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

It doesn’t make much difference how often we feed babies

Posted on 29 September 2016 by Keith Barrington

Over the years there have a number of studies comparing two different feeding regimes. Most recently there has been a comparison of 2 hourly vs 3 hourly feeds and a comparison of feeds every 3 hours compared to 4 feeds … Continue reading →

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Doctors are cheap

Posted on 21 September 2016 by Keith Barrington

I’m sure most of us don’t think that the little trinkets (pens and notepads and such) or a few slices of pizza that we might receive from a drug company affects what we prescribe for our patients. We would be … Continue reading →

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Antenatal Consultations before very preterm birth; what do parents want?

Posted on 20 September 2016 by Keith Barrington

Gaucher N, et al. Personalized Antenatal Consultations for Preterm Labor: Responding to Mothers’ Expectations. The Journal of pediatrics. 2016. Call me biased, but I think is a game-changer. (One of the authors is my wife and colleague, another is a … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Theatrical Placebos in Neonatology

Posted on 14 September 2016 by Keith Barrington

Acupuncture is nonsense. There I have said it. I’ll probably get at least a few comments for this post, but I’m not backing down. Acupuncture is based on pre-scientific ideas about how the body works, believing that some sort of … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | 5 Comments

Reducing apnea

Posted on 9 September 2016 by Keith Barrington

When a baby has an apneic spell, we often respond by physically stimulating them. Usually they will start breathing again; but how does that work? If it is more than a coincidence (and I think it is, even though there are … Continue reading →

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A new publication

Posted on 25 August 2016 by Keith Barrington

Janvier A, Farlow B, Barrington KJ. Parental hopes, interventions, and survival of neonates with trisomy 13 and trisomy 18. Am J Med Genet C Semin Med Genet. 2016: This new article draws on the results of the on-line survey that … Continue reading →

Posted in Advocating for impaired children, Neonatal Research | Tagged | 5 Comments

Preterm babies have fixed dilated pupils

Posted on 25 August 2016 by Keith Barrington

There is a reason we don’t perform pupillary reactions to light in preterm babies, and that is that they don’t react. They also tend to be large. This post is in response to my trying to find out what had … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged | 3 Comments

Hey, doctor, leave those guts alone!

Posted on 24 August 2016 by Keith Barrington

Intestinal function is often sluggish after preterm delivery. Establishing early enteral nutrition, the goal of all of us, is interrupted often by repeated regurgitation, or large residuals (if you measure them) or abdominal distension. There are also reported correlations between … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

We found more bad things, that must be a good thing

Posted on 22 August 2016 by Keith Barrington

Frequent readers of this blog will know that I have been critical of the promotion of pre-discharge MRI as a universal screening standard for very preterm babies. The positive predictive value of most findings on MRI at term-equivalent age is … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged | 1 Comment

Long term survival in trisomy 13 and 18

Posted on 19 August 2016 by Keith Barrington

After my previous post on this topic, John Lantos wrote a comment pointing out this recent publication, Nelson KE, et al. Survival and Surgical Interventions for Children With Trisomy 13 and 18. JAMA. 2016;316(4):420-8. It is a large regional cohort, identified from … Continue reading →

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