When a newborn child appears in a young family, not only great love settles in it, but also responsibility for the health of the new person. The neonatal period has some specific and rather important features, since it is after birth that the child begins to adapt to new living conditions. That is why in some babies, diseases can develop atypically. You can learn more about the most common diseases of newborns further.
What affects the baby’s health?
The main diseases of newborns that arose due to an imperfect immune response, due to its anatomical and physiological characteristics, can become quite severe. Various pathologies occur in a child either during fetal development, or after childbirth. Therefore, the classification of diseases of newborns is quite wide.
The following factors will affect the baby’s health:
- pregnancy progression;
- how was the birth process;
- the health of a pregnant woman;
- the conditions surrounding the newborn;
- method of feeding;
- toxic effects in the womb on the fetus.
The child’s transition to unusual living conditions can lead to some profound changes in metabolic processes, as well as changes in the functioning of its individual systems and organs. For babies, transitional health conditions are characteristic, therefore, such children need a special attitude. The existing borderline conditions can, after some time, turn into more dangerous and serious diseases.
What difficulties can caring parents face in the first time after childbirth, and what are the most common diseases of children at such a tender age?
Birth injury
This is a violation of the integrity of the bones, organs or tissues of the baby, which is mainly due to mechanical factors during childbirth. These injuries are diagnosed in approximately 9-10% of infants. They have a negative effect on the development of the newborn and his physical health.
Depending on the underlying functional impairment and the location of the injury, such birth injuries in infants are known:
- Bones and joints: traumatic epiphysiolysis of bone tissue of the shoulders, subluxation of joints, bone fractures and cracks. In such cases, the child is examined by a pediatric traumatologist who usually prescribes an x-ray. If the collarbone is broken, the child may be given a Deso dressing; for fractures of the hips or shoulders, reposition of the bones of the limbs, as well as the application of plaster, are shown.
- Soft tissue: muscle and skin injuries, swelling, and cephalohematoma. The tumor disappears three days after the birth process, and in the presence of a large-sized cephalohematoma, the child is performed an x-ray of the skull bones in order to prevent the appearance of cracks.
- Organs, and especially dangerous can be bleeding in the adrenal glands and liver. X-ray and ultrasound of the organs of the peritoneum and adrenal glands are performed on the baby. Symptomatic or hemostatic therapy is used to treat these conditions. The prognosis for injuries inflicted to the baby at birth will be determined by their severity and volume.
- Nervous system:
- peripheral NS injuries: paresis of the diaphragm, paralysis, injuries of the plexus of the shoulders;
- cranial injuries: intraventricular subarachnoid, subdural or epidural bleeding;
- spinal cord injuries: sprains, bleeding, rupture, as well as compression of the spinal cord; an accurate diagnosis is made by a neurologist by performing electromyography, spinal MRI, lumbar puncture, and cerebrospinal fluid examination.
In order to cure these injuries, special medical supervision is not required. The consequences of the injury will be determined by the state of a particular organ. For example, if a newborn has bleeding in the adrenal gland, adrenal insufficiency may appear in the future. Very dangerous are injuries of the nervous system during childbirth, the consequences of which will depend on their severity.
Asphyxia
This is a rather serious pathological condition of the child, which usually occurs due to impaired gas exchange, which causes hypoxia.
Also, hypercapnia with the accumulation of a large amount of carbon dioxide is often noted in a baby. Respiratory and metabolic acidosis can develop, the enzymatic process changes, dysfunction of the central nervous system, liver, and heart occurs.
According to the severity level, doctors note mild, moderate and severe oxygen deficiency in infants. If a mild or moderate form of this ailment is noted, the child has arrhythmic, atypical breathing, cyanotic skin, weakened, audible heart sounds and heart contractions, reduced reflexes. Reduced muscle tone may be noted.
With a more severe course of asphyxia, the skin of the newborn gradually begins to pale, superficial or rare breathing is noted, the mucous membranes are cyanotic, the pulse is very difficult to feel, the child has dull heart sounds, arrhythmia, as well as bradycardia, can develop.
It is noteworthy that in the presence of white asphyxia, almost 50% of infants can die before the time of birth or during the first week after them. Surviving children suffer from various developmental disorders, frequent chronic pneumonia.
Asphyxia Treatment
The treatment of asphyxia is based on the elimination of oxygen deficiency, the restoration of full breathing, the improvement of impaired metabolism, as well as the elimination of existing circulatory disorders. So, doctors should as soon as possible suck out the blood available in the airways, as well as amniotic fluid and mucus, with a catheter.
After that, in the case of the development of a mild form of oxygen deficiency, the baby is provided with a helium-oxygen mixture, and in the last and most difficult form of asphyxiation, emergency ventilation of the lungs is performed. A special apparatus is used for this.
Artificial ventilation is carried out until the baby has spontaneous breathing. Then, oxygen supply is performed by using a special nasopharyngeal catheter, they are constantly in special oxygen couves. Recently, hyperbaric oxygenation performed in a pressure chamber has been quite actively used.
