Soothe & Glow
A musical toy, the Fisher-Price Soothe & Glow plays music for 15 minutes, so it helps to relax babies born to drug-addicted mothers.
Cross Lanes United Methodist Church in Cross Lanes, WV, has found a way to make life a little easier for the newborn babies of drug-addicted mothers, thanks to an inspiration from their pastor's wife, a registered nurse who recently retired.
Patti Nelson, wife of Cross Lanes' pastor the Rev. Gary Nelson, worked in Thomas Memorial Hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, reported Ben Calwell of the Charleston Gazette-Mail. West Virginia is one of the states with a high rate of opioid addiction.
Mrs. Nelson found that musical toys soothed the babies as they went through neonatal abstinence syndrome (also called NAS) or withdrawal from the drugs their mothers took. However, none of the toys played for more than two or three minutes.
Then Mrs. Nelson discovered a Fisher-Price toy called "Soothe & Glow," which plays music for 15 minutes. Cross Lanes took on purchasing the toys as an outreach ministry, and Fisher-Price gave Mrs. Nelson a discount on the first 100 toys. The church has vowed to continue the ministry after Rev. Nelson also retires this summer.