At three years old, mid-meltdown, Theresa Harmon's son looked up at her and said: "I wanna calm down, Mommy, but I don't know how." She's a social worker. She spent years in child welfare before she became a mom. She was still lost.
Doctors told her what they tell every family: "He'll go through withdrawal, and then he'll be fine." Teresa has spent the last decade fighting that myth.
This episode gets honest about what opioid exposure actually means, not the terrifying Google version, not the everything's-fine-after-the-NICU version, but the truth that lives in between.
In this episode:
- What actually counts as an opioid and why fentanyl exposure specifically tends to show up as more severe hyperactivity, inattention, and sleep trouble
- The myth Teresa's spent a decade fighting: "he'll go through withdrawal, and then he'll be fine" — and why the neonatologists repeating it never actually go home with these kids
- Why the "no lasting effects" story and the "everything is ruined" story are both wrong
- The two most common diagnoses beyond NAS/NOWS
- The hospital protocol that's replaced older withdrawal scoring, and the swaddling, dim lighting, skin-to-skin, and breastfeeding tools that help at home
- What to actually ask a pediatrician before trusting them with your child's history and why "I've worked with adopted kids before" tells you nothing
- Teresa's own son at three, mid-meltdown, telling her he wanted to calm down and didn't know how — and what she's learned about that moment in the decade since
About Theresa:
Teresa Harmon is a social worker turned psychiatric nurse practitioner specializing in kids in foster care and adoption who have prenatal opioid exposure. After her oldest son was born opioid-dependent and she couldn't find the support she needed, she founded To The Moon and Back, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit now in its 10th year, serving families nationally through case management, support groups, provider education, and published research with Child Trends. She's an adoptive mom of three, ages 13, 8, and 2.
Connect with Theresa:
To The Moon & Back: tothemoonandback.org
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tothemoonma
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ToTheMoonMA/
Beyond NAS Private Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/beyondnas
Research mentioned:
- TTMAB's 2 published studies (Theresa to send links)
- Dr. Jonathan Davis, Tufts Newborn Medicine — created the alcohol-free methadone formulation for NAS weaning; POE/development research (Theresa to send)
- Child Trends (Bethesda, MD) — TTMAB research partner
- Eat Sleep Console (ESC) — hospital assessment + sensory-based comfort approach for NAS babies
- Kennedy Donovan Center — early intervention (Theresa's rapid-fire shout-out)
- Perkins School for the Blind — flagging high rates of Cortical Visual Impairment (CVI) in POE kids
- MA legislation: automatic early-intervention eligibility bill (Theresa to send status/action link)
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