You nursery will rival a hospital ward with its blinking machines, beeping gadgets, and monitors that alert you to your child’s heartbeat, breathing, and also nutrient intake. When at first confronted with durable medical equipment, many a parent is shocked and feels woefully inadequate. Fortunately, home healthcare agencies are at your beck and call and able to train you in the use of the machines until you feel comfortable with them. It is a wise idea to involve each and every family member in the training, including an outside caregiver such as a babysitter who has declared herself willing to be called upon to provide you with babysitting services for your child.

Your best course of action involves the services of a devoted social worker who will be there to oversee the collaboration of different service agencies and who will gently but firmly help you to step into the position of your child’s home healthcare provider. Here are some things to remember as you are ready to embrace this development in your child’s health needs:

* It may be necessary to change your child’s room to one that has more space for the medical equipment or more outlets. Most medical equipment will specify that an extension is not to be used, and thus you will need to have a direct plug to wall connection.

* Have a phone installed in your child’s room and keep emergency numbers and your physician phone numbers close by.

* Emergency medical procedures should be listed on placards which you laminate.

* Equipment troubleshooting steps need to be listed as well and taped onto the walls near the applicable medical equipment.

* Discuss earthquake, flood, or tornado preparedness with your physicians and get their suggestions of what to do in these emergency situations.

* If you live in areas affected by rolling blackouts, contact your power company to alert them to the fact that you have a family member living at home who is relying on medical equipment. This will get you off the main grid and most likely switched into the same grid as hospitals.

* Understand what interferes with your child’s health care equipment. For example, will your cell phone or laptop interfere with the heart monitor? A running washer or dryer, if too close to your baby’s crib, may interfere with the proper functioning of the child’s apnea monitor by providing false positive readings. Be mindful of these interferences and find ways to eliminate them.

Related posts:

1. Disciplining A Child With Birth Defects
2. Help For Parents Of Children With Birth Defects
3. Does Your Child’s Birth Defect Merit An Iep

Although in general society would like to pretend that bullying in the context of physical deformities and abnormalities does not happen anymore, the sad reality is starkly different. Bullying is alive and well, and in the harshly defined pecking order that begins in the middle of elementary school and reaches critical mass during the middle school years, nothing makes bullying more inviting than a visible handicap.

When a visible birth defect invites bullying, you need to ensure that your child is not only able to deal with the event, but also knows to immediately speak to you about it. Here are some suggestions:

1. Your child needs to understand what bullying consists of; a little tease, a good natured joke, and even an insensitive remark do not necessarily constitute an example of bullying. Instead, it will take on physical forms such as hitting, pushing, intentionally tripping your child, calling her or him names, scornfully imitating the physical appearance of your child, such as by using an exaggerated limp, and then threatening your child with physical harm if she or he will tell anyone.

2. Your child needs to understand that a bully is a person who may have been mistreated by others and in turn is passing on this learned behavior. While this does not excuse the other child’s behavior, it will help your child to see past the threatening and intimidating behavior of the bully and recognize another scared or scarred kid underneath.

3. While your child needs to learn to deal with bullying, you have to get involved and speak to teachers, the principal, and the other child’s parents. This is not a time to spare feelings or mince words. Keeping your temper in check and the child with a friend or relative, you will need to convey succinctly, briefly, and decisively that you will not tolerate the bullying of your child to continue. I you meet resistance and the old “kids will be kids” attitude, do not be afraid to calmly state that unless immediate action is taken, you will entertain the thought of legal action against the school district in general, the school in particular, and also the principal and the child’s parents. If nothing else, this will get results.

4. Do not tell your child about this conversation but instead role-play how to act when bullying happens. Show how to defuse a situation by walking away, put a bully in her or his place verbally or by ignoring the child, and practice how to put on a nonchalant attitude when bullied.

