Reasons for Full Term Babies to End Up in Nicu

Premature babies and other very sick newborns confront some of the same medical bug.

What are some common health conditions babies take in the NICU?

The weather listed may not be relevant to your infant's situation. We encourage you to read only what you experience would be helpful to you and your child'south detail circumstances. To find out more information about specific conditions, inquire our health experts.

Additional information and back up for families with babies in the NICU tin be establish at Share Your Story, the March of Dimes Web site for NICU families.

Premature babies are often bloodless. This means that they practise non take enough red blood cells. Normally, the fetus stores iron during the latter months of pregnancy and uses it after birth to make scarlet blood cells. Infants built-in too soon may not have had plenty time to store iron. Loss of blood from frequent blood tests also tin contribute to anemia. Anemic infants may be treated with dietary iron supplements, drugs that increase reddish claret cell production or, in some cases, a claret transfusion.

Premature babies ofttimes have breathing issues because their lungs are not fully developed. Full-term babies also can develop breathing problems due to complications of labor and commitment, birth defects and infections. An infant with breathing problems may be given medicines, a mechanical ventilator to assistance him exhale, or a combination of these two treatments.

Apnea: Premature babies sometimes practice not breathe regularly. A infant may have a long breath, then a short one, then pause for 5 to ten seconds before starting to breathe normally. This is chosen periodic breathing. Apnea is when a infant stops breathing for more than 15 seconds. Apnea may exist accompanied past a ho-hum centre charge per unit called bradycardia. Babies in the NICU are constantly monitored for apnea and bradycardia (often called "A's and B's").

Sensors on the baby's chest send information nigh his animate and heart rate to a motorcar located near the incubator. If a baby stops animate, an alarm will brainstorm beeping. A nurse will stimulate the baby to start breathing past patting him or touching the soles of his feet. The neonatologist might consider giving the baby medicine or using equipment, such as C-PAP (continuous positive airway pressure; delivery of air to a baby's lungs through either pocket-size tubes in the baby'south nose or through a tube inserted into the windpipe).

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD): This chronic lung disease is well-nigh common in premature babies who accept been treated for respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) (run into below). Babies with RDS have immature lungs. They sometimes need a mechanical ventilator to assist them breathe. Some babies treated for RDS may develop symptoms of BPD, including fluid in the lungs, scarring and lung damage.

Babies with BPD are treated with medications to assist make breathing easier. They are slowly weaned from the mechanical ventilator. Their lungs usually improve over the beginning ii years of life. But some children develop a chronic lung affliction resembling asthma. BPD also occasionally occurs in full-term newborns later they take had pneumonia or other infections.

Persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (PPHN): Babies with PPHN cannot breathe properly because they have loftier blood pressure in their lungs. At birth, in response to the first minutes of animate air, the blood vessels in the lungs normally relax and allow claret to menstruation through them. This is how the blood picks upward oxygen. In babies with PPHN, this response does non occur. This leads to a lack of oxygen in the blood, and sometimes to other complications including brain damage. Babies with PPHN often have nascence defects (such as heart defects) or have suffered from birth complications.

Babies with PPHN often demand a mechanical ventilator to assistance them breathe. They may be given a gas called nitric oxide through a tube in the windpipe. This treatment may assist the claret vessels in the lungs to relax and better breathing.

Pneumonia: This lung infection is common in premature and other sick newborns. A baby's doctors may doubtable pneumonia if the baby has difficulty animate, if her rate of breathing changes, or if the babe has an increased number of apnea episodes.

The doctor will mind to the infant's lungs with a stethoscope and so do an X-ray to run into if there is excess fluid in the lungs. Sometimes the doctor may insert a tube into the lungs to take a sample of the lung fluid. The fluid is then tested to see what type of bacterium or virus is causing the infection, so that the doctor can choose the virtually effective drug to treat it. Babies with pneumonia are generally treated with antibiotics. They also may need additional oxygen until the infection clears upwardly.

Respiratory distress syndrome (RDS): Babies born earlier 34 weeks of pregnancy ofttimes develop this serious breathing problem. Babies with RDS do not have enough surfactant, which keeps the small air sacs in the lungs from collapsing. Treatment with surfactant helps affected babies breathe more easily.

