Care of the Addicted Newborn

[Institution name]Care of the Addicted Newborn

Introduction

Care of drug addicted babies can be very frustrating at times, but once we are able to understand the situation from which these babies are going through only than we can take judge their needs and take care of them properly. Babies who are found drug addicted may face difficulty in bonding with an adoptive parent in the beginning. In various cases, these parents don't know how to behave on baby's irritability or rejection initially. Patience is of great importance in taking care of these babies or children. As often adoptive parent are found getting exhaustive due to the behavior of these babies. It should be very clear to them that these behaviors are very normal for these babies as they were exposed to drugs during pregnancy (Coles, 2006). The thing, which these babies need badly, is lots and lots of love and care. Only by doing so, the behavior of the addicted babies can be changed. The addicted babies take time in becoming use to the loving treatment they receive. The problem of the children, who are born to the drug addicted mothers, has become a great concern since the last 2 decades. An increasing number of children are currently observed by the health management survey department who were suffering from drug addiction.

Discussion

Specific problems of babies born with addictions

The particular problems, which are faced by the addicted babies, can be based on variety of symptoms. Most of the addicted babies are sent to orphanages or are left in hospitals for extended periods of time. These babies have to go through physical abnormalities as well due to their mothers who had drug abuse and they may also have slow development emotionally and socially.

These babies have different behavior as compared with normal babies as they have gone through various unfavorable situations. The problems may be of the following types:

Behavior problems

Hyperactive

Low frustration tolerance

Easily woken

Irritable

Easily startled

Excessive sudden movements

Rapid heartbeat

Impaired motor skills

Urinary tract defects

Delayed social skills

Disturbed sleep patterns

Poor feeding habits

Low birth weight

The drug addicted pregnant women are not only harming themselves but also their unborn fetus. The intensity of harm may vary from the type of drugs these mothers use during pregnancy. Even certain drug prescription can be harmful to a development infant in the womb.

The use of alcohol, cocaine, meth and crack are the most common drugs used by the mothers. Babies, who are exposed to these drugs during their development stages often have to go through great lifelong health issues and are mostly found admitted in the hospitals (Niccolsa, 2012). The newborns can be highly affected by the use of cocaine more than the adults. When a pregnant woman takes cocaine, it remains in their body for a longer period of time and therefore the newborn in the womb gets addicted to cocaine. Due to this the withdrawal process takes place in their nature same like the ...