Related posts:

1. Coping With A Visible Birth Defect That Makes Your Daughter Unpopular
2. Does Your Child’s Birth Defect Merit An Iep
3. When A Child With A Birth Defect Needs To Be The Bigger Person

Generally speaking, forceps are little more than oversized tongs which are inserted into the vagina to extract an infant who has traversed far enough out of the uterus to just need that last little bit of help to make it into the world. Though never planned, forceps are a staple of most any birthing room in a well stocked hospital and are available at a moment’s notice if the child should present with sudden distress that requires immediate removal from the mother’s body. In the same way, maternal distress brought on by a sudden elevation of the blood pressure that may result in serious heart problems if pushing is permitted to continue, may also persuade the attending obstetrician to utilize the help of forceps.

The birth defects that have been blamed on forceps deliveries are far reaching and are directly attributable to a doctor’s ability to properly work with the instrument. Since the forceps are applied to the child’s head with the intent of pulling the infant from the mother’s body with the help of the oversized tongs, the danger of having an inexperienced physician press too hard is high. An immediate consequence is a skull fracture which in turn may lead to brain damage. Furthermore, if the pull on the child’s body is too strong for its delicate bones, the possibility of spinal cord injuries is real and every present, and a side effect of injuries to this area of the child’s body is the potential for the infant not being able to breathe on its own.

Considering the dangers and drawbacks, it is not surprising that many a physician shies away from the use of forceps and instead opts for the tried and true Caesarean delivery, yet this trend may cause more harm than good. Add to this the fact that with forceps an emergency birth may be affected literally within a few split seconds while a Caesarean requires preparation time which may permit valuable minutes to tick away, and you can see why the failure of obstetricians to permit themselves to be trained in the proper utilization of this medical instrument is actually contributing to the problems at hand instead of soling them. Therefore, when birth defects are caused during a forceps delivery the very fact that a physician may have been ill advised or inadequately trained to utilize this medical equipment needs to give pause to the medical establishment as a whole and then translate into decisive action. Although not popular with parents and doctors, the need for training in the area of forceps delivery must be made a standard practice of anyone who plans to attend births at a hospital; after all, the last thing you want to endure as a mother who is about to give birth is the sudden knowledge that your doctor is unsure how to proceed when the fetal monitor alerts everyone in the room to a problem that must be dealt with now!

Related posts:

1. Types Of Birth Defects Explained
2. Causes For Hearing Loss Birth Defects
3. Birth Defects And The Health Care System

A cleft is an opening that occurs in the lip, the roof of the mouth (palate) or even both. When in the womb every baby has this cleft when it is forming, but the structures are suppose to fuse together during the first 3 months of gestation. In babies born with cleft lip or cleft palate, for some reason it only partially fuses or doesn’t fuse at all.

Cleft lip can occur on one or on both sides of the upper lip. These defects can be associated with some 300 other genetic birth defects.

Cleft lip is correctable with surgery. The surgery will leave minimal scarring.

Symptoms:

The physical signs of a cleft lip can be detected immediately at birth.

The cleft may be a small notch or it can extend from the lip through the upper gum and palate.

It is less common for the cleft to happen in the muscles of the soft palate only (submucous cleft). When this happens it can sometimes not be noticed right away.

Causes:

Researchers believe that it is a combination of both genetic and environmental factors that cause cleft lip and cleft palate. This clefting can occur due to an inherit gene from one of the parents and then an environmental factor triggers the cleft to happen.

Environmental factors may include fetal exposure to cigarette smoke, alcohol, certain medications, illicit drugs and even certain viruses. Nutritional deficiencies in the mother before or during pregnancy may also lead to the formation of clefts.

Risks:

Family history of cleft lip or cleft palate

Native American, Latino and also Asian descent are all backgrounds with higher risks for clefts

Males are twice as likely to have clefts than females

Environmental factors such as exposure to cigarette smoke in early fetal development, exposure to alcohol and illicit drugs puts an unborn baby at risk

Seeking Medical Attention:

The cleft lip and cleft palate are usually physically identified at birth, and the doctor will immediately start the treatment.

A submucous cleft palate is usually hidden and may not be noticed right away. If a baby has difficulty feeding, including nasal regurgitation and excessive gassiness, the parents should seek medical attention to discover the cause as it may be submucous cleft palate.

Speech delays and a nasal-sounding voice as well as increased nasal discharge may also be symptoms of a submucous cleft palate that should have medical attention.

