Focus - Design for Need: 02/09/09

09/02/2009

Infant Stimulation for Premature Babies

Infant stimulation is a series of activities that encourage normaldevelopment. Premature babies, as a group, are more likelyto suffer from certain physical and social problems than full-term babies. Many hospitals recommend that parentsuse infant stimulation techniques when their babies come home.

the suggestions for infant stimulation from the sences of smell, vision, touch, motion, hearing...

http://www.empowermentzone.com/infant.txt

Smell of Vanilla Reduces Breathing Problems

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/preo.html

January 28, 2005
Babies who are born prematurely often have breathing problems. In fact, approximately 80% of infants born after only 30 weeks of development have episodes of apnea, when they temporarily stop breathing. Doctors often treat these babies with drugs such as caffeine, theophylline and doxapram to prevent apnea. However, these drugs have significant side effects (for example, sleep problems, hyperactivity and gastrointestinal disorders) and do not work in all infants. Researchers at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Strasbourg, France, have found that the smell of vanilla can reduce apnea in premature infants who do not respond to drug treatment.

Dr. Luc Marlier and his co-workers at the CNRS tested 14 premature babies in the intensive care unit at the University Hospital in Strasbourg. The respiratory rate of each baby was monitored on three consecutive days:

Day 1 (baseline control): no treatment.

Day 2 (experimental condition): 15 drops of a vanillin solution was applied to the pillow of each infant. (Vanillin smells like vanilla.)

Day 3: (recovery control): no treatment.

The number of apnea episodes occurred significantly less often when the babies were exposed to the vanilla smell. The average number of apnea events was 34.7 on Day 1 (baseline control) and 33.2 on Day 3 (recovery control), but only 22.2 on Day 2 (when vanilla was placed on the pillows). The vanilla smell effectively reduced apnea in 12 of the 14 infants.
The scientists are not certain how the vanilla odor works to prevent apnea, but they offer two hypotheses:

Vanillin has direct or indirect effects on respiratory centers in the brain. Vanillin may reach the brain through the bloodstream after passing through the nasal mucosa or it may be carried into the brain by nerves in the olfactory system.
Vanillin helps infants adapt to stress.
So far, the researchers have tested vanillin only on infants with apnea who do not respond to drug treatment. Pleasant odors other than vanilla have not been tested. Nevertheless, because odor therapy is simple, inexpensive and without side effects, it appears to be a useful treatment for at least some premature infants with apnea.

A newborn baby

Pic.1 - The baby is placed in a hospital incubator about 7 minutes after birth. A heart and blood-oxygen monitor is attached to the baby's foot.

Pic.2 - Mom provides nourishment for the newborn. The baby gently supples at mom's breast in search for breastmilk.

Pic.3 - 10 minutes after birth, the baby lies in a hospital incubator. These warm confines will be home for the baby's first days.

Pic.4 - An hour after birth, the newborn baby fills their lungs with oxygen while crying.

By the YeahBaby.com editorial staff

Thanks for this invitation:)

Common health problems in premature babies

http://www.prematurebabes.org/problems.html

-Breathing problems;
-Hypoglycaemia;
-Jaundice;
-Infection;
-Anaemia;
-Feed intolerance / enterocolitis;
-Eye problems;
-Intraventricular haemorrage;
-Patent ductus arteriosus.

Premature babies face higher risk of disability

Babies born extremely prematurely face much higher rates of disability and learning difficulties compared to full-term infants, researchers have found.
The EPICure study, which has followed UK babies born under 26 weeks gestation since 1995, found that 80% had some form of impairment, in many cases mild but with some children suffering cerebral palsy and blindness.
The researchers found that very premature babies were around twice as likely to suffer mild problems, such as low IQ or a squint, than their classmates.

Quality of life

Premature boys were two-and-a-half times more likely to suffer moderate and severe disabilities compared to girls born under 26 weeks.
The researchers said the study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, would help doctors in the information they give to patients experiencing a premature birth about what they could expect.
Advances in medical technology have meant increasing numbers of babies born on the brink of viability are surviving.
Many critics have questioned to what extent doctors should fight nature in helping these babies survive, especially when many suffer severe disabilities which affect their quality of life.
Kate Costeloe, a professor of paediatrics at Queen Mary University of London, said there was very little data available on what happened to extremely premature babies.
"We decided that we needed to essentially study what was happening in the UK and find out what has happening to the children we were looking after," she said.

