High-tech cribs help Jefferson nurses soothe babies as they withdraw from opioids

WASHINGTON TWP. - The cry of a baby in withdrawal from opioids is high-pitched and often inconsolable. Pierced with belly pain, the newborns draw their legs up close and wail, sometimes for an hour at a time.

Their cries set everyone on edge: nurses, moms, doctors, and even volunteer "cuddlers" called in to help soothe writhing little ones. 

With the number of babies born with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) on the rise, a Gloucester County hospital brought in new technology to help calm and shush fussy babies to sleep.

Dismissed as a robotic nanny by critics on social media, the SNOO Smart Sleeper has become an indispensable tool at Jefferson Washington Township Hospital, not just for babies in withdrawal from substances, but also for preemies and generally cranky fussbudgets.

More:Camden County College to offer recovery specialist certification

Swaddled babies snapped into the bassinet are gently rocked, as white noise mimics the sound of the womb. If they cry, the devices increases the intensity of rocking and the volume of the white noise. If the infant still doesn't calm down, the device stops and alerts caregivers. 

Introduced here about 19 months ago at the request of a Jefferson neonatologist, the SNOO quickly won nurses over, said Lynn Stites, an assistant nurse manager in the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit. After nearly a year of trialing the device borrowed from the maker, Happiest Baby, Stites won permission to buy it and a second SNOO.

"It definitely works. Oh, my God, definitely," Stites said. "The babies sleep there three to four hours, and don't keep waking up every hour ... this keeps them to sleep. It's sort of amazing."

The device is also at the center of a dozen clinical studies now being designed or already underway to measure how it affects the sleep and outcomes of newborns and their sleep-deprived parents. 

Happiest Baby is recruiting local hospitals to participate in a study on how the SNOO affects the use of medication and the length of hospitalization for babies withdrawing from substances. South Shore Hospital in South Weymouth, Massachusetts, is the first hospital to participate; others, including Stites' hospital, are expected to follow.

There is no standard protocol for treating babies with NAS. Typically, hospitals administer decreasing amounts of morphine or methadone to ease symptoms that include pain, severe diarrhea, vomiting, tremors, difficulty sleeping, excessive crying, poor feeding, dehydration, temperature instability and, in severe cases, possible seizures. 

Babies in withdrawal can spend a few weeks to a few months in the hospital, depending on the severity of their symptoms. Full-term babies are more severely affected than premature infants.  

Dr. Harvey Karp, a pediatrician and author of "The Happiest Baby on the Block," founded the company that makes the device. In some states, as many as 2 to 3 percent of newborns are born with NAS, he said. 

"They're on the jagged edge, basically. That can lead to extended hospitalizations, while we slowly wean the baby off of medication," Karp said during a phone interview with USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey.

Treatment is evolving, and hospitals are starting to shift babies with NAS from NICUs and onto regular maternity floors, where mothers can room with their babies as they both recover. Karp said the SNOO is a safer way for infants to fall asleep, rather than tucked into bed with their exhausted mothers or propped up in swings. 

"By imitating this womb experience (with) sound, motion and cuddling, we're able to put them in the groove and help them sleep better," Karp said. 

On a quiet afternoon at Jefferson's NICU, Stites wheeled a SNOO out of a storage room and asked a pair of new parents if they would allow their 19-day-old daughter to demonstrate how the bassinet works. Born premature and otherwise healthy, Princess Jackson was already sound asleep when Stites snapped the infant into the device. As it gently rocked her, a white noise machine whooshed around her. 

Babies with NAS who are assigned a SNOO in the hospital have slightly shorter hospital stays so far, said Stites — about a day or two less. 

Around 1990, she recalled, the Stratford hospital where she first worked might see one or two babies affected in a year. The numbers began to skyrocket about six or seven years ago. All mothers are now routinely tested for drugs.

The Washington Township hospital typically has one or two babies with NAS at a time, and once had eight in care at the same time, Stites said.

The hospital still calls in volunteer cuddlers to help soothe fussy babies, but even they get exhausted by the newborns' demands. She estimated each of her SNOOs are used about 20 days out of a 30-day period, and she hopes to get a third device.

"It just lulls them," Stites said. "They're also swaddled so tightly, and they like that ... it just calms them down." 

Kim Mulford: @CP_KimMulford; (856) 486-2448; kmulford@gannettnj.com

Also in South Jersey

• Enter the haggis: South Jersey venues pay tribute to poet Robert Burns
• Artist painting 'Faces of Cancer' doesn't live to see her exhibit
• Report highlights health, economic, educational gains in Camden