Related posts:

1. Smoking Linked To Cleft Palate Birth Defect
2. Types Of Birth Defects Explained
3. Birth Defect Fas

Pica is a common behavior in children with autism and other birth defects that may cause cognitive abnormalities, retardation, and developmental problems, such as a missed or severely delayed milestone. While in some cases the child’s reaching for a non-food item may be the result of an honest mistake, such as mistaking a round pebble for a piece of breakfast cereal or a small bit of chalk for a mini marshmallow, true pica is characterized by the repeated and obvious reaching for clearly non-consumable items like discarded tea bags, wood chips, glue, crayons, twigs and leaves, pet food, paper, and in severe cases also the child’s own feces.

Embarrassed parents may try to laugh off the sometimes startled expression of onlookers by joking that the dead beetle the child just swallowed would add some much needed protein to her or his diet, but in all honesty this habit is dangerous and could be potentially deadly. From a nutritional point of view, your child’s inability to choose proper food items may lead to vitamin deficiencies and the bodily symptoms that go hand in hand with them. Poisoning is a very real possibility, since many non-food items are manufactured with paints, lacquers, and other materials that have adverse effects on the stomach lining and also the kidneys and liver.

Even as pica is a behavior more than it is a symptom of a birth defect, the fact that the two are so closely related make it hard to ascertain where one begins and the other ends. If you are concerned that your child’s eating habits are bordering dangerously close on pica, it is wise to consult your physician for an evaluation. There is medication available that will help you to break your child of the habit while working with her or him to make different food choices.

As part of a medical evaluation, your child’s doctor will most likely want to run a test of the child’s fecal matter to ensure that while engaging in the behavior of pica, she or he did not inadvertently pick of a food borne parasite. Similarly, a blood test will reveal elevated levels of lead or mercury, while an MRI will ensure that your child’s bowels are not obstructed or injured by the ingestion of non-food items. If your child is afflicted with this behavior, it is important to note that you do have the power to stop it, yet only with your doctor’s help, and with a big dose of patience and supervision of the child.

Related posts:

1. Help For Parents Of Children With Birth Defects
2. Exploring Common Birth Defects
3. Symptoms And Treatments For Common Birth Defects

A study published in August of 2006, in the issue of Neurology, a scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology stated that the epilepsy drug valproate is known to pose a higher risk for fetal death and also birth defects, more so than other commonly prescribed epilepsy drugs. Physicians prescribing for pregnant epileptic patients need to be aware of this information. According to the study, 20% of the pregnancies where valproate was used, there resulted death or birth defects of the skull, limb or brain with heart and lung problems also occurring.

In the study birth defect and death rates were lower for the drugs: phenytoin, carbamazepine and lamotrigine. These studies are consistent with other similar studies. It is important that this information be made available to pregnant women and those who treat them.

The connection between medication and fetal risk depends on several factors:

Type of drug

Dosage

How it is taken

Gestational age of the fetus

Response of fetus to the medication

Maternal diet and illness

Even women who avoid medication all together during pregnancy have a 4% chance for birth defects so avoiding medications will not necessarily mean that you can prevent all birth defects. Medication is certainly not the only cause of birth defects.

Known Teratogenic drugs that pose birth defect risk:

ACE inhibitors (angiotensin converting enzyme)
Angiotensin II antagonist
Isotretinoin (acne drug)
Alcohol
Cocaine
Vitamin A in high dose
Lithium
Male hormones
Certain Antibiotics
Certain anticonvulsant medications
Certain Cancer fighting medications
Certain rheumatic medications
Certain thyroid medications
Thalidomide
Warfarin (blood-thinning)
Diethylstilbestrol hormone (DES)

There are other teratogenic drugs that lack medical studies; even illegal ones such as cannabis and amphetamines that may also cause birth defects but have not had studies to show conclusively that they do.

