The problem of sodium balance in low birth weight infants In this issue of Jornal de Pediatria, Tanaka et al. publish results of their detailed study to assess the influence of fortification of banked human breast milk feeding on urinary fractional excretion of sodium, specific gravity and osmolality.1 To our knowledge, no study in very low birth weight infants to date has examined strict sodiu...

BACKGROUND The International Network for Evaluating Outcomes in Neonates (iNeo) is a collaboration of population-based national neonatal networks including Australia and New Zealand, Canada, Israel, Japan, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK. The aim of iNeo is to provide a platform for comparative evaluation of outcomes of very preterm and very low birth weight neonates at the national, sit...

BACKGROUND Environmental lead exposure poses a risk to educational performance, especially among poor, urban children. Previous studies found low-level lead exposure was a risk factor for diminished academic abilities, however, this study is distinct because of the very large sample size and because it controlled for very low birth weight and early preterm birth-two factors closely associated w...

Becker, P.T., Grunwald, P.C., & Brazy, J.E. (1999). Motor organization in very low birth weight infants during caregiving: Effects of a developmental intervention. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 20(5), 344 – 352. A study of very low birth weight (VLBW) infants demonstrated that using an individualized, developmentally supportive approach to handling the newborn rather than ...

As there have been conflicting reports about intelligence in children of very low birth weight, advantage was taken of an opportunity to study the intelligence of 1,066 children weighing 4 lb. or less at birth who were the subjects of an investigation into the aetiology of cerebral palsy and other disorders* (McDonald, 1962, 1963). The many surveys of the intelligence of premature children were...

The principal modifiable risk factors for necrotising enterocolitis (NEC) in very low birth weight infants relate to enteral feeding practices. Evidence exists that feeding with formula milk increases the risk of NEC. Currently, only limited data are available on the effect of the timing of feed introduction and advancement on the risk of developing NEC. Large, multicentre randomised controlled...

Background: Low birth weight can contribute to many complications in neonatal period and even infancy and later. This study was performed to assess the prevalence of low birth weight in two cities of Iran and also to evaluate the potential risk factors of it. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study, performed on 1513 pregnant women attending delivery facilities in educational ho...

OBJECTIVE To assess the quality of general movements (GMs) in the first fourteen days of life in relation to obstetric and postnatal risk factors and neurodevelopmental outcome in extremely low birth weight (ELBW) infants. STUDY DESIGN The GMs of nineteen infants were assessed on days 2, 4, 6, 10 and 14 with Prechtl's method. Additionally, detailed GM assessment produced optimality scores (OS...

AIMS To test the null hypotheses that finger and palm prints have no relation with fetal growth or adolescent blood pressure. METHODS All 128 singleton, unimpaired, very low birth weight (VLBW; < or =1500 g) infants born to mothers resident in the county of Merseyside in 1980 and 1981 were studied retrospectively. The comparison group consisted of 128 age, sex, and school matched children. Ma...

Nutrient-enriched milk has been advocated to enhance premature infants'growth and early nutritional intervention is effective for growth failure in very low birth weight infants (VLBWI). We studied the 3-yr-old physical growth of VLBWI who received nutrient enriched diets in the early neonatal period. VLBWI, who were born in 1996, received nutrient enriched milk around 1 mo of age. By contrast,...