Children Born Addicted To Drugs

Shaking violently in a hospital crib, two tiny legs twitch and shudder uncontrollably. Wailing, muscle clenching and gasping for breath accompany the disturbing fit-like seizure. But, what makes the image all the more heartbreaking, is the newborn baby's diagnosis. Despite being just weeks old, the tiny baby is suffering the effects of drug withdrawal, having been born addicted to opioids. Every 19 minutes a child in the US is born with an opioid addiction - a devastating affliction inherited from their drug-addict mothers. While for most newborns the first precious weeks of life are full of love, care and adoration, for babies born addicted to drugs their first weeks are long, agonizing and distressing as they battle neonatal abstinence syndrome.