When reviving infants who were born to a severe degree of asphyxiation, they often use craniocerebral hypothermia: the baby’s head cools, the swelling of the meninges is eliminated, the need for oxygen for the brain is reduced, and the microcirculation in the vessels of the brain is restored.
Respiratory distress syndrome
A significant place among the main and probable causes of mortality in newborns is occupied by the well-known respiratory distress syndrome, which is usually observed in babies a little earlier than the term of infants. The cause of the disease of a newborn baby is called pneumopathy.
After numerous studies, doctors were able to establish a connection between this syndrome and abnormal child bearing, difficult childbirth and existing diseases in the woman herself. So, this category includes uterine hemorrhages, endocrine diseases, as well as premature discharge of amniotic fluid, severe toxicosis during pregnancy, etc.
Equally important is the burden of the mother's anamnesis. These negative factors, which can also be combined, become the cause of early childbirth, as well as the development of complex pathological and physiological changes in the infant: disturbances in the gas exchange process, asphyxiation of the infant, metabolic disturbances, and deterioration of the functional state of the vascular system.
The first symptoms of respiratory failure in an infant appear immediately after birth. After about two hours, the symptom complex characteristic of the syndrome of respiratory disorders can fully develop: rapid breathing, sonorous exhalation, increased shortness of breath, change in the shape of the sternum, and skin cyanosis also appears.
The baby’s breathing pattern may change, the doctor can listen to small bubbling rales, which, however, are irregular. Heart sounds are usually tense, they are quite difficult to hear because of existing systolic murmur.
Not quite favorable signs of this syndrome are liver enlargement, slowed breathing, the occurrence of impaired consciousness, the newborn usually has muscle hypotension, general edema, hypo- and areflexia, as well as bradycardia.
Therapy
Therapy of this condition in infants includes the restoration of normal ventilation of the lungs, the correction of metabolic processes, as well as the improvement of the state of blood vessels and the heart.
To prevent the development of pneumopathy in a newborn, it is important to follow a set of measures to prevent toxicosis of pregnant women, prematurity, intrauterine asphyxiation and early infection of the fetus.
Hemolytic disease
Clinical recommendations for hemolytic disease of the newborn depend on its form. This disease affects an extremely small number of infants - approximately 0.5% of the total number of children born. The disease develops in a child mainly with a Rhesus conflict or an ABO system mismatch. This is the most common cause of hemolytic disease in newborns.
Typically, this disease manifests itself in infants in three forms:
- Anemic - develops due to the short action of isoantibodies secreted by the mother. Damage to the fetus is minimal. Anemia usually develops after the first week of a baby’s life, as they have reduced levels of red blood cells and hemoglobin, an enlarged spleen, kidneys and liver, and erythroblastosis, polychromasia and anisocytosis may also develop.
- Jaundice - appears due to the effect on the newborn of isoantibodies. The baby may have signs of jaundice and anemia, he has an increase in lymph nodes, liver and heart. Further, the child is likely to have a slight developmental delay. Due to the suppression of the immune system, children often suffer from sepsis, omphalitis, and pneumonia throughout their first year of life.
- Edematous - appears due to prolonged exposure to a pregnant woman of isoantibodies. In this case, the fetus develops further, since all toxic products will be excreted through the placenta. But nevertheless, the spleen, heart and liver may increase, extramedullary hemorrhage may form, protein-forming function is disturbed, vascular permeability is noted, and hypoalbuminemia may develop. Exchange disorders in some cases can lead to fetal death.
Pathology therapy
Clinical recommendations for hemolytic disease of the newborn will be as follows. If a child has been diagnosed with a severe form, a blood transfusion should be performed as quickly as possible. After detoxification treatment is carried out: a large amount of liquid is injected into the child, intravenous transfusion of blood and glucose substitutes is done. Often it is called a hereditary disease of a newborn baby.
Also effective is the photochemical method, in which bilirubin is oxidized under a lamp, passing into biliverdin, as well as non-toxic substances. The skin of the baby is irradiated with a special lamp that has a blue color, about 15 hours a day for two to six days.
Phenobarbital helps activate glucuronyl transferase in the baby’s liver. To improve the efficiency of the liver, doctors can prescribe the use of methionine, adenositrophosphoric and ascorbic acid, cyanocobalamin, tocopherol and pyridoxine, and to improve bile secretion, they attribute a magnesium solution of 25% concentration.
Sepsis
This is a pathological and rather dangerous if untimely detection condition of the newborn, which is usually due to the ingress of harmful microorganisms from the existing inflammatory or infectious focus into the blood of a child. Very often it is called a disease of premature infants.
It is noteworthy that most often in recent years it is staphylococcal infection that occurs. Its pathogenicity lies in the ability to independently produce enterotoxins, dermonecrotoxins, hemotoxins and leukocidins, as well as coagulase, hyaluronidase and fibrinolysin, which destroy colloidal particles.
