OBJECTIVE: To characterize parent perceptions and satisfaction with physician counseling and delivery-room resuscitation of very low birth weight infants in countries with neonatal intensive care capacity. STUDY DESIGN: Convenience sample of 327 parents of 379 inborn very low birth weight infants (<1501 g) who had received resuscitation and neonatal intensive ...

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether assisted conception is associated with an increased risk of admission to a residential early parenting program for treatment of maternal mood disorder or infant feeding or sleeping disorders in the postpartum year. DESIGN: Systematic audit of consecutive medical records. SETTING: Masada Private Hospital Mother Baby Unit ...

BACKGROUND: Restricted fetal growth has been associated with increased blood pressure, insulin resistance, and cardiovascular disease in later life. These associations may be due to processes during fetal development with long-term consequences for metabolic and cardiovascular function (the fetal origins hypothesis). However, it has also been hypothesized that common genetic ...

PURPOSE: To describe the implementation and evaluation of a home gavage program for preterm infants. DESIGN: Retrospective chart reviews were used to assess the physiologic progress of infants, and retrospective written questionnaires were administered by mail to families participating in home gavage to assess their experience and solicit advice. SAMPLE: ...

PURPOSE: To describe and evaluate a home-based nursing intervention program, the REST routine, which incorporates the use of infant behavior assessment, pattern recognition, individualized infant schedules, specific management strategies, and parent education and support. STUDY DESIGN AND METHOD: A two-site clinical trial was conducted on 164 healthy full-term infants with ...

Emotional reactions of parents after the birth of an extremely low birth weight (ELBW) infant were followed during the early period of hospital care. Ten pairs of parents participated. The process concerning feelings of sadness, anger, fear/anxiety and joy was measured by Single Systems Design (SSD). The infants were born ...

Preterm infants may be at higher risk of physical abuse after hospital discharge. Nonaccidental or inflicted head neurotrauma is the most common cause of mortality and morbidity in physical-abuse cases, and shaken baby syndrome (SBS) is the most common form of abuse. In the majority of the cases, parents who ...

BACKGROUND: In 1993, the Israel Ministry of Health issued a formal recommendation to avoid placing healthy infants to sleep in the prone position in order to prevent sudden infant death. The objective of the study was to study parents' compliance with this recommendation and to identify characteristics of noncompliant parents ...

Diagnosis of Nevoid Basal Cell Carcinoma Syndrome (NBCCS) in infants may pose significant challenges to clinicians owing to its variable expressivity and age-related manifestations. We report two paediatric cases of NBCCS who presented initially with a non-specific phenotype. In case 1, a diagnosis of NBCCS was possible only after the ...

BACKGROUND: Prenatal cocaine exposure is a marker of developmental risk. Social environmental risk factors may include maternal stress and maternal perceptions of difficult infant temperament. OBJECTIVES: To examine factors that may predict or moderate maternal ratings of parenting stress and difficult temperament in cocaine-exposed (CE) infants. METHOD: Neonatal behavior, infant ...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The Ward Infant Language Screening Test, Assessment, Acceleration and Remediation (WILSTAAR) comprises a programme for identifying and helping 8-10-month-old infants showing early signs of language and communication difficulty. The study addresses one of the queries raised by critics of the programme by providing evidence about the backgrounds ...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Summarize the literature relevant to ethical issues surrounding decisions to provide intensive care to extremely premature newborns. RECENT FINDINGS: A Texas Supreme Court decision and a position paper are noteworthy for health professionals participating in management decisions with families at risk for extremely preterm delivery. SUMMARY: In ...

OBJECTIVE: To ascertain whether a trauma-preventive psychological intervention program for parents of premature infants during hospitalization in a level III NICU may reduce the severity of symptomatic response to the traumatic impact of premature birth. METHODS: Mothers of premature infants were enrolled consecutively in a sequential control group design. Intervention ...

OBJECTIVE: This study tested the effect of an intervention to strengthen parent-professional collaboration by increasing the accuracy of parents' understanding of medically relevant information and providing parent-professional meetings to plan infants' care. METHODS: A tri-ethnic sample of mothers of 154 very-low-birth-weight infants participated, with parents of 77 infants in a ...

OBJECTIVES: This study was undertaken to evaluate physician counselling practices and resuscitation decisions for extremely preterm infants in countries of the Pacific Rim. We sought to determine the degree to which physician beliefs, parents' opinion and medical resources influence decision-making for infants at the margin of viability. METHODS: A survey ...

