Patti's Blog - Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families

Neonatal ICU treatments linked to intellectual disabilities in newborns

Excerpt from: The Saratogian (click for full article)

 

Neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) interventions for babies born very small and early have drastically reduced infant deaths in the United States, but in doing so they've contributed to more intellectual disabilities, according to a new study.

Past research has shown such disabilities have been reduced in recent years through vaccines and newborn screening, for example.

But disability rates may also be rising due to procedures that save the lives of children who go on to have limitations in social and practical skills, according to researchers led by Dr. Jeffrey Brosco.

"We actually through medical interventions, in some sense, cause a fair amount of intellectual disability as well (as preventing it)," said Brosco, from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

Judge: Slip And Fall Did Not Trigger Autism

Excerpt from: Disability Scoop (click for full article)

 

A judge has dismissed a lawsuit from a woman who claimed that slipping on a manhole cover led her to give birth to a child with autism.

Back in 2009, Lauren Melnick said that she slipped and fell on a manhole cover before going into premature labor. Melnick’s daughter was later diagnosed with autism and the Staten Island, N.Y. woman sued utility provider Consolidated Edison alleging that her child’s developmental disability resulted from the incident.

Now a judge has thrown out the claim, however, indicating that there is insufficient medical proof to link Melnick’s fall and the subsequent premature birth to her daughter developing autism.

Melnick’s lawyer indicated she may appeal the decision telling the Staten Island Advance, “we continue to believe common sense and science would lead one to the conclusion that the traumatic events surrounding this girl’s birth contributed to her developmental delays.

Michigan State University study links autism with prenatal brain abnormality

Excerpt from: Michigan Radio (click for full article)

 

A new Michigan State University study finds a link between autism and a brain abnormality in low birth weight babies.

Tammy Movsas is an assistant professor of pediatrics at MSU and medical director of the Midland County Department of Public Health.

She’s been studying ultrasounds of low birth weight babies. She discovered babies were seven times more likely to develop autism if they had enlarged cavities in the brain that store spinal fluid.

“It really springs more research that needs to be done in changes to the brain and the fact that a lot of these changes in the brain may be taking place prenatally, though not all of them are,” says Movsas.

Movsas says this is not definitive proof that the causes of autism occur prenatally.

Beating birth defects before pregnancy

Excerpt from: HHS.gov (click for full article)

 

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Unhealthy habits may cause birth defects in babies during the first two months of pregnancy, which is often before a woman realizes she’s pregnant. At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Stuart Shapira says it’s why healthy living is so important to women who could become pregnant. He says good health habits can reduce the risk of some birth defects.

Shapira says the habits include not smoking or drinking, working toward or keeping a healthy weight, controlling blood sugar if a woman has diabetes, discussing with healthcare providers all medications and supplements, and taking 400 micrograms of folic acid each day.

“These behaviors should start even before a woman becomes pregnant, and continue throughout the pregnancy.”

Folic Acid For Pregnant Mothers Cuts Kids' Autism Risk

Excerpt from: NPR (click for full article)

 

A common vitamin supplement appears to dramatically reduce a woman's risk of having a child with autism.

A study of more than 85,000 women in Norway found that those who started taking folic acid before getting pregnant were about 40 percent less likely to have a child who developed the disorder, researchers reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

"That's a huge effect," says Ian Lipkin, one of the study's authors and a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.

Hope for premature babies with neurologic disabilities

Excerpt from: News Medical (click for full article)

 

Damage caused by cerebral ischemia in premature babies could be reversed or prevented with early intervention, suggests research carried out in sheep and published in Science Translational Medicine.

A second study published in the same journal showed that impaired growth of premature babies was the strongest predictor of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) abnormalities, and the investigators suggest that improved nutrition and growth of these infants could potentially lead to improved cortical development.

"As neurologists, we thought ischemia killed the neurons and that they were irreversibly lost from the brain. But this new data challenges that notion by showing that ischemia, or low blood flow to the brain, can alter the maturation of the neurons without causing the death of these cells," said Stephen Back (Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, USA), senior author of the sheep study, in a press statement.

Promoting the Health of Babies, Children & Adults and Enhancing the Potential for Full, Productive Living Promoting the Health of Babies, Children & Adults and Enhancing the Potential for Full, Productive Living

Excerpt from: Disability Blog (click for full article)

 

Each day when we do our work, we keep stories like these in mind. They underscore our mission to promote the health of babies, children and adults and enhance the potential for full, productive living.  Babies who have birth defects often need special care and interventions to survive and thrive developmentally. Birth defects tracking systems provide one way to identify and refer children for services they need as early as possible. Early intervention is vital to improving outcomes for these babies. Through our activities, we work to identify the causes of birth defects, find opportunities to prevent them and improve the health of those living with these conditions. We are working toward a day when every child is born with the best health possible. For more information on birth defects, please visit www.cdc.gov/birthdefects.

Prenatal Treatment Cuts Learning Deficits in Mice With Down Syndrome

Excerpt from: Education Week (click for full article)

 

Mice that have a condition similar to Down syndrome performed better on memory and learning tasks as adults if they were treated before birth with something called neuroprotective peptides, new research from the National Institutes of Health shows.

The researchers studied growth factors that are important at key stages of brain development in the womb. Peptides, small fragments of protein, improve brain cells' ability to receive and send signals and enable them to survive.

In the study, published Nov. 30 in the online journal PLOS ONE, the mice had an extra copy of mouse chromosome 16, which has mouse counterparts to 55 percent of the genes on human chromosome 21.

The researchers treated pregnant mice with peptides for five days, then tested the mouse offspring when they were 8 months to 12 months old, comparing them to mice not treated with peptides. Pregnant mice received injections of the protein fragments beginning eight days after conception—the equivalent of the end of the first trimester in human pregnancies.

Mice with the extra chromosomal material treated with the peptides in the womb learned as well as mice that did not have the extra chromosome, and much faster than mice with the extra chromosome that weren't treated.

Disability expected to rise as more premature babies survive

Excerpt from: Reuters (click for full article)

 

A decade of advances in medicine mean more babies born at between 22 and 26 weeks gestation manage to survive, but rates of severe health complications remain as high as they were in 1995, according to research by neonatal specialists in Britain.

The findings of two separate studies published in the British Medical Journal suggest the number of children and adults with disabilities caused by premature birth will rise in coming years.

Babies born before 27 weeks of gestation - 13 weeks before they would be considered full term - face a battle for survival. Many of those who do survive face problems such as lung conditions, learning difficulties and cerebral palsy.

Rates of premature birth are rising in many European countries and are particularly high in Britain and the United States.

VA - Birth Defects Assistance - Payments for Children with Spina Bifida whose Parents Served in Vietnam or Korea

Excerpt from: Benefits.gov (click for more information)

 

Details of the benefits program have been updated.  The link will direct the interested to a description of the program, program requirements, application requirements, etcetera.