Officials fear for infants born to prescription drug addicts

[alp227]

(CNN) -- According to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, prescription drug overdose deaths in Florida are up a staggering 265% since 2003. But it's not just the deaths that have Florida officials worried; it's the births.

"We saw the number of crack babies that died, and this is just another version of that," Broward County Sheriff Al Lamberti said. "We all need to be concerned."

According to state health records, 635 Florida babies were born addicted to prescription drugs in the first half of 2010 alone. South Florida doctors and intensive care nurses report an dramatic uptick in babies born hooked on pills that their mothers abused while pregnant.

"They go through withdrawal symptoms," said Mary Osuch, the head nurse at Broward General Medical Center's neonatal intensive care unit. "They're crampy, miserable. They sweat. They can have rapid breathing. Sometimes, they can even have seizures."

full: http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/07/27/addicted.at.birth/index.html

[HockeyMom]

1. Florida doctors are too quick to prescribe and OVERDOSE

My husband got THREE different narcotics for "pain" with his SECOND hip replacement surgery, even after he complained that he went through WITHDRAWAL symptoms the last surgery. I have had my own experience with this and not sith surgery, but just plain old dental work. You are going me what? Be an educated comsumer especially if you don't fit the mold of the average American. Having lived in this body (5'2" 100 100lbs.) I KNOW I cannot take the same meds of an average adult. THINK CHILD when you give me meds. Unfortunately, I HAVE TO POLICE this myself because DOCTORS DON'T.