Various diseases of a pregnant woman can be quite dangerous for the baby, since in this case weakening of the fetus immunity, as well as its intrauterine infection, occurs. But if the placental barrier is violated, the baby can become infected, and this can also happen during his advancement during the birth process.
Gates for penetration into the organs of a newborn's infection are usually called damaged skin, diseases of the navel in newborns, vessels of the navel, conjunctiva of the eyes, mucous membranes of the digestive apparatus and respiratory tract. As a result, the child develops inflammation with the release of pus: conjunctivitis, pyoderma, omphalitis, otitis media, etc. Sepsis can be otogenic dermal or umbilical.
Sepsis is diagnosed after receiving the results of laboratory and bacteriological examinations of the baby, as well as with obvious clinical manifestations. Pathogenic staphylococcus is usually sown from the throat and nose, umbilical wound, cutaneous pustules or even blood. But negative results of examinations cannot at all exclude 100% the presence of sepsis, especially if it has clinical signs.
The main symptoms of infecting a baby with sepsis are the following: a long-wetting navel, late navel dropping, often repeated regurgitation, cutaneous abscesses, insufficient weight gain. The combination of symptoms should in each case arouse suspicion.
The temperature reaction of the newborn with sepsis can initially rise to 39 0 C, after which the temperature drops to subfebrile. Approximately on the third day, the baby has symptoms of toxicosis: heart sounds are muffled, the skin becomes grayish-pale in color, hyporeflexia and hypotension develop.
Most babies experience profuse vomiting, general weakness, and dyspeptic symptoms. After the second week of the course of the disease, the spleen and liver often increase, weight gain can slowly build up or even stop.
Sepsis therapy
Therapy should be aimed at eliminating the pathogen, correcting metabolic disorders, increasing the immunity of the child, thorough rehabilitation of existing purulent sources.
Of the antibacterial drugs, doctors attribute antibiotics such as Methicillin, Oxacillin and Ampicillin. To prevent the development of dysbiosis and candidiasis in a newborn, it is recommended to combine antibiotic therapy with levorin, nystatin, and bifidumbacterin.
In the case of severe anemia, an emergency blood transfusion may be prescribed for the child. Ideally, donor blood should be immunized with a specific toxoid. To correct metabolic disturbances, a newborn can be prescribed cocarboxylase and glutamic acid, in case of hypokalemia (intestinal paresis, tachycardia, vomiting, regurgitation) - potassium acetate. If the baby has severe hypohydration, the introduction of certain saline solutions is indicated.
It is advisable to include the use of antihistamines in therapy, which should be alternated with courses: Pipolfen, Suprastin, and Diphenhydramine. With purulent and septic foci, there is a need for surgical intervention.
Jaundice
Jaundice is a visual manifestation of an increase in bilirubin in the blood. It is worth learning about the causes and consequences of jaundice in newborns. An increase in bilirubin occurs in absolutely all newborns in the first days of existence, while yellowness of the skin is expressed only in 60-70%. Jaundice is more common and more pronounced in children with late discharge of meconium, starvation and hypothermia.
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Jaundice Treatment
If the examination reveals the painful nature of jaundice (and its causes may be varied), appropriate therapy is carried out. And first of all, Ursofalk is prescribed for newborns from jaundice, reviews of which are only positive so far. It is allowed for use at any age.
And in the event that it is confirmed that jaundice is physiological, but prolonged, phototherapy is carried out with special lamps. In the current period, this is the most productive and harmless way to cure jaundice. The essence of phototherapy is the effect on the skin of light with a specific wavelength, which breaks down the pigment and helps to excrete it with feces and urine.
In addition, the appointment of ursodeoxycholic acid, which dilutes bile and improves its decrease, is acceptable. For example, Ursofalk is used for newborns from jaundice. Reviews about the treatment of the disease with such a drug are only positive. And therefore, it can be safely used from such a pathology.
Prescribing a child water, glucose or activated carbon according to recent studies is not considered effective.
Pemphigus
Pemphigus is a disease of a newborn child from a series of acute infectious skin pathologies, characterized by the appearance of blisters with serous inflammatory contents, with a predisposition to rapidly spread the process to healthy skin zones and oral mucous membranes. The disease is bacterial in nature and is caused by staphylococcus, less often streptococcus. It appears, as a rule, in the first weeks of a child's life. The causes of infection are considered to be: caring for a child, the mother of a newborn, his family members who are sick or have purulent skin diseases. In some cases, the umbilical cord is considered the basis of infection. It should be noted that the emergence of an infectious disease of a newborn child is also facilitated by such factors as the lack of protective properties of the skin, its anatomical and physical features, and insufficient hygiene of children.
Candidiasis
In newborns, a variety of diseases can occur. It is worth saying about another disease, and more precisely about the treatment of a common form of skin candidiasis in newborns. In this case, all areas are treated with a special solution. In most cases, it is made to order in a pharmacy.
It is very important to correctly and timely identify them in order to eliminate all the symptoms as quickly as possible! We wish the baby health and happiness to the parents!