Addicted Baby How To

We brought Ashton home from the "Pediatric Interim Care Center" (PICC), when he was 21 days old. Ashton was born addicted to opiates and abandoned by his mother. PICC was very thorough in training us on how to take care of a baby born addicted to drugs. It is important to know NOT to OVER STIMULATE these babies. You will know when they have been overstimulated because you have fed then, burped them, changed them, and they are still crying.. for the first couple months it is important to go slow. Keep them in a quiet area. Always keep the baby swaddled. Keep lighting low ( bright lighting is disturbing and causes overstimulation). Care and holding of the baby should be limited to 2 people only ( the SAME two people), slowly after 2 months introduce new people. Always hold the baby when feeding, no bottle propping. These babies need to learn comfort and this is the perfect time. I can't say enough about swaddling, it really helped us so much, PICC said that they swaddle children up to the age of nine months. Also they instructed us on how to swaddle safely in a car seat. All of these can be googled and are very important.When your baby gets overstimulated and you have fed, burped, changed, and he/she is still crying... Find a nice quiet area, turn the lights down. Remember NO music, this is Not soothing to your recovering baby. Safely and snugly swaddle your baby. Give baby pacifier if used. (Mine used a pacifier and this is great, these babies have been through a lot) Still fussy.. put baby to your shoulder and nice soft rythmic pat on bottom.The first few months are the most important. We were very blessed to have great teachers at PICC. Our boy was caught up to his peers at 9 months old with no adverse effects from being born addicted. I feel it is important to mention that we did also have 5 other children in the house aged 5-16:laughing: it was definitely a challenge for everyone but well worth it. I hope this helps... These tricks also help for colic babies!!I had the pleasure of learning directly from them and just found out that they have a page on the internet outlining everything and explaining it all... They even put in some I forgot.. here it is and best of luck.