Neonatal Medicine News

Proper maternal nutrition is essential to child growth in utero, where the placenta provides a continuous source of protein, calories and various nutrients for the developing fetus. This nutrition promotes adequate growth of bone, muscle and internal organs, including the digestive and nervous systems.

Treatment with erythromycin at 50 mg/kg per day for 14 days demonstrated better cure rates compared with azithromycin in neonates with chlamydial conjunctivitis, but more data are needed to compare these treatments, according to findings published in the Journal of the Pediatric Diseases Society.

Researchers have identified several limitations in preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV in major delivery units in the Atlanta metropolitan area, according to published study results in the Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society.

Current available research on immersion in water during labor does not suggest any additional adverse events to the mother or neonate during the first or second stage of labor, according to d according to findings from a Cochrane review.

Early preterm birth was associated with ADHD in children aged 5 years and inattentive symptoms in children aged 8 years, according to recently published study results in JAMA Pediatrics.

Increased gestational exposure to fortification of grain products with folic acid may protect against psychotic symptoms in offspring, according to findings published in JAMA Psychiatry.

Methamphetamine use during pregnancy resulted in a decrease in infants’ birth weight, height, head circumference, body length and gestational age at birth, according to results from a systematic review and meta-analysis.

AAP has updated its recommendations for pediatric prenatal visits during the third trimester, according to a recently published clinical report in Pediatrics.

Methadone offers better short-term outcomes compared with morphine for treating infants with neonatal abstinence syndrome, according to recently published research in JAMA Pediatrics. “As the number of pregnant women exposed to opioids and other psychotropic medications has increased, so has the incidence of neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS),” Jonathan M. Davis, MD, vice-chair of pediatrics and chief of newborn medicine at the Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts Medical Center and professor of pediatrics at Tufts University School of Medicine, and colleagues wrote. “Although several different approaches are used to treat NAS, no universal standard exists. The use of opioids had been recommended for treatment of infants with significant NAS, with neonatal morphine solution or methadone being the most commonly used medications.”

Congenital cytomegalovirus — or CMV — affects approximately one in 200 infants. The CDC reports that one in five of these children will have long-lasting health concerns related to the infection.