Is My New Born Normal?

From a pediatrician’s point of view, the first thing that needs to be done as soon as the baby is born is to assess whether the newborn baby is a term baby or a pre-term (premature) baby, because the care differs in both the cases.

 

For a term baby that is born after 37 to 40 weeks of gestation, the checks that need to be done are:

It is the role of the pediatrician to find out if the baby cried immediately after birth or not, because the baby’s cry is an assurance for both the parents and the pediatrician that the first hurdle has been crossed. This is because a lot of changes happen in the baby with the crying. Crying starts the circulation in the baby’s body, which means that good oxygenation takes place.

 

What both the parents and the doctor should realize is that as soon as the baby is born, they should look out for any external congenital defects. If a defect is found, it could be associated with other congenital defects that could exist as part of a syndrome. For example, if you find an ear tag then you should look for other things that are associated with the ear tag. There are syndromes associated with the ear tag wherein you can have renal anomalies, though the chances are rare. But unless the kidneys are palpated, or an ultrasound scan of the abdomen is done to see whether the kidneys are structurally fine, the doctor will not be in a position to say if there is an underlying anomaly. The chance of renal anomaly in a baby associated with an ear tag is not much, just 1 or 2%, but it is still worth investigating, and certainly very reassuring if negated.

 

Other signs associated with renal or cardiac anomalies to look out for are:

• Cleft lip/ palate, which is a sort of breach in the lip, or seen when the baby’s mouth is open.
• Polydactyly or multiple fingers
• Syndactyly or attachment of two fingers.
• Most term babies weigh 2.5 kg and above, and generally, most of them don’t have any problem. The only worry for these babies is temperature maintenance or thermo regulation. There are different ways of keeping the babies warm:
• By wrapping them in multiple layers of blankets, and
• Kangaroo care, where the baby is in close contact with the mother, and the mother’s heat is transferred to the baby.

 

There is an advantage in the latter method, as it aids bonding between the mother and the child. It is recommended that the baby should not only be close to the mother, but be taken inside the mother’s robe, such that the baby’s skin is in direct contact with that of the mother. This not only aids bonding, but also initiates an early breastfeeding process.