Growing Your Baby - Parenthood from Pregnancy to Pre-school » Premature Babies

Preemie Profile: 24 Weeker Johann

Shannon — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:07:37 +0000

November is Prematurity Awareness Month. In honor of this, some parents who have had babies prematurely have offered to tell their stories to create awareness about his important cause.

Our second preemie profile is an amazing little boy named Johann.

Johann was born on October 23rd 2004 at only 24 weeks and 3 days, weighing a mere 698 grams(1lb 9ozs). Mom Adrienne, believes that an amniotic infection may have caused her to go into premature labor.

Adrienne says that while Johann was never the sickest child in the NICU, he did go through every preemie complication on the list. It was one thing after another and it seemed like forever for things to resolve.

Johann had a PDA(Patent Ductus Arteriosus) that resolved after receiving three drug treatments. He also had metabolic imbalances, hypoglycemia, stage 1 ROP(Retinopathy of prematurity) of his eyes, suspected NEC (Necrotizing enterocolitis), chronic lung disease, jaundice and leaky kidneys.

After 221 long days in the NICU, Johann ended up coming home on a nasal cannula (oxygen) and with a NP tube for feeding.

Since that time, he has been diagnosed with cerebral palsy (spastic quad, dystonia) and is non verbal.

If Adrienne had one piece of advice for a new preemie mom it would be to take things one day at a time. The future will unfold in its own way for your child. Looking too far ahead into the future of you baby can make things hard. And worrying about what has happened to others will not be necessarily what will happen to you and your child. Every child is so different.

I asked Adrienne to describe Johann is one word. He said DETERMINED.

I agree! Any baby born this early has to be determined and he has proved this over and over in his five years of life!

Coast Guard Rescues 28 Week Baby Born On A Ferry

Lisa — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 18:24:16 +0000

A car ferry in the English Channel headed for Spain was the scene of an exciting airlift this morning after a baby girl arrived much early than planned..

The tiny baby was born at just 28 weeks in the early hours of the morning aboard the Pride of Bilbao.

Shorty after the surprise delivery mom and baby were winched from the vessel by the coast guard and taken to airport before being transferred to the Hospital.

Before the baby arrived, the new parents were on vacation. Dad will have to remain onboard until the ferry reaches Spain tomorrow morning.

The baby girl, who had breathing difficulties at birth, is now in intensive care.

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Preemie Survived To 94 Years Old!

Shannon — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 01:11:38 +0000

Agnes “Babe” Fuller thrived in the Florida sun. She was born on August 12th 1915 at her parents home in Clermont. She passed on September 21st at her home in Winter Park.

She was born premature and weighed only 2.5 pounds. Her parents set her outside in the Florida sun in a dresser drawer for ten minute intervals. They had nicknamed her “Babe” because of her preemie status.

“The “natural incubation” worked wonders, said her daughter, Marsha Fuller of Marietta, Ga., because her mother lived 94 years.”

There is no information on just how premature she was, but it is incredible to me that a 2.5lb baby born in the beginning of the 1900s was able to survive after being born at home so tiny. We all know how far doctors/medicine has come with premature babies and we know way back then there was really nothing much they would have been able to do for them.

-Shannon Strohm, Staff Writer (Mommy to Ashton, born at 24 weeks weighing 1lb 9oz on June 10th 2005. Now 4 years old with many special needs but an absolute awesome happy child! Also mommy to an angel, ^Hunter^ who was born on March 28th 2009 at only 18 weeks 4 days.)

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25 Weeker Fitted With An External Pacemaker

Lisa — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 22:05:01 +0000

In a world first, tiny Taylor Gardner has been fitted with a pacemaker bigger than her fragile body.

Born after just 25 weeks and weighing an unbelievable 540g, Taylor’s heart began to fail in the hours after her birth, forcing Melbourne’s Monash Medical Centre surgeons to try the untried.

The cardiac team wired an external pacemaker to her tiny heart, allowing her to stay alive so she can be fitted with a more conventional pacemaker in coming months.

A 19 week ultrasound revealed Taylor had a complete heart block found in 1 in 200,000 babies.

At that time her mother Rebecca Gardner was put on bedrest so that her pregnancy could be monitored.

“It was heart-wrenching, but I wanted her to survive because she is my 11th pregnancy and I only had one child,” Ms Gardner said.

“I just wanted her to be alive. Everything else you push to the back of your mind and then pray and hope.

“You just have to put on a brave face, lots of prayers and hope the surgeons can perform a miracle.

“She’s a fighter and she is feisty. Even though she has such tiny hands, I reckon all the nurses are wrapped around her little finger.”

Nine hours after her birth on May 25, Taylor’s heart rate was getting worse instead of better and she had to be rushed in for a pacemaker. As a result of her condition, her heart beat at between 40-50 beats a minute, rather than 150.

