Category Archives: Neonatal Research

What outcomes matter to parents? A new publication

Posted on 1 November 2016 by Keith Barrington

This new publication of ours has been an interesting process, Annie Janvier and I wrote it in collaboration with other parent representatives, Barb Farlow, who we have collaborated with previously, a mother of a little girl who had trisomy 13, … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Delivery room interventions for the profoundly immature: what are we doing, what should we do?

Posted on 19 October 2016 by Keith Barrington

I still haven’t found the best term for babies who are born so immature that their chances of survival are significantly reduced. Extremely Low Gestational Age Newborn, or ELGAN is a term which is not pretty but has the advantage … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | 2 Comments

Oxygen, getting the dose right. Not so easy.

Posted on 13 October 2016 by Keith Barrington

Preterm babies require differing concentrations of oxygen to maintain them within the optimal saturation range, which is clearly the low 90’s, from all the data we have so far (Saugstad OD, Aune D. Optimal Oxygenation of Extremely Low Birth Weight … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | 1 Comment

It’s only mild Encephalopathy; now can we stop worrying?

Posted on 29 September 2016 by Keith Barrington

I learnt as a fellow that infants whose maximum grade of HIE was Sarnat 1, or mild, had normal outcomes. I recognized that the data to support that were limited, but one of the best older studies was by my … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | 2 Comments

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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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