Although you will occasionally see the term 'withdrawal' used in the
literature discussions of cocaine-exposed infants (and all the time in the
nursery) the general consensus (by my reading)  is that infants are TOXIC
from cocaine, and the irritability stems from the disorganized migration of
their little neurons in their CNS. There is not a withdrawal syndrome per
se, and although many of the comfort and positioning interventions we use
for narcotic-exposed infants will work for cocaine-exposed infants, there
are no really effective drug therapies (although sedating them is 'helpful'
to caretakers, it doesn't help infants figure out what they need to be
learning to do in those first days - kind of like epidurals.)  Many of the
toxicity symptoms will disappear fairly quickly (days) as the drug clears
the  system (That is not to say there are not long-term effects, however).

In short, if this mom can stop using cocaine, breastfeeding will have all
the advantages for her and her child that it can for any dyad. And the CNS
advantages of breastmilk fat are certainly desirable in a system insulted by
cocaine. And it may also empower her to stay off (a really tough thing to do
even with wonderful treatment programs, lots of support and lots of
committment on the part of the mother - look at Chasnoff's work in Chicago)


Moe Kane, NNP and LACTNET lurker
Tucson, where it's still way too hot


>From: JMowatt <[log in to unmask]>

>My question is: would BF while discontinuing the cocaine, help her
>baby with sudden withdrawal symptoms?? I am only curious for my >own
>knowledge. I would never counsel a mom on this type of situation

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