Although only a handful of premature babies in the world had ever been fitted with an external pacemaker – and none less than 750g – Dr Alex Veldman said surgeons had no other choice but to rewrite history.

“It is a bit like flying to the moon – you have to try something that was never attempted before,” he said.

“In a hospital like this we can have all the expertise and all the knowledge to make it as safe as possible, but, in the end, you still have to try to fly this thing.

“It is quite an amazing thing, because the size of the baby’s heart is half the size of a cherry, and to suture these wires on to that heart without injuring it is astounding.”

Five days after the miracle operation, Taylor’s bowel perforated and she needed another major operation.

Dr Veldman said that now she’s made it through the first week of her life, her biggest dangers were behind her.

For even the smallest internal pacemaker, Taylor will have to grow between 1.5kg and 2kg in three months before she is big enough to get one and able to leave the neonatal intensive care unit.

Other Amazing Babies:

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Music Beneficial for Premature Babies

Lisa — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 20:20:28 +0000

A Canadian team reviewed nine studies and found music reduced pain and encouraged better oral feeding in premature babies, while helping them grow and thrive.

They believe that calmer infants gain weight faster and have shorter hospital stays.

Music also appeared to have beneficial effects on physiological measures like heart and respiratory rate, Archives of Disease in Childhood reports.

Increasing numbers of neonatal units are using music on their wards.

Of the six studies the University of Alberta team looked at

Three looked at the effect of music played to babies during painful procedures such as circumcisions and heel prick tests
One looked at the effect of music on feeding rates
two looked at the effect of music on physiology and behaviours

The music used varied with some trying lullabies with or without added sounds, such as heartbeats or womb noises. One study used loud music – a specially composed wordless lullaby sung by a female voice and accompanied by a harp, with other hospitals have been playing music by some of the great composers, like Mozart.

The study authors, Dr Manoj Kumar and colleagues, said:

“There is preliminary evidence to suggest that music may have beneficial effects in terms of physiological parameters, behavioural states and pain reduction during painful medical procedures.
“While there is preliminary evidence for some therapeutic benefits of music for specific indications, these benefits need to be confirmed in well-designed, high quality trials.”

Professor of Obstetrics Andrew Shennan, from the baby charity Tommy’s, said:

“Preterm births have recently increased over the past years and remain a huge problem in the UK, sometimes resulting in many long-term health problems for the child in later life, including cerebral palsy, deafness, blindness, chronic lung disease, learning and behavioural difficulties.
“The preliminary evidence that music played to preterm babies may have positive effects for behaviour and pain is very interesting and should be taken into consideration.

“Although more research is still needed in this area, the study shows that there may be simple and cost-effective ways to provide health benefits to preterm births.”

Music therapy has been known for helping hyper active kids to reduce the over activity and enhance the quality of concentration.

Amazing Baby Doing Well After Her Heart Was Repaired In The Womb

Lisa — Sat, 09 May 2009 19:49:58 +0000

Called a first in Canada, doctors at Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital and the Hospital for Sick Children have successfully repaired a baby’s heart while she was still in the womb.

At 30 weeks into her pregnancy, Vicki McKenzie had an ultrasound that showed her developing fetus had critical aortic stenosis, a condition in which the main outlet valve of the left ventricle is severely narrowed.

She was immediately referred Sick Kids and Mount Sinai where doctors explained that waiting to operate after birth would be too risky.

Untreated, her condition would inevitably lead to a lifelong condition called hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS). Children with HLHS typically need to have at least three major heart surgeries and are not expected to have a normal lifespan; the 10-year survival rate is only 65 per cent.

During the 37-minute procedure, doctors inserted the device through the mother’s abdomen and then directly into the baby’s heart to induce proper growth and function – and to prevent the child from dying of heart failure at birth.

Amazingly, the procedure allowed the baby, Océane, to remain safely in utero for another month until she was born on April 15.

“Any procedure you can do to a fetus in utero allows the baby to remain in the best intensive care unit that there is,” said Dr. Greg Ryan of Mount Sinai Hospital.

“It allows the baby to become more mature, so if this baby was delivered early, it faced … all of the complications of prematurity.”

Within an hour of the baby’s birth at Mount Sinai, she was whisked to nearby Sick Kids, where doctors fed another balloon catheter into her heart to further expand the aortic valve. A third followed a couple of weeks later.

Even though this utero surgery has been performed several times in the U.S., this is the first successfully surgery of it’s kind in Canada. The team of doctors attempted the procedure on two other much earlier fetuses. Neither survived.

“We have learned that what was a theoretical possibility is an actual possibility,” said Ryan.

“And we’ve not only seen that we can not just fix the valve, but we’ve seen that the left ventricle can recover. That’s what we were hoping would happen, but we were not entirely certain that it would happen until we saw it.”

