Baby Temperature
There’s no doubt that overheating from too many night colors, too many blankets, and too high a room temperature is a contributory factor, as SIDS is much more common in overheated babies. (The risk of overheating alone, however, is less than [...]
Crib Death
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), which is known colloquially as crib death, is the sudden and unexpected death of a baby for no obvious reason. It is estimated that about 5,000 babies die each year in the U.S. from SIDS. This has decreased [...]
Imperforate Anus
In rare cases, a baby’s anus is sealed at birth, either because there is a thin membrane of skin over the opening or because the anal canal, which links the rectum with the anus, has not developed. The rectal pouch may be connected to the [...]
Pyloric Stenosis
In this condition, the pylorus, the passage that leads from the stomach into the small intestine, is narrow because of a thickening of the muscle. The cause is unknown, and it is more common in boys than in girls.
Babies With Down Syndrome
This is by far the most common of a range of conditions called trisomies, in which one pair of chromosomes has an extra chromosome, making three. In Down syndrome, there are three number 21 chromosomes. Affected infants characteristically have [...]
Cleft Lip and Cleft Palate
A cleft is a split or separation of parts. During the early part of pregnancy, separate areas of the baby’s face and head develop individually, than join together. When joining does not take place or is incomplete, the baby can be born with [...]
Congenital Heart Disease
The most common form of heart disease in newborns is a hole in the ventricular septum – the thin dividing wall between the right and left ventricles (pumping chambers). About four weeks after birth, blood will “shunt” from left to right [...]