A TODDLER almost died after drinking methadone found in her heroin addict mother’s handbag.

A serious case review report published yesterday recommended health, social and police workers take more steps to help the children of drug users.

But the report, from Oxfordshire Safeguarding Children’s Board, said the accident was not preventable.

The report said the mother of the unnamed toddler – known as Child N – delayed calling an ambulance for about 90 minutes after the incident in Didcot in September last year.

It said the child stopped breathing in the ambulance and needed resuscitating but later made a full recovery in hospital.

The mother, also not identified, was jailed for three months at Oxford Crown Court in June after admitting child neglect.

The report said attempts were made to provide support to the woman and her baby but they were turned down or appointments missed.

It said too that she had another child taken into care when it was aged five months. The child was born addicted to heroin and its mother was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to supply class A drugs while heavily pregnant.

Maggie Blyth, independent chairwoman of the Oxfordshire Safeguarding Children Board, said: “This case raises important questions about the extent to which drug dependency in itself should be seen as a major risk to children, and how those risks should be managed.”

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