Babies with RDS also may receive a handling called C-PAP (continuous positive airway pressure). The air may be delivered through small tubes in the baby'south nose, or through a tube that has been inserted into his windpipe. As with surfactant treatment, C-PAP helps keep pocket-size air sacs from collapsing. C-PAP helps your babe breathe, but does not breathe for him. The sickest babies may temporarily need the help of a mechanical ventilator to breathe for them while their lungs recover.

These heart defects are present at birth. They originate in the early office of pregnancy when the middle is forming.

Bradycardia: Premature babies sometimes exercise not exhale regularly. Interrupted breathing, also chosen apnea, tin cause Bradycardia. Bradycardia is an unhealthy, dull centre rate. NICU staff phone call these weather condition A's and B's: apnea and bradycardia. Treatments include medicines and breathing support.

Coarctation of the aorta: The aorta is the large artery that sends claret from the center to the rest of the body. In this condition, the aorta may be too narrow for the blood to period evenly. A surgeon tin cut away the narrow part and run up the open ends together, replace the constricted section with man-made fabric, or patch it with office of a blood vessel taken from elsewhere in the trunk. Sometimes, this narrowed area can be widened by inflating a balloon on the tip of a catheter inserted through an avenue.

Center valve abnormalities: Some babies are born with eye valves that are narrowed, closed or blocked and prevent blood from flowing smoothly. Some babies may require placement of a shunt (artificial graft) to allow blood to bypass the blockage until the baby is large enough to take the valve repaired or replaced.

Patent ductus arteriosus (PDA): PDA is the nigh mutual eye problem in premature babies. Before birth, much of a fetus's claret goes through a passageway (ductus arteriosus) from one claret vessel to some other, instead of through the lungs, because the lungs are not yet in use. This passageway should close soon afterward birth, so the blood can take the normal route from heart to lungs and back. If it doesn't shut, claret doesn't catamenia correctly. In some cases, medicine tin help close the passageway. If that doesn't work, surgery tin can also close it.

Septal defects: A septal defect refers to a hole in the wall (septum) that divides the 2 upper or lower chambers of the heart. Because of this pigsty, the claret cannot circulate as it should, and the heart has to work extra hard. A surgeon tin close the pigsty past sewing or patching it. Small holes may heal by themselves and not demand repair at all.

Tetralogy of Fallot: In this condition, a combination of four heart defects keeps some claret from getting to the lungs. Every bit a upshot, the baby has episodes of cyanosis (the skin looks blue due to lack of oxygen) and may abound poorly. Surgery is done to set up this complex center defect.

Transposition of the not bad arteries: Here, the positions of the ii major arteries leaving the heart are reversed. Each artery arises from the wrong pumping chamber. Surgery is washed to correct the position of the arteries.

Experts concur that chest milk provides many wonderful and vital health benefits for newborns, specially premature or sick babies. And information technology is something merely a mom tin give her baby. A baby needs good diet to grow and go stronger. But she may demand to be fed a different way for a while, before she is ready for chest or bottle.

Babies who are very small or ill are often fed intravenously (through a vein). A tiny needle is placed in a vein in the baby's hand, human foot, scalp or omphalus. She will receive sugar (glucose) and essential nutrients through the vein. Equally soon as she is stiff plenty, the infant will be fed breast milk or formula through a tube that is placed through the olfactory organ or mouth into the breadbasket or intestines. This is called gavage feeding.

In gavage feeding, the tube may be left in identify or inserted at each feeding. Inserting the tube should not bother the babe too much because babies this pocket-sized generally practice non gag. When the baby can suck and swallow effectively, gavage feedings will exist stopped, and the baby will be able to breast or bottle-feed.

Many babies in NICUs start trophic (minimal) feeds shortly after birth. This is washed to stimulate the infant'due south intestine until the infant is strong plenty to tolerate larger feedings.

Hypoglycemia is low blood saccharide (glucose). It is commonly diagnosed in a baby soon after birth. Babies born to mothers with diabetes have their glucose levels checked regularly to appraise for hypoglycemia. Early on feeding and an intravenous glucose solution help to prevent and treat hypoglycemia.

