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Crying babies may suffer brain damage

Filed under: Baby health — Alan @ 7:04 pm

Parenting expert Dr. Penelope Leach claims that parents that allow their young babies to cry themselves to sleep may be harming their brain development.

Leach stated that new scientific tests show that when a parent ignores their cries, high levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, begin to build up.  According to Leach, if this happens for significant periods of time it is ‘toxic’ to the baby’s brains.

Her suggestion is that any crying period bout that lasts over 30 minutes should be avoided because it will be damaging to their development.

Leach continued to say that she is not referring to a child that is awake and simply gurgling, but a child that is screaming loud and in agony and no one is taking the time to respond to.  When this happens, the stress hormone is continuously released, which is harmful to young children.

Her findings are all compiled and published in her newest book entitled The Essential First Year- What Babies Need Parents to Know.

Leach is known as a parenting expert and psychologist who rose to fame in the 1970’s when she wrote the book Your Baby and Child.

She said that it does not matter if a parent is able to figure out what has caused the baby to start crying, but just that they respond before a child’s expectations have been altered.

She added that there is no evidence that actually allowing a child to cry themselves to sleep will help them learn to sleep on their own through the night.

Lowering baby body temp avoids brain damage

Filed under: New Born — Alan @ 7:21 am

Babies born with oxygen starvation may now have a better chance against possible brain damage, this is due to a new therapy that lowers the baby’s body temperature, and thus, the babies the risk of brain damage is lowered.

Common birth complications that cause oxygen deprivation include the baby twisting the umbilical cord around its next, which happens in two births out of every thousand. The results of this devastating complication can be as severe as long lasting neurological problems, and cerebral palsy.

Traditionally, babies are placed into an incubator on a ventilator to facilitate breathing and to keep the child warm. But a newly published clinical trial shows, that lowering body temperatures may actually increase the long term outcomes of children facing oxygen deprivation.

The study included 325 newborn infants and showed that those who were cooled instead of warmed showed a 57% better chance of avoiding brain damage.

The principal of the study is based around the fact that lower temperatures lower the metabolism of the body. Lower temperatures create a longer window in which brain neurons can be deprived of oxygen, before they suffer irreparable damage.

Additionally, reducing the amount of oxygen metabolism that takes place in the body means that the oxygen is distributed to cells in a more efficient manner.