Good news for expectant moms who are suffering from morning sickness. Researchers at The Hospital for Sick Children’s (SickKids) Motherisk Program have found that morning sickness, which impacts up to 80 per cent of pregnancies, enhances children’s long-term neurodevelopment. The study will appear in the April 23 advance online edition of The Journal of Pediatrics.

This is the first study to assess the direct impact of morning sickness on children’s neurodevelopment. While previous studies suggested an early protective benefit of morning sickness, the long-term effects, including intelligence and specific cognitive skills, had not been directly investigated.

“Our findings suggest an association between NVP and improved neurodevelopment in the offspring,” says Dr. Irena Nulman, lead author of the study. “NVP is a widespread and puzzling physiological phenomenon that has yet to be sufficiently studied,” adds Nulman

Morning sickness may result from an altered secretion of hormones (HCG and thyroxine) during pregnancy. The change in hormone levels happens to ensure adequate placental growth.

For this study, participants were recruited through Motherisk’s NVP hotline database. The research included 121 women who called the hotline from 1998 to 2003. Participants were split into three groups of mother-child pairs: mothers who experienced morning sickness and were treated with diclectin (a drug used to treat nausea and vomiting during pregnancy); those who experienced morning sickness and did not take diclectin; and those who did not experience morning sickness.

Children aged three to seven years were assessed with standardized age-appropriate psychological tests, including measures of intelligence and behaviour. Other factors such as mother’s IQ, number of cigarettes smoked per day, alcohol consumption and socioeconomic status were also taken into account.

The study showed all children across the three groups scored within the normal ranges for neurodevelopmental outcome. It indicated children of women with morning sickness scored higher on performance IQ, verbal fluency, phonological processing and numerical memory. It also suggested diclectin does not appear to adversely affect fetal brain development. Severity of morning sickness was a significant predictor of higher scores, and maternal IQ also played a role in the outcome.

Researchers at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), the University of Toronto, Mount Sinai Hospital and York University have found that ’sucrose analgesia’, or table sugar, reduces a baby’s pain response to routine care following a painful procedure.

The study involved 240 infants. Before having blood drawn, half of the babies were treated with sucrose and half were given a placebo. Pain responses were measured during diaper changes performed after the blood tests. The study found that the sucrose-treated infants had lower pain scores than the placebo-treated infants.

“This research shows us that the benefits of sucrose analgesia extend beyond the painful event to other potentially uncomfortable procedures,” says lead author Dr. Anna Taddio, an Adjunct Scientist and Pharmacist at SickKids and an Associate Professor of Pharmacy at the University of Toronto. This is the first study to determine the effects of sucrose on routine care activities performed after painful procedures, she says.

Additional studies are needed to determine what causes sugar to relieve pain and calm babies. The effectiveness of treating newborns with sugar water in other situations should also be investigated as well.

When my son was small, the hospital used to use sugar water before they gave him his RSV shots. The nurses told us that they found the babies that were given the sugar water were much calmer after their shots than those who had nothing.

SOURCE:SICK KIDS HOSPITAL

There are many benefits to taking prenatal vitamins.

Researchers at The Hospital for Sick Children(SickKids) have found that taking prenatal multivitamins fortified with folic acid can reduce the risk of three common childhood cancers: leukemia, brain tumours and neuroblastoma. This research was published online on
February 21, 2007, in the journal Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics.

“Our research indicates that a large proportion of several early childhood cancers can be prevented by taking a prenatal multivitamin before and during pregnancy,” said Dr. Gideon Koren, the study’s principal investigator, director of the Motherisk Program at SickKids, a senior scientist in the SickKids Research Institute and a professor of Paediatrics, Pharmacology, Pharmacy and Medicine and Medical Genetics at the University of Toronto. “This affordable approach could contribute to a significant reduction in the number of childhood cancer cases diagnosed each year, which has huge implications for society at large.”

The study examined the findings of seven articles that met the inclusion criteria and found that prenatal supplementation of multivitamins containing folic acid is associated with a 47 per cent protective effect for neuroblastoma, 39 per cent for leukemia and 27 per cent protective
effect for brain tumours. While other studies have investigated the effect of prenatal vitamins on rates of paediatric tumours, this is the first systematic review and meta-analysis of prenatal multivitamin use before and during early pregnancy and its protective effect for several paediatric cancers.

Leukemia, the most common childhood cancer, accounts for 25 to 35 per cent of new paediatric cases each year. Brain and spinal tumours, the second most common form of cancer, accounts for 17 per cent of new paediatric cancer cases each year, and neuroblastoma, the most prevalent solid tumour that occurs outside of the brain in children under the age of five, affects
one in every 6,000 to 7,000 children in North America.

Additional research is required to determine which components of a prenatal multivitamin provide protective effect for paediatric cancers and whether any of the protective effects can be attributed to folic acid. A previous study by Motherisk found that prenatal multivitamins fortified with folic acid can reduce the risk of a wide range of serious congenital defects.
Women who are considering pregnancy are generally advised to supplement with folic acid but findings of these studies suggest that supplementation with a multivitamin containing folic acid may be a preferred method.

SOURCE:SICKKIDSHOSPITAL

Gastroschisis is a non-genetic defect in the abdominal wall through which the intestines develop outside of the baby’s body, being exposed to the amniotic fluid in the mother’s womb. It is a very rare defect attaining 1 in 10 000 babies and can be diagnosed early in the pregnancy.

At Sébastien’s birth, the doctors operated immediately, as the intestines that had been exposed were twisted, preventing blood circulation in the intestine, and needed to be removed. Since more than three quarters of the intestine was removed, from the jejunum to the micro-colon, including the ileocecal valve, Sébastien suffers in consequence from Short Bowel Syndrome.

In order for Sébastien to grow and thrive he needed to be fed by TPN (Total Parenteral Nutrition). A premixed liquid fomula that is created for his bodies needs, which usually will drip through a needle or catheter placed in your vein for 10-12 hours, once a day or five times a week.

While the TPN was helping him grow it was also destroying his liver. His blood would no longer coagulate, causing many worries for his parents who knew it was a secondary effect of a damaged liver.

Sébastien was placed on a waiting list for organ transplant, status 3. In Canada, there are 1,700 people on a waiting list for organ transplants – and 40 of them are children. The family knew it would take a miracle for him to receive both organs that he needed to survive.

In the beginning of January, in the wee hours of the morning, David and Jasmina received a call from Toronto, giving them the news of a possible occasion for a small bowel and liver transplant for Sébastien. A glimmer of hope motivated their haste despite a short night and they flew to where the sun was already just beginning to rise.

After an evaluation and some discussion, it was decided that another baby would receive the transplant, given that the intestines and liver would be too large to properly fit Sébastien’s little body.

In August, Sébastien received his double organ transplant at Toronto’s Sick Kids Hospital.

It may not be the most festive setting, but the fact that he’s here at all makes it the best Christmas the family has ever had.

“It’s like we won the lottery and we won the gift of life for our son,” his mother Jasmina Forest relates. “He’s our Christmas gift, because if we hadn’t gotten this double transplant, he would not be … with us this Christmas.”

They can’t possibly express their gratitude for a holiday gift that will forever be beyond price.

“We would like to thank the donor’s family for being so generous,” Jasmina proclaims, tears welling in her eyes. “We promise to take good care of him.”

This baby is a miracle many times over. First by surviving prematurity and second for recovering from a double organ transplant. These parents are very lucky and extremely dedicated. He is a fortunate young boy to have them. Please visit his site for more information or the City TV site for video on the story.