A baby with this condition grows more slowly than usual in utero, and is smaller than normal for his gestational age at birth. IUGR is ordinarily diagnosed during pregnancy through an ultrasound. Information technology usually is due to fetal or maternal complications. Upon access to the NICU, babies are tested to determine possible causes, although this tin can't always be adamant.

IVH refers to haemorrhage in the encephalon and is almost common in the smallest premature babies (those weighing less than 3 1/three pounds). The bleeds usually occur in the outset four days of life. Bleeding generally occurs near the fluid-filled spaces (ventricles) in the eye of the brain. An ultrasound examination can show whether a baby has had a brain bleed and how severe it is.

Brain bleeds usually are given a number from i to iv, with four being the near severe. Nearly brain bleeds are balmy (grades 1 and 2) and resolve themselves with no or few lasting problems. More astringent bleeds can cause difficulties for the baby during the hospitalization and possible problems in the future. Some volition require careful monitoring of the infant'southward evolution throughout infancy and childhood.

Babies with jaundice accept a yellowish color to their pare and eyes. Jaundice occurs when the liver is also immature or sick to remove a waste product chosen bilirubin from the blood. Bilirubin is formed when sometime red claret cells suspension downwards. Jaundice is particularly common in premature babies and in babies who have blood type incompatibilities with their mothers (such as Rh illness, ABO incompatibility or G6PD disease).

Jaundice itself does non usually cause harm to a infant. But if the bilirubin level gets also high, it can crusade more than serious issues. For this reason, the baby's bilirubin level is checked often. If information technology gets too high, he is treated with special bluish lights (phototherapy) that aid the body suspension downwards and eliminate bilirubin.

Occasionally, a baby will demand a special type of claret transfusion chosen an exchange transfusion to reduce very high bilirubin levels. In this procedure, some of the baby's blood is removed and replaced with blood from a donor.

Babies who are born too small and besides shortly frequently have trouble controlling their trunk temperature. Unlike good for you, full-term babies, they don't take enough body fatty to prevent the loss of heat from their bodies. Babies in the NICU are placed in an incubator or warmer right afterwards birth to help control their temperature. A tiny thermometer taped to the baby's breadbasket senses her torso temperature and regulates the oestrus in the incubator. A infant volition grow faster if she maintains a normal trunk temperature (98.6 degrees F.).

A condition in which a baby is born with excessive nascency weight, that is, 4,500 grams (9 pounds, 14 ounces) or more. This is usually due to maternal diabetes and may require delivery by cesarean section. These babies are also monitored for hypoglycemia.

This potentially dangerous abdominal trouble virtually commonly affects premature babies. The bowel may become damaged when its blood supply is decreased. Bacteria that are normally present in the bowel invade the damaged expanse, causing more than damage. Babies with NEC develop feeding problems, abdominal swelling and other complications. If tests show that a infant has NEC, he will be fed intravenously while his bowel heals. Sometimes damaged sections of intestine must be surgically removed.

ROP is an aberrant growth of blood vessels in the eye. It occurs nearly often in babies built-in earlier 30 weeks of pregnancy. ROP can lead to haemorrhage and scarring that can impairment the eye's retina (the lining at the rear of the center that relays messages to the encephalon). This can result in vision loss. An ophthalmologist (middle doc) will examine the baby's optics for signs of ROP.

Most balmy cases heal without treatment, with little or no vision loss. In more severe cases, the ophthalmologist may perform laser therapy or do a process called cryotherapy (freezing) to eliminate aberrant claret vessels and scars. Both treatments assistance protect the retina.

Some babies are admitted to the NICU to determine if they have this potentially dangerous infection of the bloodstream. The infection is caused past a germ which the baby has had difficulty fighting off. Sure lab tests, cultures, and 10-rays can help diagnose this condition. These tests may be recommended if your babe has symptoms such every bit temperature instability, high or depression blood carbohydrate levels, breathing problems or low blood pressure level. The condition is treated with antibiotics, and the baby is monitored closely for an improvement in symptoms.

Last reviewed: August, 2014

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Source: https://www.marchofdimes.org/complications/common-conditions-treated-in-the-nicu.aspx

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