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About one in five babies (20%) of such mothers have withdrawal symptoms mild enough not to require any treatment; for the rest, some kind of treatment will be required.
Timing of withdrawal symptoms for the baby
It is crucial for all concerned to be aware that Methadone withdrawal in the baby
will occur several days -
It is therefore important that the mother should be able to recognize the withdrawal symptoms, to enable her to seek medical attention quickly and in time.
Methadone withdrawal symptoms in babies
There is usually a number of symptoms to varying degrees. These include:
Ø Severe irritability
Ø Restlessness,
Ø A high-
Ø Refusing to feed,
Ø Rapid and labored breathing
Ø General distress.
These are similar to heroin withdrawal symptoms, except that with heroin, the symptoms appear much more quickly, that is; within a day or two after delivery.
Breast-feeding while on heroin or methadone
Small amounts of both these drugs cross into the milk. If the mother is unable to stop the drug habit, she should consider bottle feeding.
The use of Buprenorphine (Subutex) in pregnancy
Buprenorphine, more popularly known by the brand names Subutex and Suboxone is another
heroin substitute. It is another opiate which was actually first marketed as a pain-
Buprenorphine has been demonstrated to gradually reduce the craving for opiates such as heroin and also reduce severity of withdrawal symptoms. As such, it is another drug now used as a heroin substitute.
Because of lack of sufficient information about its effects on human pregnancy, the advice is, if necessary to use this drug during pregnancy fully aware that concerns about its safety remain. If a woman who conceives is abusing heroin, methadone will therefore be the recommended substitute.
Buprenorphine is also available in the form of skin patches (Transtec™, Norspan™) for use in chronic pain.
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