Medications can receive risk classifications so that physicians can have guidelines for prescribing for pregnant women. Australia has such as medication risk classification system. They have different categories for medications that apply to recommended doses and how safe they are for pregnant women to take. Such a classification system would be helpful for physicians in all countries to be able to refer to when making medication decisions. The classifications include those drugs that have been proven to increase the risk for birth defect, drugs lacking in data for safety in pregnant women, those drugs where there have been animal studies showing an increased risk for birth defects. Other categories include such things as known drugs that cause birth defects but whose health benefit to the pregnant woman outweigh the risk to the fetus for birth defect, drugs that cause harm to the fetus without causing birth defects and whose effects can be reversed, and those drugs that have a high risk for causing birth defects and should not be used in pregnancy.

Related posts:

1. Examining The Link Between Obesity And Birth Defects
2. Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors Linked To Birth Defects
3. Types Of Birth Defects Explained

Most women do not find out that they are pregnant until after the baby’s major organs are already developed. This means that damage may already be done. The best time to prevent birth defects through good nutrition is before the woman gets pregnant. Women are may become and especially those who desire to become pregnant need to understand the connection between good nutrition and preventing birth defects.

The goal of this particular study was to find out if there was a connection between diets lacking in fundamental nutrients like copper, had any interaction with the embryo’s genetics during early development.

In the human body, copper is found in all body tissues and is a critical component to maintaining stable iron levels use in connective tissue formation, nerve cell functioning in the brain, and hormone production and also pigmentation. Copper can be found in such foods as shellfish, nuts, chocolate and liver.

One inherited disease linked to a deficiency of copper is Menkes disease. This is a metabolism disorder where there is a mutation in the ATP7A gene. Children born with Menkes disease have seizures, abnormal bone development, kinky, and colorless hair. The disorder is untreatable and fatal.

Understanding the role of copper in Menkes and other birth defects such as scoliosis (abnormal curvature of the spine), can lead to understanding the importance of proper diet guidelines for pregnant women and prepregnant women.

Further research may prove that there are more nutrients that affect the body’s ability to develop normally or abnormally based on lack of a nutrient. Nutrition is critical for the developing fetus, understanding which nutrients cause certain birth defects can help physicians to better inform pregnant women regarding their dietary intake during and before pregnancy.

It is possible that with a better understanding of the role nutrition has to play in genetics and this fetal development; we may be able to prevent more birth defects from happening.

Some day women desiring to become pregnant may have a powerful arsenal in their individualized diet plan to help them avoid birth defects and give their unborn babies a better future.

Related posts:

1. The Link Between Birth Defects And Medication
2. Examining The Link Between Obesity And Birth Defects
3. Preventing Birth Defects

Before Pregnancy:

Females should make sure that vaccinations are up to date and be screened for all sexually transmitted diseases.

A complete physical examination and nutritional counseling will help ensure that the woman is in good physical condition to carry a pregnancy to term. During a preconception visit there are a few things that should be discussed including exposure to Rubella, your vaccination history, toxoplasmosis screening, controlling any chronic diseases like diabetes or epilepsy, managing any medications taken, assess any occupational risks, and assess any substance risk.

Prepregnant and pregnant women should always ask any physician prescribing medications to check to be sure they are safe to be taken by pregnant women. She should also carefully read all over the counter medications before taking them and also run them by her obstetrician or midwife before taking any over the counter medications.

Women who suffer from diabetes, epilepsy, are obese, have lupus or other medical conditions deemed risky by your physician should be addressed at your preconception appointment.

Folic acid is vital for pregnancy and women should start taking supplements that contain folic acid before they become pregnant. The neural tube must close by about 4 weeks of post conception which is before most women know they are pregnant so it is important that all women who have any chance at all of becoming pregnant should be taking 400 mcg of folic acid each and every day.

If the woman or her partner have any medical history for birth defects or are in a high-risk group due to age, ethnic background or medical history a genetic appointment should be made prior to pregnancy to access your risk factor. Genetic testing and gene therapy are two popular aspects of prepregnancy planning. During the genetic appointment you can learn about prenatal testing that can be done to alleviate any concerns about possible birth defects.

