Author Archives: Keith Barrington

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About Keith Barrington

I am a neonatologist and clinical researcher at Sainte Justine University Health Center in Montréal

Preventing NEC : Gastric acid has a purpose, don’t block it.

Posted on 13 October 2023 by Keith Barrington

As this series of posts have all had something to do with prevention of Necrotising Enterocolitis, I thought I’d write about some recent articles which refer to one of the risk factors for NEC, the use of acid suppression medications. … Continue reading →

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The myth of the “exclusive human milk diet”; fortification options for breast milk.

Posted on 12 October 2023 by Keith Barrington

The Exclusive Human Milk Diet sounds superficially immediately convincing: “We should only give milk products derived from human milk to human babies”. But, is it more than just a catchy phrase? The major company which is responsible for producing a … Continue reading →

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Necrotising Enterocolitis: impacts of feeding patterns

Posted on 11 October 2023 by Keith Barrington

A new review article published in J Perinatol makes many claims about feeding patterns and NEC, but I think has seriously misinterpreted the literature (Assad M, et al. Dilemmas in establishing preterm enteral feeding: where do we start and how … Continue reading →

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Long break, same preoccupations!

Posted on 10 October 2023 by Keith Barrington

I had a long break from blogging over the summer, and, as I return to action, I note that there are some really high quality studies which have been performed or are in progress. But I continue to lament some … Continue reading →

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Probiotics. What now?

Posted on 6 October 2023 by Keith Barrington

Many of you will have seen or heard of the FDA warning about probiotics in preterm infants. In a letter (I am not in the USA, so I am not sure exactly who this letter was sent to, or the … Continue reading →

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“Death or NDI” does it matter… to anybody?

Posted on 30 May 2023 by Keith Barrington

Despite the evidence that “NDI” is of little interest to parents, we continue to focus on it in outcome studies, and even equate it with death. Unfortunately, this new study, using the substantial resources of the NICHD NRN and their … Continue reading →

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What outcomes matter to parents?

Posted on 25 May 2023 by Keith Barrington

Following on from my 2 recent posts, a new publication from the CHILD-BRIGHT network in Canada, (Synnes A, et al. Redefining Neurodevelopmental Impairment: Perspectives of Very Preterm Birth Stakeholders. Children. 2023;10(5) Open Access). CHILD-BRIGHT being a slightly tortuous acronym derived … Continue reading →

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Shifting the uncertainty a little further: severe early ultrasound abnormalities in the preterm. part 2

Posted on 18 May 2023 by Keith Barrington

In this post, I continue to discuss some of the issues raised in our recent article: Chevallier M, Barrington KJ et al. Decision-making for extremely preterm infants with severe hemorrhages on head ultrasound: Science, values, and communication skills. Semin Fetal … Continue reading →

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Shifting the uncertainty: early head ultrasound abnormalities, and counselling parents. Part 1

Posted on 17 May 2023 by Keith Barrington

Routine early head ultrasound is the de facto standard of care in preterm infants. Recent statements from learned societies usually recommend head ultrasound at around 7 days of age, and many centres do them earlier than that. Older statements suggested … Continue reading →

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PAS 2023, some supplemental selected stuff

Posted on 8 May 2023 by Keith Barrington

As usual, the annual meeting of PAS had too many things going on simultaneously to be able to get to all the interesting looking neonatal research. But here are a few things, that were of interest to me, and which … Continue reading →

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