Baby damage due to addiction

[Shawntoni46360]

My granddaughter was born addicted to lortabs, but according to hospital records didn't have any withdraw. OK now her mother abused lortabs, weed, and adderall during her whole pregnancy. I saw this abuse, and know that she took pills by the hand fulls, and when they ran out she crashed (very lucky not to have major complications due to unavailability) her mother supplied a lot of the pills and pot and some was bought.
OK now the baby is 4 months old and has fits of screaming and crying uncontrollable. I have tried to search for help but come up blank. Can children born to mothers that used heavily have some emotional damage? What can I do to help heal the damage?  

[introuble75]

my child cried a lot between two and seven months old,(I was not on Any drugs during pregnancy) .I went back and fourth to dr.they said she was okay..Well,she started kindergarden and about a mone into kindergarden her teacher calls ma at work and tells me that my daughter was having seizures..So I take her to emergency room ,then bak to my Dr. and they referred me to a neurologist..Come to find out ,,my daughter was suffering from epilepsy and she knew that something was wrong but could not tell us ..I felt soo bad for a while not to have noticed this,,You definately need to have a dr check for all of these things and too, though it could be little stuff but its better to be safe than sorry,I dont mean to scare you at all as this may not be the problem but you do need to be aware..good luck..

[ImDONENoMore]

See if it's at all possible to get Mom (and Mom) to agree to see a different pediatrician - someone who's willing to be there with all of you so you can find out what's going on.

This baby is lucky to have the Grandma she does - I will pray for all of you.  I agree, this is heartbreaking.  My thoughts are with all of you.  :)

[Shawntoni46360]

Thank you so very much, I have been searching this for, well since I first knew the mom was expecting, and everything said no damage or expect withdraws. She never experienced the withdraws thank God, but the damage is already done. What really hurts is I begged the mom to get help because I knew by reading stopping wasn't an option.
I have asked the doctors, the two she has seen and they say it is nothing. When I try to explain they just say it is normal baby stuff, but I had her brother when he was a baby and he never did this. She seems like she is in pain and warm baths do help so I will keep searching and asking doctors and in the mean while do the stimulation you suggested.
Thank you so much  

[vicki595]

Hi~~~Yes, great advice!!  I just want to add that it could be a tummy issue,as well,like colic. Has the baby been fussy right along? Or is this something new?  The doctor will want to know that so be sure to write down all your observations!  I do know that babies born to crack addicted mothers have a heck of a time...Good luck and let us know...

[dominosarah]

Thank you mellie and Ashelen, good sound advice~~

Please let us know how the baby is doing~~sara

[Ashelen]

I'm not a doctor, but I've run across info on some of these drugs over the years...Adderal, I believe, can cause some nervous and neurological damage - it's strictly to be avoided during pregnancy. Lortab isn't known to cause lasting effects once the period of neonatal withdrawal is over, and since she didn't have withdrawals according to the hospital it's unlikely that's the culprit.

From what I remember, weed can also cause nervous damage....so yes I would say that of the three drugs you knew the mother to use during pregnancy, at least 2 are thought to be able to cause damage.

Is it irreparable? I have no idea...like mellie said, you'll have to start with her pediatrician and get a referral to a specialist to run some tests and hopefully do some intervention.

I'm so sorry to hear this...it's heartbreaking to know that the baby may still be feeling effects of it 4 months later. It could be something else - plenty of infant issues can cause uncontrollable screaming and crying, but I think that addressing your concerns with the pediatrician would be the best thing...is the child's mother willing to get the child help?

In the meantime there are a few things you can try to do to soothe her during her fits....if she DOES have nervous system/neurological damage, when she cries take a firm pillow and press it over her belly and legs (obviously keep it away from her face) and don't press hard....just enough that she feels it but not enough to trap her in place. the pressure over her body will help calm some of her over-firing synapses and hopefully calm her down. it looks a little odd, but it might help....warm baths should help as well. take a warm, soft wash-cloth and rub it against her cheek..it's a soothing motion that can sometimes interrupt a crying fit, and there are some massages that I know are used on babies born addicted to crack with some success...you start at the feet and massage the toes and the bottom of the feet with your thumbs in slow, circular motions, putting gentle pressure...then move up the body using your thumbs on the back of the calves, the tops of the thighs..when you get to the belly use your hand flat and rub your palm in a circular counter-clockwise motion on the belly, then move up to the arms and use your thumbs in a circular motion down the biceps, across the top of the forearms, and finish by rubbing slow circles on the baby's palms and rubbing her fingers between your forefinger and thumb. If her issues ARE caused by damage done from drug use, most likely what's happening is that all of her nerves are firing off randomly and causing her burning pain and a feeling of being unable to relax - and that can be aggravating beyond belief, as well as painful. So anything you can do to gently stimulate her muscles should afford her some short-term relief.  

not guaranteeing this will help, but until you get some help from the doctors they are some soothing methods known to be effective on babies born addicted to some pretty hard drugs...so hopefully if that is in fact the issue with your granddaughter this might help a bit.

[mellie4]

I think you need to bring a specialist into this.  I don't know what's the best kind of doctor to help with this but start with the baby's pediatrician.  Babies born addicted need a lot of services and can have a range of problems.  The doctor will have suggestions on the best type of services for your grandaughter.  The sooner there is some intervention, the better she'll do.  Good luck.  This is heartbreaking.