During Pregnancy:

The most important things that all pregnant women can do during pregnancy to prevent birth defects is to take really good care of their body during pregnancy. Here are some healthy habits:

Avoid smoking and secondhand smoke

Avoid alcohol

Avoid illicit drugs

Eat a healthy diet

Take prenatal vitamins that include folic acid

Exercise

Get plenty of rest

Get early and regular prenatal care

Follow the advice of your prenatal care team and ask questions about any aspects of your pregnancy that concern you.

Related posts:

1. The Link Between Birth Defects And Medication
2. Preconception Planning Is A Tool For Birth Defect Prevention
3. Examining The Link Between Obesity And Birth Defects

On the other side of the coin is the lack of attention that is paid to this most basic childhood requirement: the need for healthy boundaries that are consistently and lovingly enforced. Disciplining a child with birth defects is just as important as enforcing the set limits and standards with a healthy child. Where parents routinely err is the failure to adjust the limits and boundaries instead of the discipline that is meted out.

The goal of normalcy is expressed in the home and treating a child with birth defects differently by allowing her or him to not experience consequences of her or his actions is contrary to good and common sense. There will be times that your child will exhibit behavior that is unacceptable and cannot be excused or traced back to the birth defect. A child with club foot, for example, may not be able to respond to your instructions as quickly as a more able bodied child and thus should not be warned about tardiness, but by the same token she or he should be sternly warned against hitting or acting out physically against another sibling. This behavior is not acceptable and is most certainly not caused by the birth defect.

Psychologists have traced back parental unwillingness to discipline a child with birth defects to underlying feelings of guilt, especially if the birth defect may be attributed to external sources such as parental behavior or environmental factors. By the same token, parents of children with abnormalities will seek to instinctually want to protect their little ones from any and all adversity, rationalizing that the harshness of every day life will be something their child will have to deal with sooner rather than later as it is. Yet by failing to help the child discern acceptable from unacceptable behavior and thus not enabling the child to practice fitting into the society of which she or he will become a part sooner or later, the very harshness they are seeking to prevent will undoubtedly strike the child harder than necessary. A child with a birth defect will need to cope with rude children, inept teachers, and rude adults, but a child with a birth defect and bad manners or aggressive behavior, a potty mouth, or a volatile temper will find that children as well as adults will be less likely to invite her or him into their circle and permit the child to assimilate into the group.

Related posts:

1. Types Of Birth Defects Explained
2. When A Child With A Birth Defect Needs To Be The Bigger Person
3. Helping Your Child Cope With Birth Defects

Instead, remember that birth defects and the healthy sibling will be largely responsible for the way your affected child learns to deal with the reality of the abnormality. In some cases you could even say that a child affected with a birth defect learns to see her- or himself and self worth through the eyes of the siblings in the household. Here are some points to consider:

* Children deal with problematic situations differently. One of your children may be verbal, while another may choose to express fears and frustrations via drawings or even music. Relate to each of your child on their individual level and do not expect or require a common form of communication when it comes to their innermost thoughts.

* In some cases the healthy siblings may experience guilt over the other child’s birth defect, especially if at some point during your pregnancy they were less than enthusiastic about welcoming a little brother or sister into their home. The healthy siblings may experience misplaced feelings of being responsible for the child’s birth defect and may actually believe that it could have been avoided had they had a better way of thinking. If not dealt with immediately, concisely, and definitively, your healthy sibling may try to run away, hurt her- or himself, or do something else equally drastic to even the scales – in their minds.

* When older siblings experience the cruelty of other children directed at their affected brother or sister, it is time to teach them about the emotional and behavioral smallness of some people and how to best deal with it. This may also open the door for the admission of some personal smallness on their parts which can further a good discussion on how to deal with their sibling’s birth defect.

* If the birth defect is so severe that death is a possibility, it is wise to prepare the healthy siblings in advance. Never guarantee death, but also do not guarantee healing. There is nothing wrong with saying that you do not know what will happen, that you hope and pray for the best, but that if worse comes to worst, there is an explanation about what will happen. Reassure the healthy siblings and be prepared to deal with their fears and thoughts about death.

Related posts:

1. Disciplining A Child With Birth Defects
2. Helping Your Child Cope With Birth Defects
3. Birth Defects Affecting Fetal Limbs