We all are familiar with drug addiction condition in adults but have you ever heard that the newborn is addicted to drugs? Seems little unrealistic but it is found in our society if the mother of the newborn is also a drug addict. The newborn child is not addicted to the drug like the adults; in a more accurate sense, they show the signs and symptoms of drug dependency. When an adult is refrained and cut from the drugs suddenly for a certain period, he or she will start showing some symptoms known as withdrawal symptoms. In the case of the newborn children with addiction, they show some symptoms in the first 3 years of their life which is known as NAS (neonatal abstinence syndrome).
The cases are discovered in Scottland. Since 2015, around 600 babies have been born addicted to harmful substances. The condition is worse in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde, where over the last 3 years around 178 similar cases have been found.
A child with NAS usually manifests with a range of features such as high pitched crying, uncontrollable trembling and hyperactivities. If these features are found in a newborn baby of a known addicted mother, NAs is the most likely diagnosis.