How long do babys go thru withdrawal?

My son was born addicted to drugs. I honestly don't know what all drugs she used, but it was alot. She has never told me exactly what or how much, but her mom told me it was everything and anything she could get her hands on. Ds went through withdrawl for about 6 weeks. His main symptom was grunting. He grunted like he was in pain most of the time those first weeks. He didn't sleep well at all. He even grunted in his sleep. It was so sad. So senseless. Today he is a vibrant, smart, rowdy almost 22 month old who seems to have no lasting effects from his exposure. He does have some digestion issues that concern me. He has loose stools very often. He is not in pain from it and it doesn't seem to bother him. His Pedi said it may be from lacotose intolerance. We have been lactose free for a week now. I've seen some improvement, but not much. Oh and ds's bmom is my dh's cousin! Will your adoption be open? We don't have much contact with ds's bmom due to her lifestyle, but our adoption is open.

My daughter was born exposed and tested positive for multiple substances meth being one of them. It took her about 6 weeks for her to detox but she was positive at birth. I am not 100% sure but I think the baby would detox with the mom if she stopped using while she was pregnant. Don't quote me but if it takes 4-6 weeks out of the womb I don't think it would take much longer inside the womb. But that doesn't mean there won't be any other lasting effects, not that I am saying that there will be....you just can't be sure KWIM? My daughter's main symptoms were also grunting like she was in pain, her body would tense up and tremor, she would sweat a lot and didn't have good skin color (grayish skin tone), she didn't sleep well and wasn't easily consoled. Those symptoms were almost non existent after 4 weeks and totally gone by 6 weeks. Now that I am thinking back I honestly barely remember that time....she is a beautiful, gregarious, hilarious 15 month old with no developmental delays that we can see so far.ETA: my daughter's bmom is my cousin! We don't have a ton of contact with her either. It varies from month to month.

reet, There are alot more relative adoptions that I thought!

The Emom is my cousin's daughter. I think it's called 1st cousin once removed. It will be an open adoption, and I'm hoping this program will work for her and she'll have a different lifestyle than the one she has been in. If she stays in our hometown after birth, we are likely to have lots of contact. If she goes back to her hometown, not so much. I sure hope baby is thru detoxing by the time it is born. It must be heartbreaking to watch!

I hope baby is thru detoxing as well. It IS heartbreaking to watch. It also made me very angry. I wanted to jerk a knott in bmom's tail! Not literally, but YKWIM. We didn't know we were going to adopt when we first took custody of our son. He was 5 days old and so tiny and sweet. I bonded with him instantly. I KNEW I would never want to give him back. I was so happy when his bmom asked us to adopt. It never occured to me to get back ground medical info or anything like that. Ds was not screened at birth(mistake on hospital's part). So all we knew was we were in love with this baby and it didn't matter how things would turn out, healthwise. The only thing that mattered was him becoming our son. Being drug addicted at birth is terrible, but it doesn't always have lasting effects! THANK GOD!

I guess there are a lot of relative adoptions out there! It was hard for me to tell people that aspect of the adoption at first because most people knew she was born exposed and I didn't want that to reflect on me. It sounds stupid to say that now but I felt that people would judge me for her mistakes. I hope everything goes well for you, baby, and emom. Hopefully she will stick to the program she is in and get herself clean. For her sake as well and the baby's. Good luck to you and I will say a prayer for everyone involved.

Both times my son was going thru withdrawal, about 6 weeks. It is very, very difficult. Like you're doing, be prepared for the baby to be going through withdrawal.

Our daughters bmom used meth the entire pregnancy and even was living in a meth house (where they manufacture the drug) Upon checking into the hospital in labor bmom tested positive but E. once she was born was tested and she tested negative but they kept her for 48 hours observation and she seemed to have none of the withdrawal symptoms. The dr. said it was possible that mom used on and off and had only used to bring on her labor which is why E tested negative. Meth only takes approx 72 hours to metabolise out of the bloodstream of an adult. Unfortunately I have a brother who is heavily addicted to Meth so I have some first hand experience. If he knows he is going to be tested (parole officer etc) as long as he stops using 4-5 days prior he tests clean every time. Its a horrible life ruining drug... anyways... E. is gonna be a year old next month and she is an absolute delight and so far has had no long term affects from the drug use. But as you can see from others stories on here, it seems to be pretty random in that some have babies who have withdrawal problems while others seem not to... Im not sure why, but with the meth exposure in particular there seems to be a lot of gray area as far as the known effects. good luck gina.

Our pediatrician told us that it takes about 2 weeks for the majority of the drugs to leave their system an about another 2-4 weeks for the residual to move thorough on meth kids. We had an 18 month old foster child who tested positive and after 2 weeks we noticed a huge difference in him. He was moved to a relative after 3 weeks, but we were really beginning to see a marked improvement at that point.