OBJECTIVE: Abusive head injuries among infants (shaken infant or shaken impact syndrome) represent a devastating form of child abuse; an effective prevention program that reduces the incidence of abusive head injuries could save both lives and the costs of caring for victims. We wished to determine whether a comprehensive, regional, ...

One of the most difficult decisions that can confront a family is what medical treatment to seek for an extremely premature infant at the threshold of viability. The complexity of the treatment options, competing interests of healthcare providers and the family, consideration of the parents' values, and the sheer immensity ...

OBJECTIVE: To examine how family-based interventions in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) may change parental knowledge and behaviors and decrease stress. METHODS: Eighty-four high-risk mother-infant dyads were randomly assigned to two intervention and one control groups. Group 1 (n = 28) participated in a demonstration of infant reflexes, attention, ...

OBJECTIVE: To compare the psychosocial functioning of the parents (mother and father) of infants admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) with the parents of infants born at term and not admitted to the NICU. DESIGN: Random sample of NICU parents and term non-NICU parents were assessed across a ...

PURPOSE: To synthesize the findings of qualitative studies on parenting preterm infants and present a framework that will enable clinical nurses to provide better care. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: A meta-ethnographic approach was used to synthesize the findings of 10 qualitative research studies that focused on parenting the preterm infant ...

Although rare, several hypersensitivity reactions can occur in the infant population. Several types of hypersensitivity reactions are discussed, including urticaria, drug eruptions, erythema multiforme, allergic contact dermatitis, and vasculitis (acute hemorrhagic edema of infancy); neonatal lupus also is discussed. Although most of these conditions are benign, their presentations can be ...

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to describe parents' perceptions and feelings about their infant's pain experience and pain care in the neonatal intensive care unit. METHOD: Thematic content analysis was used to encode the qualitative information contained in parents' written comments on a questionnaire about their views on ...

The purpose of the present research was to investigate the role of the fourth dimensional (4D) ultrasound scanning on the antenatal attachment development, in pregnant women (19-23 weeks of gestation) and their partners. A total of 44 couples were asked to complete questionnaires about maternal and paternal antenatal attachment, before ...

Persistent environmental chemicals such as organochlorine pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have been associated with alterations in fetal development and child health including subtle differences in developmental status. Previous prospective studies have ascertained prenatal or postnatal exposures but none have been designed to assess exposures at critical windows including preconception. ...

The primary goal for maternal-child nurses in caring for parents and their infants is to support parental confidence and competence through education and services to assure optimal parental-infant attachment. Kangaroo holding in the hospital and home environment is one intervention that encourages parental-infant interaction as well as provides the benefits ...

AIMS: The results of an infant car-restraint loan scheme and evaluate its cost-effectiveness are presented. METHODS: The intervention programme was initiated in 1996. Car-restraints, donated by manufacturers, were lent for a six-month period to eligible prospective parents for a modest fee. Specially trained health visitors performed in-person interviews with the ...

The question of what is genuine maternal love was posed by a mother struggling to understand and value the nature of her bond with her small baby. The question surfaced time and again in the context of this dyad's long-term parent-infant psychotherapy and has challenged me to examine my thinking ...

There is no clear-cut answer to the question of whether surgical genitoplasty affects gender identity in the intersex infant. The debate centres around which is more important for the development of gender identity: the biological sex of a child or the sex in which a child is reared. We believe ...

PURPOSE: Tscharnuter Akademie for Motor Organization (TAMO) therapy is a therapeutic approach based on dynamic theories of motor control. Research evidence supporting this approach is limited. The purpose of this case report is to describe the use of TAMO therapy in the physical therapy intervention for an infant with congenital ...

The Finnish HPV Family Study is a prospective cohort study assessing the dynamics of human papillomavirus (HPV) transmission between parents and infant. Serial genital and oral scrapings from 76 families, including mother, father, and infant, and semen samples were collected over 2 years of follow-up, analyzed by nested PCR, and ...

Acetaminophen is frequently used by both physicians and parents for the relief of pain and fever in infants and children of all age groups. It has an excellent safety profile in therapeutic doses, but hepatotoxicity can develop following both intentional or unintentional overdoses. Repetitive doses of acetaminophen, usually in supratherapeutic ...

This article draws together thoughts derived from an experienced clinical psychologist's practice, with parents of ill and premature infants in the context of a psychological service for children and parents in a paediatric and maternity teaching hospital. Parents were those referred by attendant neonatologists in intensive neonatal care who observed ...

When an infant is admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), parents seldom have the opportunity to celebrate special events in the infant's life within the context of the family. Our Rush SpecialKare Keepsakes is a program for parents of NICU infants that combines therapeutic photography, journaling, and memento ...

