premature baby

Parents save premature baby’s life by keeping him in icebox

On the advice of a doctor, a premature baby boy’s life was saved after his parents incubated him inside a polystyrene icebox for five months

In October 2013, Mithilesh Chauhan was born two months premature at Alliance Hospital in Mumbai, India. At birth, he weighed just 3 pounds 3 ounces and was in need of constant monitoring as he was prone to infections.

However, Mithilesh’s parents, Aruna and Ramseh Chauhan, could not afford to keep their son in the hospital’s intensive care unit (ICU). They initially paid for their son’s hospital stay by borrowing money from relatives, but they soon ran out of people to ask for help. The new parents then tried reaching out to other government-run hospitals, but all the ICU waiting lists were too long.

Knowing the baby would have to be discharged soon, doctors at Alliance Hospital suggested a cheap – and unconventional – alternative.

“One doctor told us that if we couldn’t afford to keep our baby in hospital we should try a Thermocol icebox with holes for ventilation and a 60-watt bulb to provide the right amount of warmth,” Aruna Chauhan, 34, told Cover Asia Press. “He advised it was better than nothing and might save our baby. My husband bought the box from a nearby fish market and cut holes in it.”

After 20 days in the ICU, Mithilesh was released from the hospital – leaving the icebox as the Chauhan’s only option. Aruna and Ramseh said they would take him out every two hours to take his temperature.

“It was awful,” Aruna told Cover Asia Press. “We had no idea if it was the right thing to do, but we had to try something. We were terrified if we did nothing he’d die, but we were also aware that what we were doing wasn’t exactly safe either. It was a very distressing time.”

Mithilesh survived after spending five months in the icebox – but he remained severely underweight. He is now receiving 24-hour medical care at the Wadia Hospital for Children, who heard about his condition and offered to treat him for free.

Source: Fox news

Premature babies may be disadvantaged later in life

Children born prematurely may be disadvantaged for the rest of their lives by poor understanding of their needs, according to experts.

Paediatricians’ research has shown premature babies are more likely to have difficulties at school but few teachers are aware of this. The number of children born prematurely is rising because women are having babies later in life.

Researchers say the education system should adapt to reflect this change. They are calling for a child’s gestation to be recorded on their education records as a way of flagging up any problems.

‘Greater risk’
“We know from a Scottish study that the earlier you are born the more likely you are to have have problems at school”, said Glasgow paediatrician Dr Nashwa Matta.

“But these children may still be clever and the problems don’t appear until the workload increases at primary or secondary school.” Children born prematurely are more likely to be emotionally immature, lonely and at greater risk of bullying.

They ma y have visual perception issues, including difficulties with numbers and mathematics. Further traits of prematurely born children may include short memories, attention spans and problems with multi-tasking.

Some premature children are also disadvantaged if they are born at the end of the school year because they are effectively sent to school a year early. If they had been born full term they would have gone to school the following year. Around 4,000 babies are born prematurely every year in Scotland.

‘Behavioural issues’
Dr Matta has organised a one-day conference to highlight the issue at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow.

“The simplest thing to do is to put child’s gestation on their school entry form,” said Dr Matta. Then, when a teacher has a child with difficulty with attention, certain work, and memory then they will know he’s born prematurely and can find out what can be done so gap doesn’t get bigger.”

Three-year-old Findlay Masterton was born three months early. His mum Lorraine is worried he won’t be able to cope when he goes to school. “He has behavioural issues, there’s a strict regime of how he likes things done,” she said.

She added: “Findlay has different wee issues that a kid born full term wouldn’t have and I think these might show up when he goes to school next year.

“There’s nothing stated for schools that they have to do anything about this or give them extra time for their lessons. “Schools recognise medical problems, but pre-term? I don’t think it’s taken seriously enough.”

The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) backed the call for tailored support for children with additional support needs.

An EIS spokesperson said: “Teachers and other education professionals working in our schools are aware of the broad range of additional support that is sometimes needed to allow all children to benefit fully from their education.

“There is a requirement for continuing investment in adequate ASN resources in all schools, and for teachers and other professionals to have access to ongoing professional development to ensure that they can continue meeting the particular needs of all pupils.”

Source: BBC news