My Granddaughter Takes Drugs and She Has a 7 Month Old Baby

My granddaughter is taking drugs and is in debt with her rent and bills - she is always running out of food for the baby and hardly eats anything herself.

Social Services are involved and she has now told them that she doesn't want her baby. We are so upset we all love her and the baby but we have done all we can and we are getting nowhere.

I am in my seventies so I couldn't have the baby, her dad has a new wife and lives in a one bedroomed house and he has to work and her mum is in a new relationship and he won't have the baby living with them, so it is a hopeless situation. What can we do?

Alcoholism-and-Drug-Addiction-Help.com Answer

The baby's well-being has to be the primary priority - and if no one else in the family is prepared to take over custody of the baby, then Social Services will have to find a good home for him/her.

Because if your granddaughter is so deep into her addiction, she is in no fit state to provide her baby with the love, care and support it needs. But to hear her say she actually doesn't want her baby is absolutely tragic and gives you an indication of how far gone she is.

Until your granddaughter decides she's ready to confront her addiction and does whatever is required to turn her life around, her baby will be better off being brought up by someone who can take better care of her and provide the love the baby needs.

The best thing you as a family can do right now is try and get your granddaughter professional help, in the form of a lengthy inpatient rehab programme. Whether she'll agree to it is another matter entirely and ultimately any form of treatment is only as good as the effort and commitment put into it.

Hopefully your granddaughter does eventually reach a point whereby she's ready to turn her life around, and will then want to take on the responsibility of being a mother again. But you have no control as to if and when that happens.

So right now you simply have to support whatever decision is in your granddaughter's baby's best interests.

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