Oceane is now doing well and expected to lead a normal childhood.

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PHOTOCREDIT:WIKI

23 Weeker Defies Odds By Breathing Just One Week After Birth

Lisa — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 01:58:54 +0000

Arriving last Monday at just 23 weeks of gestation, Berselia Hernandez Chavarri defies odds by breathing on her own inside her incubator. The baby’s chances of survival are still being assessed, but it is definitely a good sign that she is already breathing independently.

Borselia surprised doctors at Trujillo, Peru when she was born weighing just 450gms (less than a pound).

Her mom Sonia Chavarri is shown here watching on as she sleeps.

PHOTOCREDIT: AP/Karel Navarro

Charlie and Brooke Talk About Max and Bob’s Early Arrival

Lisa — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 20:32:28 +0000

Charlie Sheen and wife Brooke Mueller Sheen speak to Entertainment Tonite in a new interview airing tonight.

The Sheens open up to ET about the birth of their twin sons, Bob and Max, born 7 weeks premature.

“It was scary,” Brooke says. “I went to the NICU to see them and words can’t express how amazing and shocking to see two human beings that came out of me. But I was scared. Our babies had so many tubes on them, it was frightening. I didn’t have the easiest pregnancy. I had preeclampsia, gestational diabetes and cholestasis.” Charlie adds, “She would have been in serious jeopardy had they stayed in longer.”

Charlie also sets the record straight on the reported heart problem Max suffers from,

“They were 7 weeks early so things were still developing. Max has something called ejection fracture. It’s the volume at which the heart pumps and how much blood the heart can pump. There wasn’t anything that any other premature child, especially a twin, doesn’t normally go through. Things are gradually going toward normal.” Charlie goes on to explain the condition that kept baby Max in the NICU longer than brother Bob, “The reason he had to stay longer in the hospital than Bob was a weight issue.”

Today the Sheens say the twins are “doing great.”

“They are completely Sheens,” Brooke jokes. “They don’t have any Mueller genes. I’m like, ‘Can I at least have an ear?!’ Bob looks identical to Charlie. Everybody at the NICU called him Charlie. And Max looks like (Charlie’s dad) Martin.”

Charlie says that his two daughters, Sam and Lola, love to hold their baby brothers.

“I think they think they might be dolls,” Brooke says. Charlie jokes that he has a different issue when his older daughter, Cassandra, 24, visits. “With her it’s more like, ‘Don’t get any ideas!’ At 43, I’m not ready for that label (of Grandpa).”

Nurse Accidentally Feeds Baby Fabric Softener

Lisa — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 21:12:21 +0000

Somehow, a nurse in the Special Care Nursery mistakenly fed a premature baby fabric softener instead of breast milk.

The toxic ‘Comfort Pure’ was poured into the newborn boy’s stomach via a feeding tube in a mix-up after his mum brought in the liquid to add to his blankets.

Staff only realized the mistake after he frothed at the mouth and started vomiting.

Fabric softener contains chemicals called surfactants that can be fatal to humans.

The hospital is blaming the mother of the preemie, named only as Baby Hunter, for bringing in the Comfort in a baby’s bottle.

But yesterday a furious nurse said colleagues should have double-checked before using it.

A source within the unit said:

“It was stupid of the parent to bring in fabric softener in a baby’s bottle to give to nurses.

“But this is a worried mother who wanted to make sure her baby had soft blankets.

“For a nurse to pick up an unlabelled bottle and not check it is also negligent.

“Fabric softener doesn’t even look like milk. It’s pearly and gloopy and has a strong perfume.

Everything about this is ridiculous. Let’s hope the baby doesn’t have any long term issues from this…

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*STOCK PHOTO*

Preemie Born Weighing Under 1 Pound Goes Home

Lisa — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 03:43:03 +0000

After arriving 14 weeks early and weighing 440 grams, Hailey Lynn Plaur has overcame many obstacles to be home with her mom and dad.

During her 26th week of pregnancy Cassandra Plaur was admitted to Coral Springs Medical Center where tests revealed that the placenta was not getting enough blood. She was then transferred to the Chris Evert Children’s Hospital where they delivered her baby via C-section.

Being born so early wasn’t Haley Lynn’s biggest problem. It was her weight, or lack thereof, that was evident in snapshots taken at birth. The pictures showed the most signs of danger for Haley Lynn, who weighed less than a pound.

“She was a baby that for a lot of reasons wasn’t growing very well inside the mother,” said Eduardo Otero, M.D., medical director for the Hospital.

Doctors say she weighed half as much as other babies born at 26 weeks.

Hailey Lynn spent three months under the constant care of nurses, doctors, and of course her parents, while inside incubators in the neonatal unit of the Children’s Hospital.Amazingly, at almost 4lbs and she is now home with her parents breathing on her own.

She is definitely a trooper that beat the odds!
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