts describe him exactly.
He is a normal kid and has above average intelligence and also gets stressed easily and can be overly dramatic. He was in the hospital for 3 weeks after birth and was irritable and cried a lot. I am now about to have my 2nd baby on methadone and am nervous about how long he will have to stay in the hospital. I would love to know how long other babies on methadone had to stay in the hospital. It seems that 3 weeks is about the longest. And It would make me feel so much better to hear from any parents whose babies did very well and showed little if any signs of withdrawal.

monnyfaye said.....
Another thing " medman" no one has ever died from any type of opiate or methadone withdrawals you may feel like you are going to but you most def. wont die..

Actually YES you can die from opiate withdrawal. And it has happened.
During Katrina, several people died in shelters as a result of opiate withdrawal and not being able to get any heroin or methadone.

RECOVERING NEWBIE SAID.....
Methadone is just a maintenance program. Why not just detox and be done with the drugs?? I guess I understand the pregnancy detox. But in my opinion, people are just using it because they are afraid of a life without drugs. What kind of life is the child going to have. Is the mom constatnly nodding out??? It still makes you high. Furthermore, I think everyone could stop underestimating the effect of the withdrawal on the infant. If the baby could talk I'm sure they would tell you it sucks. In fact, crying is the baby's way of communicating. Do something brave, take a leap of faith, see how wonderful your life would be without any mood or mind altering drug. You may miss out on your baby's first smile while you're nodding off in the chair. Bye the way, why are we withdrawing the baby from the methadone and the mother just gets her usual dose so she doesn't have to feel the effects.

Out of all the posts here, THAT was the only one that I found to be ignorant and highly offensive! I am a mother and I've been on methadone maintenance for years and AGAIN as I've stated before......METHADONE DOES NOT MAKE YOU HIGH!!! and I have NEVER EVER NODDED OUT ON METHADONE! If that is the case for you then you are on WAY to high of a dose! I am also a better parent than most people in general! As far as getting off of methadone maintenance I am gradually weaning down after the baby is born but do you even understand all of the implications involved in getting off of maintenance? Some people experience everything from excessive weakness and fatigue to chronic depression and a host of other issues in between even for years after getting off methadone! For some people. Maintenance is the best choice for a healthy
drug free life. Please educate yourself and post facts instead of hurtful and incorrect opinions. I wish some of these people could meet me. It would change their minds completely. I am an intelligent, married, sub-urban mom and a business owner. I am healthy, positive, well-adjusted and well liked. I do yoga and bike ride with my family. I keep a clean house and go to parenting and playgroups. And I'm on methadone.

stopped in here to learn more of what to expect from a newborn. my husband and i took a younger couple in becuase they had no where to go and they'll be taking her baby
c section next week. She's on Methadone and i'm confused as to why they'd give her so much daily that she's a zombie? for the 1st 3 days they were here she was a normal girl but now she's a friggin zombie and has been for 3 weeks.. stumbling to catch herself from nodding off standing up, etc.
8-| I really hate to judge but this is ridiculous over here, if she wasn't stumbling around the 1st 3 days, why would she be now if she didn't ask them to up her dose? Really isn't showing any concern for the baby if you ask me. Thank god her mother is taking her in for 2 weeks because of the c section because i'd get a little upset with her sleeping while the baby is crying.

I can see that other people have been angry at reading this ignorant post as well. Methadone should NOT make you "nod out". If it does....you are on too high of a dose, just like other medication can make you nod out if you take too much. I am on methadone and I am a strait A Masters student and a mother with a full time job. If I was nodding out every day, I don't think I could pull all that off. I just found out I was pregnant and I'll admit, I am a bit warry about having a baby on methadone, but I know that I can't just detox now that I'm pregnant, because THAT would be unfair to the baby, to be that little and to have a mom with the anxiety, depression, and sickness that comes with getting off of methadone too quickly, which you would have to do to be off before the babies born, let alone soon enough to make a difference in the pregnancy. I'm on 110 mm. In o4rder to come off safely it would take about 2 years, so the baby would be a toddler by the time I was off, and if I did it more quickly, it would be terribly dangerous for the baby. Therefore, I have 2 choices, have the baby on methadone, or have an abortion. I haven't decided yet. I DO want this baby, but I know if I have to watch it go through withdrawals I will hate myself. As for the first woman who was discussing the pregnant girl nodding off.....the clinic would NEVER knowingly put her on such a high dose....she probably lied to them and told them that she was having withdrawal symptoms when she wasn't. Watch out for her, she may start using again when the baby is born.

phyllis horton wrote:

we adopted 2 babies born addicted to methadone. long term what should we expect or watch for ?

babies do go through withdrawels from methadone. it is treated with 2 meds if withdrawels are extreme. morphine and pheanobarbital

3 years ago i started methadone maintence. i got pregnant i just had my baby 1 month ago. he stayed in the hospital for one extra day for jaundice. he went through no treatment for withdraw. some babies do go through this and there is nothing to prevent it EXCEpt for staying clean off of everything and anything- heroin, coke, cough meds, beer, whatever. i have a beautiful healthy baby boy and although the guilt was and still is servere i am so lucky for have him

How can you mothers act like your methadone addicted babies are going to be fine. There have not been real studies done on these children to know what the long term effects will be for these poor things. Not to mention what kind of lives these children will live being raised by drug addict mothers and fathers such as yourselves. If you people want to ruin your lives, go ahead, but there is one drug you people have failed to try and it is called birth control pills. Since you like popping pills so much, why don't you try popping one of those a day. It is a shame that you think this is o.k. You don't deserve these kids.

I am a mother of three, I have two sons and four months ago, child services place my then 11 month old niece with us. My husband's youngest sister is a former heroin addict. I grew up with her and watched her delve into a life of drugs. She dropped the baby while nodding off and the authorities were called.

This is the second child she has had addicted to Methadone. I understand why it is given and agree it is better for the pregnancy but she has been on it for over five years. She doesn't have custody of either of her children, my other niece lives with my in laws. She is on welfare and lives with her addict husband whom she met at a Methadone clinic. I know the program sometimes works if all that you take is the Methadone but they take Xanax, clonopin, pain medicine anything they can get their hands on! I think that addicts that have one child born addicted should really be sterilized! I know that is not possible but these kids may not have long term physical side effects but emotionally it is gut wrenching. I have this little girl calling me mommy and then she visits her mom and it's so confusing. These little girls are lucky to have extended family but what about all the others that are placed in foster care and become a product of the welfare system. I pray that my neices don't use their parent's addiction as an excuse or a crutch to follow suit. I am determined that they will have a happy, normal, childhood so that they can grow up to be drug free, responsible, productive adults. I am so tired of hearing her mother say it's a disease and go right on taking her methadone, living in subsidized housing, sleeping and eating all day on the tax payer's dime. I know it's a disease but there is a cure! Go to treatment (they always get kicked out). They don't want to get better, the just want to blame everyone else for their problems. They steal, lie, and the worst thing is their children have to live with their mistakes. If you want to be an addict go ahead but there are free clinics and birth control out there. Take it and don't inflict your disease on an innocent child! I know there are people who do well at this program and I say good for you, but more often than not it doesn't work. My niece is 15 months and doesn't walk yet and she is extremely small for her age, but she is healthy otherwise and has an Aunt who loves her as she were her own.