Increased rates of disability

The EPICure study involved more than 1,200 babies born under 26 weeks gestation in 1995, of which only 314 survived to leave hospital.
In the first set of results involving 302 surviving babies at the age of two-and-a-half, 50% were found to have no disabilities, while 25% had some level of disability and 25% had severe disability.
The latest results, assessing 241 children at around six-and-a-half, found rates of disability had increased, mainly because more effective IQ tests were possible at this age.
Only 20% of the children had no problems at all, while 34% had mild disabilities such as wearing glasses or low IQ scores.
More than a fifth (22%) had a severe disability such as cerebral palsy, very low IQ scores, blindness or profound deafness.
A further 24% had moderate disability, such as milder cerebral palsy, special learning needs and visual and hearing impairment.
The figures also revealed that more than 35% of extremely premature boys had moderate to severe disabilities, making them 2.4 times more likely than girls to experience a bad outcome.

'High rates of problems'

The researchers also compared the premature youngsters with a 160 of their classmates.
While 18% of the comparison group were found to have a mild disability, including low IQ or visual problems, this almost doubled to 34% among those born extremely prematurely.
Lead author Neil Marlow, professor of neonatal medicine at the University of Nottingham, said that in the general population under 1% would be expected to suffer a moderate to severe disability, which rose to 22% among the extremely premature group.
"This is a group that has very high rates of problems," he said.
But Professor Marlow said it was important to point out that many children had only mild disabilities which did not severely affect their quality of life.
"These results show that the majority of children do not have a serious physical disability, ie. do not have cerebral palsy, blindness or deafness.
"And despite the high incidence of learning difficulties, half are doing reasonably well and keeping up with their classmates," he said.
Professor Marlow said it was not clear why very premature boys did so much worse than girls.
"It may be there are differences between rates of maturation between girls and boys in the womb.
"The organs of girls may be more mature than boys when they are born," he said.
The figures also revealed wide differences between babies born at 25 weeks and those born earlier.
At 22 weeks gestation, the majority of babies died, with only 0.7% surviving with a good outcome, rising to 9% at 24 weeks and 20% at 25 weeks.

Boosting survival rates

Professor Costeloe said data suggested that giving steroids to the mother before birth had helped boost the survival rates of babies born very early.
The Netherlands has a national policy not to treat babies born at less than 25 weeks gestation.
But the researchers said they would not agree with such a policy being introduced in the UK.
Rob Williams, chief executive of premature baby charity Bliss, which sponsored the research, said: "Here, a large number of babies who would go on to have a very full quality of life would not make it under the Dutch policy."

Mr Williams said the EPICure study went a long way to explaining what parents might expect from doing everything in their power to help very premature babies survive.
"There are people who have said why are we putting so much effort into these premature babies when the quality of life they might expect and outcomes may be very poor.
"But more than half do not have severe impairments."
Mr Williams added: "Babies born at this early gestation age represent a very small proportion of the 40,000 babies born prematurely and the fact that they survived at all is a tribute to the improved knowledge and continuing dedication of the neonatal team and parents."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-333076/Premature-babies-face-higher-risk-disability.html

Does classical music make babies smarter?

Does playing classical music to babies make a difference?

Opinion is divided; but many experts think that it may stimulate the brain in a way that helps educational and emotional development.
It's known as the Mozart Effect, a theory which is credited with boosting IQ, improving health, strengthening family ties and even producing the occasional child prodigy.
Numerous studies conclude that playing music to babies in the womb and in the early years helps build the neural bridges along which thoughts and information travel. And research suggests it can stimulate the brain's alpha waves, creating a feeling of calm; a recent study of premature infants found that they were soothed by the music.
In Florida, all state-funded pre-schools are required to play classical music by law, and many US hospitals give classical CDs to new mums.
In the UK, many parents have also embraced the theory, with Classic FM's Music for Babies CD enjoying several weeks at the top of the classical charts earlier this year.

Baby proms

And this week Sound Beginnings, a series of concerts aimed at the very young, begins in Hampshire. It's the brainchild of Peter and Juliet Kindersley, who founded the Dorling Kindersley publishing empire. Both are strong believers in the power of classical music.
"Just as it's vitally important to eat good-quality food right from the start, so we are deeply affected by the music we hear from a very early age, even in the womb," Peter Kindersley says.
Sound Beginnings - and a planned "baby prom" next year - came about as babies and toddlers are rarely welcome in concert halls.
Professor Paul Robertson, a leading expert in the field, says it's important the best music is made available to babies at the earliest possible stage of their growth.
"There is compelling scientific evidence that the music we hear at the earliest ages significantly affects the way our neurological pathways are laid down during development."

