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Low Birth Weight Babies
Causes, Concerns and Outcomes
By Kelly Burgess
- No smoking, drinking or illegal drug use. Do not take any legal drugs or supplements without a physician's supervision.
- Getting regular prenatal checkups.
- Eating a healthy diet and take vitamin supplements containing folic acid before, during and after pregnancy.
- Aggressively addressing existing medical conditions of the mother.
- Not getting pregnant before age 20 or after age 35, as this increases the risk of low birth weight infants.
What's important, Dr. Subramanian says, is that parents and doctors be extra vigilant about watching for developmental problems so they can be addressed early.
"There needs to be very specific follow up at ages 6, 12, 18 and 24 months," Dr. Subramanian says. "It they are identified with problems, the assistance can be put in place immediately to reduce the effect of any problems. In addition, we as a society need to insist that every insurance company, including Medicare and Medicaid, provide follow-up care through to mid-childhood and adolescence for those at risk for long-term problems. They do this in Europe and we should be able to do so in this nation where we have plenty."
Dr. Subramanian's points about society's responsibility is bolstered by a recent study called "Self-Perceived Health-Related Quality of Life of Former Extremely Low Birth Weight Infants at Young Adulthood." In this study, researchers interviewed 143 adults born at an extremely low birth weight, and 130 comparable young adults born at normal birth weight. While extremely low birth weight young adults reported more limitations in cognition, sensation, mobility and self-care, there were no differences in the mean scores for health-related quality of life between groups, or between those with and without disabilities.
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Low Birth Weight Babies by Anonymous on 02/19/2010 11:42AM
My 1st child was born at a birth weight of 6lb and my 2nd child at 4.7lb, my doctor couldn't give my any reasons for the low birth weights, I am not a smoker and had no complications during my pregnancies, they are both very healthy children with no development problems, but now pregnant with my 3rd child, I am scared of another low birth weight baby and the possible complications...