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Child Behavior (Expert Forum)
Demoral in breast milk
Answered by
Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D. - Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy, Family Therapy, Crisis Intervention
Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates
This forum is for questions and support regarding child behavior issues such: Child Discipline (behavior management), Normal Child Development, Parent-Child Communications, Social Development
Demoral in breast milk
by Pheaux, Jul 05, 2001 12:00AM
During the C-section birth of my son, and because of a botched epidural, I felst tremendous pain during the surgery and developed "spinal headaches" afterwards, which were unbearable.
I was given numerous injections of Demoral for the pain for 6 days, which were equivalent to "enough to knock out a horse" (to quote a nurses' statement to my husband). The Demoral barely touched my pain, but all along I was breast feeding my newborn son. It never dawned on me that the Demoral might be affecting my baby through my breast milk. After we went home, he was an extremely nervous baby; he would sleep while being held, then jerk awake with a "yelp" sound. he did NOT sleep well at all through the night, and from that point stopped taking naps altogether during the day! He has required very little sleep as a youngster or adolescent.
He has developed ADHD, and major anxiety disorders and has remained a very nervous individual.
I want to know if the demoral or any of the trauma of the birth could have affected him in a detrimental way.
Thank you for ANY help you can give me on this.
I was given numerous injections of Demoral for the pain for 6 days, which were equivalent to "enough to knock out a horse" (to quote a nurses' statement to my husband). The Demoral barely touched my pain, but all along I was breast feeding my newborn son. It never dawned on me that the Demoral might be affecting my baby through my breast milk. After we went home, he was an extremely nervous baby; he would sleep while being held, then jerk awake with a "yelp" sound. he did NOT sleep well at all through the night, and from that point stopped taking naps altogether during the day! He has required very little sleep as a youngster or adolescent.
He has developed ADHD, and major anxiety disorders and has remained a very nervous individual.
I want to know if the demoral or any of the trauma of the birth could have affected him in a detrimental way.
Thank you for ANY help you can give me on this.
Doctor's Answer
by Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D., Jul 05, 2001 12:00AM
, Jul 05, 2001 12:00AM
It's not unusual for Demerol, an opioid, to be employed to manage pain during labor/delivery. However, Demerol should be used with caution during breast feeding. It could be that the symptoms you observed during the immediate post natal phase were related to the Demerol use, but long-term symptoms would not be explained by this. If there was any neurological damage during birth, the longer-term symptoms could have resulted. If there is family history of anxiety disorder your son would have been vulnerable to such conditions (same is true of ADHD). There is a strong hereditary component to mood disorders, anxiety disorders and certain types of neurointegrative conditions (like ADHD).
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