Category Archives: Neonatal Research

Nutrition of very preterm babies

There is a ‘growing’ feeling that we don’t give enough protein to our preterm infants, especially during the enteral phases of nutrition. Fortified maternal breast milk use is associated with lower overall rates of weight gain, despite all its benefits. … Continue reading

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Pain relief for intramuscular injections

Sometimes we can’t avoid giving an IM injection, even though they are painful. Some vaccines should be given IM, and the routine needle in the thigh of every baby for vitamin K is a rite of passage, that has become standard everywhere. … Continue reading

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The microbiome of the preterm infant, how it relates to NEC

The intestinal flora of the preterm infant and how it relates to NEC. The normal pattern of colonization of the intestine is disturbed by: prematurity; by caesarian delivery; by antibiotics; and by feeding formula rather than breast milk. The abnormal … Continue reading

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Pain relief and retinopathy screening, part 2.

My good friend Gene Dempsey (a neonatologist and clinical researcher in Cork) reminded me of their trial published in 2010, and suggested that the title of my previous post may be misleading. I guess I really don’t want readers to think that … Continue reading

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

More on Probiotics

I received a comment from Colin Morley (everyone in neonatology knows who Colin is, for anyone else who is reading this, he is a neonatologist and researcher from Cambridge and Melbourne). I asked his permission to post it (with my … Continue reading

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged | Leave a comment

Preventing Prematurity

We’ve known for a while that progesterones can reduce prematurity in certain situations. Intramuscular 17 hydroxy progesterone caproate reduces prematurity in women who have had a previous premature baby. (Meis’s article link below) Now a systematic review of intravaginal progesterone … Continue reading

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Pain relief during retinopathy screening, nothing works very well.

Mandel R, Ali N, Chen J, Galic IJ, Levesque L: Nitrous oxide analgesia during retinopathy screening: a randomised controlled trial. Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed 2012, 97(2):F83-87. http://fn.bmj.com/content/97/2/F83 My colleagues and friends Romain Mandel and Nabeel Ali performed a … Continue reading

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Probiotics to Prevent NEC: Why aren’t we saving babies yet?

The latest systematic review of Probiotics to Prevent NEC in Preterm infants Wang Q, Dong J, Zhu Y: Probiotic supplement reduces risk of necrotizing enterocolitis and mortality in preterm very low-birth-weight infants: an updated meta-analysis of 20 randomized, controlled trials. J … Continue reading

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Can we study Hypotension in Extremely Preterm Infants?

Dr Beau Batton and colleagues from the NICHD network have just published a paper detailing their attempt, and failure, to design a trial of early hypotension treatment. The design looks fine on paper, but when they tried to do the trial there … Continue reading

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Hello Newborn World!

For many years I have been screening a number of websites, contents pages of pediatrics and general journals, and other services to add references to my personal database, and also to send out reading lists to fellows, nurse practitioners and … Continue reading

Posted in Neonatal Research | 2 Comments