Newborns

Caffeine can induce epilepsy in newborns

A research has found that if women drink too much coffee during pregnancy can increase the risk of their babies developing epileptic seizures or fits.//Studies have found that caffeine may be linked to the development of epileptic discharges in cells from newborn mammals that have been briefly starved of oxygen. A research team from the Institut National De La Santé in France examined...

Massage therapy regulates sleep cycle of newborns

A new study involving twenty mothers and their full-term infants, revealed that massage therapy helps newborns develop a more regular sleep cycle. Dr. Sari Goldstein from Tel Aviv University says that massage therapy by mothers in the perinatal // period helps infants coordinate their circadian systems with environmental cues. Circadian rhythm is a biological clock that helps humans an...

Barcodes to become newborns' ID

A new system has been developed to prevent mix-ups over identification of newborn babies. The system, which records the fingerprints of newborns as barcodes, has been introduced in the maternity ward of La Zarzuela Hospital in Madrid, Spain. As soon as babies are born, their fingerprints, and those of their// mothers, are stored in electronic barcodes which mother and baby wear on their...

Gene linked to 'Missing Eye' condition in newborns

Bilateral Anophthalmia is a devastating condition, which is very rare, affecting approximately one in every 100,000 births. In this condition, babies are born without eyes i.e. they are born with empty eye sockets. This condition occurs due to the foetus not developing eyes in the normal way in the first 28 days of pregnancy. Babies born with this condition are often fitted with prosthetic eyes t...

Screening Newborns Questioned

New research shows screening newborns for biochemical genetic disorders may improve a child’s outcome //and reduce stress in parents. However, researchers say false-positive screening results may increase stress levels in parents. Previously, screening for genetic disorders required a separate test, but now, doctors can screen for up to 20 genetic disorders with just one sample of blood...

Cooling Can Reduce The Risk Of Brain Damage In Oxygen Deprived Newborns

Newborns deprived of oxygen can have a reduced risk of brain damage and cerebral palsy by having their brains cooled // for 72 hours after birth according to a recent study. Babies that received an inadequate supply of oxygen to the brain during delivery showed signs of being at a high risk for brain injury. However researchers say brain damage does not happen immediately when babies ar...

Newborns Know how to make eye contact

According to a recent study, infants as young as even 3 days old can tell whether someone is trying to make eye contact. Teresa Farroni, study's lead author, doubts that humans have evolved to be sensitive to direct gaze very early in life as a survival necessity. Farroni is a researcher with the Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development in the School of Psychology at Birkbeck College, Universit...

New Portable Helmet Scanner To Examine Newborns

A new portable helmet scanner has been developed for premature and newborn babies that helps doctors save them by generating images showing // how the baby brain is working. Currently, there are two main ways of performing brain scans on small babies. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can provide data on brain function, but MRI scanners need sedation, which carries a degree of risk. <...

Newborns Affected By Antidepressant Intake Of Mothers

Researchers have advised expectant mothers to reduce the intake of anti-depressant drugs, as it is likely to affect the new born with withdrawal symptoms. // The newborn babies of such mothers display symptoms like disturbed sleep, gastrointestinal problems, high-pitched crying, and tremors within 48 hours after birth. These symptoms are higher in the case of babies of women who had...

Use Of Alcohol During Pregnancy Affects Newborns

A new study in Australia has found that babies born to women, who are hospitalized for alcohol-related reasons during pregnancy, have poor birth weight and lower APGAR scores and are more likely to be put under special care. // These women have a higher number of previous pregnancies, smoke more heavily and are less likely to be privately insured, according to the study in the April i...

Exposure To Solvents May Harm Pregnant Women And Newborns

Pregnant women and newborns should avoid exposure to the fumes of solvents used in house renovations.Contact with such materials, which contain dyes and lacquers//, could give rise to allergies in young children, said Norbert Englert, an environmental medical specialist at Germany's environmental agency. Pregnant women should leave renovation work to their husbands or hired profession...

Pre-gestational Diabetes in Mothers enhances the Risk of Hypocalcaemia in Newborns

The American Academy of Pediatrics, at its annual meeting in Atlanta has offered an insight into the calcium levels of infants born to diabetic mothers//. Hypocalcaemia or low calcium in new borns is an outcome of high blood sugar levels in pregnant women, and can lead to certain difficulties, which may include deficient bone formation. To understand the connection, Dr. Sam...

Newborns' Cerebral Palsy Risk Increased By Alzheimer's Gene

Researchers at Children's Memorial Research Center have, for the first time, identified Apolipoprotein E (APOE), a gene associated with heightened risk //for Alzheimer's disease in adults, can also increase the likelihood that brain-injured newborns would develop cerebral palsy. This is the first identification of a gene that increases susceptibility to cerebral palsy. Results of the st...

Newborns With Respiratory Distress Potentially Have Rare Genetic Disease

Newborns with respiratory distress should be evaluated for primary ciliary dyskinesia, a rare genetic disease that has features similar// to cystic fibrosis. According to Thomas Ferkol, M.D., Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, reports that about 80 percent of patients with primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) have a history of newborn respiratory distress....

Harmful Effects Of Glucocorticoids On Newborns Owing To Prenatal Exposure

It has been found by the scientists from the University of Edinburgh in UK that when nonhuman primate African vervet monkeys (Chloroceus aethiops) //in their prenatal stage were exposed to glucocorticoids it had a life long destabilizing effect on cardiovascular, metabolic, and neuroendocrine function. Glucocorticoids are still widely used in obstetric practice. So, Jonathan Seckl and c...

PFOA and PFOS Detected in Newborns

An analysis of nearly 300 umbilical cord blood samples led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health shows that //newborn babies are exposed to perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) while in the womb. PFOS and PFOA are polyfluoroalkyl compounds (PFCs)—ubiquitous man-made chemicals used in a variety of consumer products, including as a protectiv...

Low Weight Newborns at Greater Risk in Community Hospitals

A research team at Stanford University School of Medicine and the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System states that more than 20 percent of low weight new- born deaths between 1991 and 2000 in California, could have been prevented. The babies would have survived if they had been born in different hospitals. Risky deliveries should be referred to highly experienced regional...

Researcher Studying Disease That Cripples Newborns

Each year, the parents of an estimated one in 20,000 newborns are shocked to learn their child has type 1 congenital myotonic dystrophy (CDM1), a progressive and crippling genetic disorder. Although doctors know that babies inherit CDM1 from their mother and prenatal tests are available, many children are not diagnosed until they are born. In these instances, mothers dont know that...

Exposure to Epilepsy Drug During Pregnancy Can Increase Risk of Mental Defects in Newborns

Women with epilepsy who took the seizure drug valporate, which is marketed by Abbott Laboratories under the brand name Depakote, while pregnant increased their risk of having an infant with mental defects, according to a study presented Thursday at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology in Boston, the New York Times reports. Kimford Meador, professor of neurology a...

Lack of Medical Facilities Have Claimed Lives of Newborns at Chhattisgarh Hospital

As many as 178 newborn babies died at a government-run district hospital in Chhattisgarh during January-May 2007, Health Minister Amar Agrawal told the state assembly Tuesday . Amid protests and allegations by the opposition Congress members about the lack of basic medical facilities at the hospital, Agrawal said the hospital in Raigarh district had reported 424 deaths of newly born...