An Early-Onset Future

An Early-Onset Future

Sarah Taj

             Newborns enter this world saturated from their time before birth being immersed in an amniotic fluid. After birth, they aim to adjust to their new environment outside of the uterus by losing the extraneous fluid which inevitably lowers their body weight significantly. During this critical week of modification, they are also learning to breast or bottle feed which adds to the abrupt weight loss. 95 percent of newborns will lose up to 10 percent of the birth weight and will regain this weight in 14.5 days by the continuance of breast or bottle feeding. Physicians highly recommend tracking your newborn’s growth in both weight and height over time to provide a clear sense of your child’s health. By collecting, recording, and analyzing routine checkups, physicians are able to seek whether there is a trend between newborn weight changes and future physiological changes.

This research studies the fluctuations of newborn weight changes during early childhood and tests whether there is a correlation between the child’s cardiovascular outcomes later in life. The goal of this study is to analyze the data concerning the impact of early infant weight gain and losses with how the child eventually metabolizes sugar and any possible risk factor they will have/not have in relation to their heart and blood vessels including diabetes, high cholesterol, and coronary heart disease. For this study, children between the ages of 4 and 7 had fasting blood samples collected and were properly measured in search of any inconsistencies. Their birth weight and postnatal care were collected from clinical records and trained examiners during the child’s hospital stay. This study examined a total of 312 children with detailed background information on their growth from very early in life and subsequent measurements in relation to their physiological well-being.

Why this study is so crucial is mainly due to the high possibility of a child failing to regain their lost weight; if a newborn does not regain their lost weight within 20 days, their condition is labeled as chronic and poses a concern for both the newborn and its parents. A large percentage of newborns develop complications such as dehydration and, in many cases, jaundice which is caused by an accumulation of aged red blood cells in the blood. These two difficulties are the most common causes of newborn hospital readmissions. In response to this, mothers believe this weight loss means their baby is not getting enough breast milk, which leads them to supplement their baby with formula, a practice physicians aim to avoid whenever possible. This study brings awareness to both the commonality and abnormalities of weight variation and, if there is a correlation, how to properly treat any irregularity to prevent future physiological impacts.

With the completion of the research, there was no evidence that new born weight fluctuation is related to future health concerns. As a solution however, it suggests that the changes in weight should be faced in clinical practice as a short term issue with no medium or long term consequences.  Furthermore, parents are recommended to continue monitoring their child’s weight to prevent the aforementioned complications, dehydration and jaundice.