Codeine Linked to Newborn Deaths
So far one newborn has been confirmed dead from a morphine overdose after the mother was prescribed codeine tablets. When the baby was first sent to the coroner's office, it was thought that he died of sudden infant death syndrome. But toxicology tests were performed on the baby and a fatal level of morphine was discovered.
The mother was prescribed two tablets, each containing a mixture of 30 milligrams of codeine and 500 milligrams of acetaminophen, four times a day or every six hours, after she underwent an episiotomy. On the second day after her surgery, she was told to take one tablet every six hours. When her breast milk was tested, high levels of morphine were found.
In Canada alone, approximately 150,000 women annually are prescribed codeine after childbirth, especially after cesarean sections and episiotomies. Although only one percent of Caucasians (compared with 30 percent Ethiopians and 10 percent Southern Europeans) are estimated to have multiple copies of this gene, this still leaves an enormous number of newborns potentially at risk.
Testing mothers for the gene is expensive. To prevent overdoses, doctors advise not to prescribe codeine to nursing mothers and to watch babies for signs of morphine overdose. Signs to watch for in a newborn are excessive sleep, lethargy, and difficulty breast feeding. In the case of the newborn that died in Ontario, on the 12th day he had gray skin and decreased milk intake. He died on the 13th day.
