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Hey there,didn't want to read and run...I have no experience in this area, but the only thing I would say - if you were having a birth child, how would you respond if your child didn't develop "normally"... I know we get to choose a lot of elements in this journey, but if you were expecting you would have no say in the matter. I have a friend who's baby was born blind, and with a number of hormonal issues involving daily injections... Their little girl is now 14years old, and a national level swimmer... I guess all i'm saying, is if you feel a connection, and want to proceed, maybe its the right thing to do... who knows what the future has ahead for any of us...

Hi,There is a BAAF book which is really good on this subject called - Children exposed to parental substance misuse.Withdrawal symptoms are not always an indicator of harm caused either as it depends on frequency, quantity, drugs taken and then all the other factors ie was alcohol used too, genetics, where the drugs came from.I remember the medical advisor at our prep saying that methadone causes more effects on newborns than herion but protocol was still to encourage pregnant addicts to get onto a methadone program rather than total abstinence for a number of reasons. You also have to consider if BM was abusing drugs to self medicate a known or unknown illness.My advice would be to read, read & ask Qs to get a worst case scenario & if you think you can cope with this then go with your heart.In answer to your Q, I don't think there is any long term stats because of all the variables involved. However there are success stories and I know some adopters locally who have this in their children's history and they have very normal family lives to the outside world. HTH x

Hello,I dont have any experience in this either as I am at the same stage as yourself however I do disagree with dizzy debs.... sorry!! At the beginning I had the same opinion myself about possible problems that can occur in birth children as wel l as adopted children. My bc son has serious health issue, however I know I didn't drink or take drugs in pregnancy. He has experienced no domestic violence inutero or after birth and has not been traumatised in any way.Has been loved and cherished since the day he was born therefore he has ( up till now) the ability to cope with his condition and a strong confident attatchment which will help him navigate the world. I know from past posts that you have a young bc therefore you are right to question every link and research as much as possible. Lead with your head rather than your heart...I know that is so hard. Im struggling with that myself but if you have a criteria of what you as a family can cope with whilst keeping your bc in mind then stick to it. Good luck and I hope someone with the answers your looking for comes along soon. Wig. Xx

Sorry spent so long typing on my rubbish phone Groovy gertie came along with some great advice!

I came across this article which is medically technical but if you are interested someone like your GP or the medical advisor should be able to decode it for you.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3188826/It talks about all the other things that can confuse studies of drug exposure and one of the conclusions is that children do better in non-family care (i.e. fostered or adopted out of their birth family) than if they stay in family care. Some of the things that people say also (like X drug causes hyperactivity - I've heard this for almost every possible legal and illegal drug actually!) don't seem to be confirmed by the data either.Can I just say I HATE HATE HATE people calling children "a drug baby" or "an alcohol baby" or "a dyslexic". They are a child first, and then after that you can talk about the circumstances or difficulties they have. You don't talk (any more) about "my cousin IS Down's" or "he's AN autistic". We say someone HAS Down Syndrome or HAS autism.

No one should be saying that a child from this sort of background will probably grow up fine with love and support. That is incredibly optimistic.You will never find the answer to your question - it's really a case of your ability to take the chance on this child. Every child you consider will have some sort of tricky background to come to terms with - there are very few children who come from pleasant backgrounds up for adoption in the UK.If you feel a connection, that's a great start. Then it's a case of being able to cope if you end up with difficulties.Most adopters have good times even with the trickiest of children. I don't think it's helpful to think of children as 'fine' or dropping into some sort of state where you wish you had never gone ahead. It's much more complicated than that. I have children with a vast array of conditions between them (including autism) and it's not as dispiriting and life-destroying as I would have thought pre-placement. And our children were also supposed to be 'fine'.Good luck with your decision.

Thanks everyone for your replies. Apologies for putting in the heading Herin Withdrawal Baby - I didn't mean to label the poor mite just needed a short concise title for this! I really value all of your replies and advice - this forum is amazing!We're still very much making a decision and want to get as much info as we can. I'll update you as we go?!!Thanks xxx

Hi there, just to add, youngest Paperdoll's BM was a heroin addict and taking methodone while pregnant with her. She was born 10 weeks early and weighing only a couple of pounds, but is bright, beautiful, loving and loveable. She is also very immature, has huge problems concentrating and has some behavioural problems, and I spend endless hours uselessly wondering if this is down to the drugs, attachment problems, or the complete lack of stimulation and boundaries she had in the first three years of her life.Her older sister has mild learning difficulties and much more complex emotional and behavioural problems, but I don't know if BM was using drugs when pregnant with her. I think she is probably worse affected because she was with birth family for six years.It's a hugely complex issue, and there are so many variables. Good luck with a tough decision,xxx

Hi......we're in a similar position...heroin, cocaine & weed during both pregnancies, withdrawal programme from birth for several weeks.Ask specifically the following;Do you know the weight, head circumference, sleeping patterns, Have you seen copies of the initial medical assessment which should have been carried out at time?Long term effects of withdrawal & heroin impact is unknown....I've had same questions you have and accept now we won't have definitive answers we want!Get up to date doctor reports - see all the ones which have been done.Happy to pm to share specifics we've found out about....Xx

No direct experience myself, but I heard from an experienced FC that drugs during pregnancy weren't as damaging as alcohol (which I understand can prevent the brain from developing fully – while drugs can be 'just' a matter of withdrawal... with whatever imbalance this might bring to a developing brain). Surely the child's doctor should be able to inform you further? And social workers should be able to tell you more about BM's usage (was it long-term? daily? heavy? was she using all 'at once' or only small doses of what she could get her hands on? all this can make a difference to how a growing baby would have been affected).