Chill out

Beanbags will be provided to make the setting more relaxed and the pieces - including compositions by Mozart, Schumann and Ravel - have been selected to benefit the wellbeing of babies, toddlers and parents.
It has also been geared towards pregnant women, as a foetus responds to sound from about 24 weeks and learns familiar noises it will recognise after birth, such as music its parents have listened to repeatedly.
Violinist Paul Robertson, the presenter of Channel 4's Music and the Mind, and the acclaimed Russian concert pianist Mikhail Kazakevich will present the concerts, the first of which will be held at the Newbury Spring Festival in Hampshire on Thursday.
Sound Beginnings will then travel to the London Symphony Orchestra's St Luke's venue next month and tour the country later in the year. A symposia, bringing together the latest scientific research into the effects of music on development and wellbeing, is also planned for June.

By Denise Winterman BBC News Magazine

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4558507.stm

Building Baby's Brain:The Role of Music

"Researchers believe that musical trainingactually creates new pathways in the brain."

Music has a powerful effect on our emotions. Parents know that a quiet, gentle lullaby can soothe a fussy baby. And a majestic chorus can make us swell with excitement. But music also can affect the way we think.
In recent years, we have learned a lot about how the brain develops. Babies are born with billions of brain cells. During the first years of life, those brain cells form connections with other brain cells. Over time, the connections we use regularly become stronger. Children who grow up listening to music develop strong music-related connections.
Some of these music pathways actually affect the way we think. Listening to classical music can improve our spatial reasoning, at least for a short time. And learning to play an instrument may have an even longer effect on certain thinking skills

.
Does Music Make Us Smarter?

Not exactly. Music seems to prime our brains for certain kinds of thinking. After listening to classical music, adults can do certain spatial tasks more quickly, such as putting together a jigsaw puzzle.
Why does this happen? The classical music pathways in our brain are similar to the pathways we use for spatial reasoning. When we listen to classical music, the spatial pathways are turned on and ready to be used.
This priming makes it easier to work a puzzle quickly. But the effect lasts only a short time. Our improved spatial skills fade about an hour after we stop listening to the music.
Learning to play an instrument can have longer-lasting effects on spatial reasoning, however. In several studies, children who took piano lessons for six months improved their ability to work puzzles and solve other spatial tasks by as much as 30 percent.

Why does playing an instrument make such a difference?

Researchers believe that musical training creates new pathways in the brain.

Why Classical Music?

The music most people call classical--works by composers such as Bach, Beethoven, or Mozart--is different from music such as rock and country. Classical music has a more complex musical structure. Babies as young as 3 months can pick out that structure and even recognize classical music selections they have heard before.
Researchers think the complexity of classical music is what primes the brain to solve spatial problems more quickly. So listening to classical music may have different effects on the brain than listening to other types of music.
This doesn‘t mean that other types of music aren‘t good. Listening to any kind of music helps build music-related pathways in the brain. And music can have positive effects on our moods that may make learning easier.

What Can You Do?

Parents and child-care providers can help nurture children‘s love of music beginning in infancy. Here are some ideas:

Play music for your baby. Expose your baby to many different musical selections of various styles. If you play an instrument, practice when your baby is nearby. But keep the volume moderate. Loud music can damage a baby's hearing.

Sing to your baby. It doesn‘t matter how well you sing! Hearing your voice helps your baby begin to learn language. Babies love the patterns and rhythms of songs. And even young babies can recognize specific melodies once they‘ve heard them.
Sing with your child. As children grow, they enjoy singing with you. And setting words to music actually helps the brain learn them more quickly and retain them longer. That‘s why we remember the lyrics of songs we sang as children, even if we haven‘t heard them in years.
Start music lessons early. If you want your child to learn an instrument, you don‘t need to wait until elementary school to begin lessons. Young children‘s developing brains are equipped to learn music. Most four- and five-year-olds enjoy making music and can learn the basics of some instruments. And starting lessons early helps children build a lifelong love of music.
Encourage your child‘s school to teach music. Singing helps stimulate the brain, at least briefly. Over time, music education as a part of school can help build skills such as coordination and creativity. And learning music helps your child become a well-rounded person.