AIM: To examine whether regulatory problems in infancy predict later hyperkinetic symptoms in childhood and pre-adolescence. METHODS: In a prospective longitudinal study of 319 children at risk of later developmental problems and psychopathology, hyperkinetic behaviour problems were assessed at the ages of 2, 4.5, 8 and 11 y by means ...

To study the social-emotional development of triplets, 23 sets of triplets, 23 sets of twins, and 23 singleton infants (N=138) were followed from birth to 2 years. Maternal depression and social support were assessed in the postpartum period, mother-infant and father-infant interaction and the home environment were observed at 3 ...

The pre-natal diagnosis of a serious anomaly in the fetus precipitates a crisis for the parents. Effective counselling may help during this difficult phase. We postulated that if parents opted to continue with the pregnancy, then they are better prepared to care for the newborn infant having already experienced the ...

Infants exposed prenatally to drugs and alcohol tend to enter the child welfare system at a younger age than many other foster children and often directly from the hospital following birth. This article examines three concepts from the postpartum family adaptation literature: transition to parenthood, maternal and paternal role identities, ...

In this study we examined the relationship between menarche and interest in infants among adolescent girls, and the effects of early environment, particularly of father absence from home, on both variables. Eighty-three girls ranging in age from between 11 and 14 years served as study participants. Interest in infants was ...

This study examined short-term attachment stability and sought to identify predictors of stability and change within a sample characterized by fathers' alcoholism. Results suggest moderate stability of attachment classifications (60% for mothers, 53% for fathers) from 12 to 18 months. Higher paternal and maternal alcohol symptoms, maternal depression, and maternal ...

BACKGROUND: Little is known about parental experience and decision making with regard to premature infants requiring intensive care in developing countries. We undertook this study to characterise parents' experience of physician counselling and their role in making life-support decisions for very low-birth-weight (VLBW) (birth weight < 1 501 g) infants ...

AIMS: To study the frequency and reason for withdrawal/withholding of life sustaining treatment (LST) and do not resuscitate (DNR) orders in infants who died in a tertiary neonatal unit. METHODS: Infants who died at Homerton University Hospital between January 1998 and September 2001 were studied by retrospective analysis of patient ...

The birth of a premature infant is stressful for family members who must adjust to unfamiliar surroundings, learn new vocabularies, cope with the infant's uncertain survival and outcome, maintain vigilance at the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), and eventually assume care for a recovering infant at home. Nursing research has ...

Up to 20% of parents report a problem with infant crying or irritability in the first 3 months of life. Crying usually peaks at 6 weeks and abates by 12-16 weeks. For most irritable infants, there is no underlying medical cause. In a minority, the cause is cow's milk and ...

AIM: To analyse the role of early infant-related, parent-related, family functioning and social relation factors during the infant's first 3 mo of life and their associations with later recurrent treatments with antibiotics. METHODS: In an unselected population-based study, parents expecting their first child were followed from pregnancy until the infant ...

Because nutrition plays a critical role in infant growth and development, healthcare providers need current and accurate information in order to address parental concerns about infant nutrition. Although the benefits of breastfeeding are well recognized, mothers may decide not to breastfeed, and parents may have concerns about when to introduce ...

This study investigated the stress experienced by parents in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), the infant and parent characteristics that resulted in different stress responses, and the characteristics that were predictive of stress. The Parental Stress Scale: Neonatal Intensive Care Unit was used to measure the stress of 162 ...

This is a preliminary study of 37 infants with deformational plagiocephaly. In this first effort to create a profile of factors that may contribute to the onset and progress of developmental plagiocephaly, parents were interviewed concerning selected practices before and immediately after the birth of their infants. Results of the ...

It has been suggested that the characteristic lapses in thinking and reasoning of the unresolved/disorganized (U) state of mind following traumatic loss involve psychological mechanisms similar to those found in PTSD and that a fuller understanding of these mechanisms may help explain the disruptions in parental caretaking behaviour that lead ...

Interventions that build upon the natural components of early mother-infant interactions are critical to reversing the sequelae of maternal substance abuse and breaking the cycle of addiction. This paper proposes a theoretical model that blends infant massage (IM) into a planned parenting enhancement program (PEP) to promote improved health outcomes ...

Kinetic stabilization of the o-quinoidal 3,4-benzotropone system was investigated. The parent 3,4-benzotropone undergoes rapid [pi8 + pi10] dimerization in fluid solution even at -78 degree C while triptycene-fused derivative having a tert-butyl group at the C6 position of the tropone moiety was found to be stable indefinitely under similar conditions. ...