But many birth mothers who are taking drugs will be doing all sorts of other things too. And why are they taking drugs?There is a big difference between a girl from a stable family who has gone a bit off the rails and taken some drugs and someone who has been in care themselves, along with most of their immediate family, dropped out of school early, indulged in all sorts of risky behaviour, including drugs.I think it helps to look at the bps' wider families and see if there is a history of chaos with many of them "known to social services" or if the drugs are a stand-alone.

you might want to find out about the experience in hospital - if the baby was in the special care baby unit they may have had severe withdrawals - which would mean lots of distress, multiple carers , being left crying due to staff being busy caring for several babies, serious sore bottom due to explosive diarrhoea, feeding/sleep problemsall of which must have some effect on the babynever mind the pre birth experience, genetic heritage, alcohol use etcapparently sudden withdrawal from heroine by a pregnant mum can result in neonatal death if the birth mum breast fed/expressed breast milk the withdrawal period would be less severea newborn withdrawing is going through an extremely distressing time

Re Reportsif you do wish to go further with finding out more, someone has mentioned medical reports.Do insist on seeing them, and if you are meeting with any paed etc, insist on copies of the reports in advance, to make the most of the meeting time. We were supposed to have rec'd lengthy written reports in advance, but due to admin error we weren't sent them. any good paed will want prospective adopters to have the full story to make an informed decision / to have informed discussions. Our paed was annoyed that we'd not been properly informed, and I sensed this wasn't the first time.Good luck with finding out more,BB2

Hi, I'm a foster carer who has looked after numerous babies born withdrawing from a variety of drugs - often Heroin. Whilst it is often repeated that alcohol does more damage than drugs I have yet to come across a drug abusing mother who doesn't also abuse alcohol so it's hard to know the truth in this. Methadone does definitely seem harder for a baby to withdraw from, but I would have to point out that a lot of mums using methadone are doing so in addition to Heroin, not instead of. In my experience it usually takes a baby about 4 months to be free from the worst of their withdrawal symptoms. This then leaves them about 4 months behind with their "normal" development. Some babies have caught up to their peers by the time they leave me, others fall further behind. When I first started fostering a child born addicted to Heroin her specialist told me there were 3 specific times the drug addiction would most likely show an effect - at birth, upon starting school and upon becoming a teenager. At birth it would be shown physically, upon starting school educationally and upon becoming a teenager in terms of personality (eg temper, addictive personality). I'd have to say that personally ALL the babies I've cared for with drug addiction have had real tempers. They've also all had problems with their digestive systems, and picked up more bugs than other babies. A number of them have asthma, eczema, allergies. I keep in touch with several of the children and none of them appear to have had any more, or less, problems than the children I've fostered who weren't born addicted to drugs. On the other hand, I have also fostered a couple of children born addicted who were then cared for at home for several years. They display ALL the signs listed on websites about the effects of drug misuse on children - hyperactivity, no concentration skills, lack of social skills, aggression etc.

"LIKE" No More Tears response.......very helpful

Sorry, pressed submit by mistake!I meant to put that I think environment plays as big a part in the child's development as the initial withdrawal.I also meant to advise you to check medical records very carefully - the babies should have had HIV tests, and Hepatitus. A couple of the babies I cared for were positive for Hepatitus and in one case it wasnt until I mentioned it at introductions that new parents became aware of this...

Hi. Have sent you a pm but thought it might be useful to comment on some of the posts here.Re LOs 'testing positive for Hep' this does not mean that they have any form of Hep, but that they have specific Hep antibodies, which means that they have been in contact in the past, and have therefore developed the antibodies----just as we FCs who have our Hep B immunisations have the antibodies.Re developmental issues, soooo difficult to know what is related directly to the withdrawal, pre birth experiences, early weeks experiences. True, a baby who is ill enough to be in SCBU is a bad way, but I would say that this is preferable to being with Mum, then being removed. From my own experiences I know of the dedicated care that these LOs have in SCBU---perhaps we are lucky here, though the staff themselves admit that they can't give the LO the continual 1-1 care that we FCs can do. our current LO was on the longest withdrawal program that any medic involved has known. LO is bright, only cross when needs a dirty nappy changed, is hungry or tired, BUT, did not give any indication when had a chest infection. As our GP said---after what they had experienced, a chest infection is 'nothing', so I would suggest that this is also something to bear in mind, illnesses may not be as evident .

Hi Imp, yes I should have made it clear that the child tested positive for Hep antibodies but don't think this detracts from the point I was making, which was that social workers might "forget" to mention facts like this if they have a child who is proving difficult to place. I second your comment about the fantastic work the nurses in SCBU (NICU here) do with these babies too. Ours encourage foster carers to go and visit as soon as possible, often staying overnight, so that babies aren't left alone and the only time I've heard one crying in there was when I had to give one his first bath!!

HiI have a 5 year old, only been with me afew months, born with heroin withdrawal, mother using heroin and methadone. So far nothing terrible to report, but she does have problems with her digestive system and eczema. She is pretty much a delight, though can be bossy and ill tempered. I can see the temper getting worse as she gets older. (I found No More Tears post really interesting)She does have enuresis during the day and night, but I'm not putting that down to withdrawal more towards neglect.Sorry I can't be of help regarding long term effects.best wishes