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Premature babies are more likely to have autism.
Babies born under 4 pounds, 7 ounces, are five times more likely to have autism, a new study published in Pediatrics has found.
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia looked at more than 1,000 children born with low birth weights (under 2000 grams), most often due to premature birth, and found they had a higher-than-average risk of developing autism spectrum disorders.
MedPage Today reports that while it has been well established that, “… low birth weight and prematurity put children at risk of cognitive and motor disability …,” this new study confirms that the risk of autism spectrum disorders among these children is high as well, though it doesn’t prove any direct link between low birth weight and autism.
The study also found that boys born with low birth weight were more likely to have autism than girls.
If your little one was born prematurely, you may be in for a lifetime of health troubles
Premature babies face major health risks at birth, and often require months of intensive medical care.
The health risks don’t stop when they head home from the hospital. A new study finds that people born prematurely face a substantially increased risk of dying as young adults. For the most part, if they survive infancy, they make it through childhood and adolescence. But between the ages of 18 to 36, survivors of preterm birth are at a higher risk of death than their peers who were born at term.
What is going on there?
Can mouthwash ward off early labor?
Listen up, pregnant ladies! In the “weird but apparently real” files, there’s a new finding that regularly using mouthwash can prevent preterm labor.
It’s long been known that women with gum disease have more premature babies than those with healthy gums. What hasn’t been clear is whether or not there’s a causal relationship.
This new study isn’t exactly proof positive of anything, but it offered up pretty phenomenal results for being a small, questionably conducted study. Women who used the mouthwash reduced their risk of premature birth by about seventy-five percent.
Premature birth leaves lasting health impacts
A new long-term study of preemies shows mixed forecasts for the little ones’ futures.
On the one hand, they’re more likely to become ill, suffer heart problems and face academic and social challenges, even into adulthood. On the other hand, researchers say babies born early prove to be extremely resilient. Supportive parents and schools can go a long way towards cultivating this trait, helping preemies get a leg up on the challenges they face.
It's hard to know what to say to the parent of a preemie.
Inspire.com, an online patient community, has published a report called Insensitive Comments and Their Impact on Preemie Mothers. “Out of 630 preemie parents who responded to an online survey, more than half said they had experienced insensitive comments about their baby, contributing to feelings of stress and isolation,” ABC News reports.
20 percent of the parents who responded to Inspire’s survey have “lost relationships with one or more people who were important to them” over things said after the premature birth of their baby. Before you stick your foot in your mouth, it’s important to understand how your words can affect the parent of a preemie, especially a mother, who is “at a much higher risk of experiencing postpartum depression and post-traumatic stress disorder” after giving birth prematurely and spending months in the NICU.
With that in mind, here are five things you should never say to the parent of a preemie: Continue reading »
A hospital in L.A. has been taken to task for offering salon services including “nail and eyebrow” treatments in it’s neonatal intensive care ward. The allegations of “waxing services of any kind” were just false, the county investigators found.
Staffers were giving each other the beauty treatments in their break rooms, and only once in awhile did the salon activities spill over into the ward itself, the report finds.
Death or severe disability?
That’s the choice countless parents face when a pregnancy suddenly gets difficult and a months-early delivery is imminent.
Technology has greatly increased the survival rate of super premature babies, those born at the 28-week or younger mark and typically weighing much less than 3 lbs. But survival can come at a cost. Babies born so underdeveloped often mean life-long disabilities like blindness, deafness, brain damage and cerebral palsy.
Still, ask the parents whose children made it and it’s not unusual to hear that they made the right choice. One couple, interviewed in the U.K. Daily Mail, said they are still haunted by the fact that they asked doctors to allow their girl, born at 24 weeks and weighing 1 lb. 7 oz., to die peacefully were she to develop a brain hemorrhage (though they allowed for breathing assistance). The girl, Meghan Haley, survived and is a strong and healthy 4-year-old. Continue reading »
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