Percocet, pregnancy and toddler years....

[cbringin78]

I have a foster child of an addict. She is the brightest little 4, almost 5 year old out there. Beautiful and sweet child.Her drugs of choice was percocet and cocaine, and a snorted version of heroin, called train. During pregnancy however, she used only used percocet to substitute, but lots of it. The little girl lately keeps telling me that she her head is confused. She also says the the machines in her head are really loud. She sometimes, very rarely says her head hurts. But it doesnt hinder her play at all. So I dont suspect migraine. I have searched and searched online for the long term effects of drug use during pregnancy, but everything I find usually stops at infancy.

I am at a total loss here. At first I was thinking it was nothing, maybe water in her ears that was building pressure, because she had just had a bath. But then her babysitter said she said it at her house too. I know I need to take her ot see her pediatrician, but I dont know if anyone else has heard of anything like this before, and hoping that maybe someone can maybe point out a small clue that I am missing that would help the pediatrician....  

Any help is greatly appreciated!!!!

[kim715]

I don't really have any advice for you.I just wanted to tell you that I can relate to what you are going through.We are dealing with some of the same issues surrounding my stepdaughters 2 little girls.There are 4 siblings all together.The paternal grandparents are raising the 2 older boys and my husband and I have been dealing with 'the system' and raising the 2 girls for over a year now.
The girls are 5 and 3 and the 3 year old has significant problems with her verbalization and pronunciation skills,which is mostly due to,according to the doctors,the enviroment she was in.She was never really communicated with or even read a book too.
I just want to commend you on your commitment to this child,and I'm so happy to hear that she is with people who will love her and care for her and get her the help she needs.All the best...Kim

[cbringin78]

Ok, so maybe I should explain the situation a little better. I say "foster" because its SOOO much easier than going in depth. This child, Jaden is not ours biologically, but is ours legally. We have full, sole custody of Jaden. Mother has supervised visitations, and father the same supervised visitations. Heres the story. My husband is the mothers ex husband. He has custody of his 2 daughters by this same woman. Jaden is his ex wifes child by another man. Before we would allow her to be placed in a "true foster family", or adopted out, we decided we would file for emergency custody so she would not be astranged from her half sisters.(which both already have deep emotional problems already from their mothers drug addiction and bad parenting choices, which is why we have them) We were granted temporary custody for 90 days. We went back to court, and the judge gave the final order that Jaden stays with us. So, she is ours. Her caseworker told me that because the child no longer was in harms way, that she no longer needed to be involved, and closed the file after a homestudy at my house.  If, and when the mother decides to work on getting herself straight she may petition the courts and file for custody. In the mean time, it is our responsibility to the child and the court to make sure she has all the medical attention needed, as she was our own.

She had a physical in September, and they checked a million things, but not hearing. I have to get referral for ins. reasons. The doctors are closed on saturdays and sundays unfortunately...  I am constantly watching her now for a new symptom or sign that would clue us in, and I am almost obsessed with it! Someone else suggested that maybe she was hearing her pulse like one would with a throbbing headache or maybe migraine, or maybe her mom was confusing her about our change in living arrangements and she was verbalizing her feelings that she truly was confused, and maybe her thoughts were running so rampant that maybe they seemed loud to her or overwhelmed her. I dont know, thats what someone else said.I am definately going to seek out some sort of counseling that is age appropriate for her either way. Neither of those scenarios sound like a pleasant experience for such a young and innocent child, and she deserves the happiest childhood possible. Any other ideas???   Whats the opinions of you guys???

[princess2000]

First of all, you need to inform the childs caseworker before you do anything.  They tend to get alittle testy when you just do things on your owm,  Remember, the child is not yours, but belongs to the state and her caseworker is the one who is calling the shots.  I am not meaning to come off sounding rude, just some friendly advise!

Princes2000***************

[avisg]

I would take her to the doctors there are many possibilities other then drug side effects .They will be able to help you get to the bottom of this .

[wannabefree330]

Well what comes to mind is Percocet is a compound drug that has tylenol and oxycodone in it.  One of the side effects listed in my PDR is hearing loss.  Maybe she is having some ringing in her ears and thats what the 'machines' sound like to her?  she may need to go see a hearing specialist.  Instead of a pediatrician, I'd skip that step and go straight to an ENT doctor.

[princess2000]

She most definitley needs to go to a doctor for evaulation.  They will do a complete exam, and then if they find nothing wrong, (which I hope is the case), they may sugguest a child play therapist or pysch for the child to talk to. Hope everything is ok, but sound like she is experiencing some trauma of some kind.  When did you get the child, and how long was she with the bio mother?

[worried878]

cant help u...some type of genetic specialist may could help u tho..best of luck and hopefully  this will pass