Addicted mothers, addicted babies: what is the syndrome of abstinence of the newborn

I have not had time to publish my personal articles, so I went for this article that I saw on Facebook and decided to do it here through information. for all since I was unaware of the subject and it seemed appropriate to publish and investigate a little about these cases.

Newborn withdrawal syndrome or neonatal abstinence syndrome is a set of problems that occur in a newborn who has been exposed to alcohol and addictive drugs during pregnancy. As the fetus comes to the substances through the placenta, is "accustomed" to them and becomes addicted to them.

Therefore at birth, when it no longer receives the drug from the maternal body, the baby suffers various consequences of its dependence, which will depend on several factors, such as the type of drug consumed by the mother, the amount of substance to which she has been exposed , whether it is premature or not ...

For a baby with withdrawal symptoms symptoms usually start between one and three days after birth; Sometimes it can take up to a week to appear.

The symptoms of the newborn withdrawal syndrome may include:

coloration in skin spots, diarrhea, excessive or loud crying, irritability, excessive suction, fever, hyperactive reflexes, increased muscle tone, poor diet, rapid breathing ...

It can also cause seizures and tremors, as we saw recently in this impressive video, problems sleeping, slow weight gain, clogging of the nose, sneezing, sweating, vomiting ...

In short, these are symptoms that we can imagine in an adult who "has the monkey", as is commonly said, but difficult to imagine and understand in a helpless baby. In addition, the effects of drugs during pregnancy can be long-term for the child, so we are not talking about a syndrome that is cured with treatment and that's it.

In fact, if the medical team confirms that a newborn shows withdrawal symptoms, it will act in different ways depending on the case: it may be necessary to hydrate the baby, if the symptoms are severe, medications such as methadone and morphine may be necessary ...

All trying to calm a baby that is probably not calm and does not feed properly. Breastfeeding is the best, and if the mother continues taking drugs, she will go to the milk banks whenever possible. Withdrawal syndrome can last a week at best and up to six months in the worst.

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