Parenting a baby of a vicodin addict

My wife and I are in our mid-50s, and we are foster-parenting a 4-week
old infant born of a vicodin addict (yes, she was taking vicodin
during her pregnancy, as well as smoking, drinking, etc.).

The baby seems "normal" most of the time, but last night, he was
crying uncontrollably, and was completely inconsolable. It was so
bad, my wife took him to the ER, but there was little they could do.

He had a slight temperature, and was vomiting (well, more like the
normal puking an infant does when they've had too much formula). The
ER said he was having reflux problems and prescribed some medication
to deal with that.

He's such a sweet little boy, it breaks my heart to see him turn beet-
red and cry his heart & lungs out, while my wife and I stand by doing
nothing, other than comforting him, and making sure his diapers are
clean, and feeding him (when he will take it).

I guess my question is: what are the symptoms of vicodin addiction in
infants? What (if anything) can we do as foster-parents to help the
baby as he works it out of his system?

"Fred Goodwin, CMA" wrote in message
...
My wife and I are in our mid-50s, and we are foster-parenting a 4-week
old infant born of a vicodin addict (yes, she was taking vicodin
during her pregnancy, as well as smoking, drinking, etc.).

The baby seems "normal" most of the time, but last night, he was
crying uncontrollably, and was completely inconsolable. It was so
bad, my wife took him to the ER, but there was little they could do.

He had a slight temperature, and was vomiting (well, more like the
normal puking an infant does when they've had too much formula). The
ER said he was having reflux problems and prescribed some medication
to deal with that.

He's such a sweet little boy, it breaks my heart to see him turn beet-
red and cry his heart & lungs out, while my wife and I stand by doing
nothing, other than comforting him, and making sure his diapers are
clean, and feeding him (when he will take it).

I guess my question is: what are the symptoms of vicodin addiction in
infants? What (if anything) can we do as foster-parents to help the
baby as he works it out of his system?

When the baby had the slight temperature, was he sweating? That
crying is a lot of work and if (as I suspect) you had him well
covered maybe that's where the warmth came from. If sweat then
probably no fever.

Withdrawal symptoms come at withdrawal time, and what you say
sounds too late for that. However, he's been in a poisoned
environment thru much or all of his development, i.e., you
may have a Big Problem there and if you are not getting expert
advice, then you want to find some. There is this in your
situation, that you need to know enough yourself to recognize
expert and relevant advice (both in same bundle, as does not
always happen) so that you can choose who to listen to and who
not.

Babies don't feel and emote like us adults do. In babies, the
feelings run and ebb like great tides, i.e., kind of slow.
You need to allow time for things to happen next after knowing
in advance what is the right thing to do. I watched this in
reverse on a subway one night: a woman with a very upset baby,
she changed her strategy completely about every two minutes.
The baby could have been crying because it was confused and
frightened by this.

Do you have a rocking chair? If not, you want to find one
immediately. It wants a low seat with arms wide around not
rigidly narrow and upright, which gives room inside for the
occupant and the baby. My ideal is a rocking chair that
squeaks. Then you sit in there and you talk -- the more
you sound like the Nearsighted Mr Magoo, the better it
works. If the baby *will not* quiet down, then at least
you are seated. The baby does not understand your words
but babies are very sensitive to what's behind the words.

So there are some ideas ... and Do Not underestimate the
surely very large effect this baby's past will have on
the baby. You need to learn some clinical thinking, if
the baby seems ok you could be missing something. If you
could fall in with some Down's syndrome parents then you
might get some ideas. The one idea you want to avoid is
the idea that if your own intent and thoughts are pure,
it will all come out ok. This baby wants the very best
you can find to do -- and *you* should hope to be lucky
but don't count on it.

Cheers -- Martha Adams [sci.med 2008 Mar 03]

Martha, thanx for the suggestions.

When my wife took him to the ER, she didn't say anything about sweat.
And the ER doctor didn't mention anything about vicodin symptoms, so
maybe we're making a bigger deal out of this than we should.

The reflux medication seems to be helping; although he still isn't
sleeping through the nite yet, at least when he woke last nite, it
wasn't the uncontrollable & inconsolable crying of a couple of nites
ago.

He sees his doctor again today, and my wife plans to ask specifically
about any vicodin withdrawal symptoms we should be on the look-out
for, and what, if anything, we can do to make him comfortable.

By the way, we do have a rocking chair, and it does seem to help when
we rock him.

Thanx again.

"Fred Goodwin, CMA" wrote in message
...
My wife and I are in our mid-50s, and we are foster-parenting a 4-week
old infant born of a vicodin addict (yes, she was taking vicodin
during her pregnancy, as well as smoking, drinking, etc.).

The baby seems "normal" most of the time, but last night, he was
crying uncontrollably, and was completely inconsolable. It was so
bad, my wife took him to the ER, but there was little they could do.

He had a slight temperature, and was vomiting (well, more like the
normal puking an infant does when they've had too much formula). The
ER said he was having reflux problems and prescribed some medication
to deal with that.

This sounds like a regular baby with reflux. This may have no relationship
to the vicodin.

On Mar 27, 1:43 am, "Beth In Alaska"
wrote:

This sounds like a regular baby with reflux. This may have
no relationship to the vicodin.

I think you're right -- his doctor has seen him several times and
never mentioned vicodin, but has prescribed some reflux medication.

Thanx