Tag: neonate
-
Why Neonatal Drug Testing is Essential for Infant Health
When I check my blood pressure on my own at my local Meijer or CVS, it’s more than fine. However, I have white coat syndrome, which means that nearly every time I have my blood pressure checked at the doctor’s office, it’s unreasonably high. But you know what that doesn’t mean? It doesn’t mean that…
-
Understanding Fetal Fentanyl Syndrome: A Growing Concern
Prenatal Fentanyl Exposure is the latest in the list of drugs, including alcohol, of course, causing abnormalities among newborns. We first heard about Fetal Fentanyl Syndrome in 2023 (Science). In contrast, we first heard about Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) in 1973, but later we learned about Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders that don’t have the sentient…
-
Universal Testing for Neonates: A Crucial Need
We know the government is here to help, but the unintended consequences of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) may make it one of the lousiest pieces of legislation ever passed – and amended and amended again. It’s like we’re trying to polish a turd. We know that drug testing is rife with…
-
Prenatal Substance Exposure: A Growing Crisis
“Nearly 1 in 12 newborns in the United States in 2020 – or about 300,000 infants – were exposed to alcohol, opioids, marijuana or cocaine before they were born. Exposure to these substances puts these newborns at a higher risk for premature birth, low birth weight and a variety of physical and mental disabilities” (The Conversation). Unfortunately, this number…
-
We CAN Mitigate FASDs
One of the conditions that Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) may be mistaken for is Williams Syndrome. In general, it looks the same, the behaviors are the same, and the outcomes are the same. However, Williams Syndrome is typically diagnosed by the time a child is 3½, and FAS is, well, typically not ever diagnosed. Regarding…
-
Prenatal Substance Exposure: A Neglected Health Crisis
Urine drug tests can be done for every patient in every hospital…but they aren’t. And that lack of testing everyone who is hospitalized could be considered discriminatory, especially when the group of patients all being tested, under the guise of not discriminating, is pregnant people, as if pregnant people are the only ones who may…
-
Mandatory Reporting in Healthcare: The Prenatal Dilemma
Imagine that you’re a person working in the healthcare profession…perhaps a nurse or a doctor. And think about what caused you to go to school for all those extra years. Was it the desire to have lots of student debt? Maybe it was working all those hours, especially on weekends and holidays… Or perhaps it…
-
When Medication Becomes a Hammer
I learned something new today…sort of. In part, CAPTA, the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, “provides federal funding and guidance to States in support of prevention, assessment, investigation, prosecution, and treatment activities and also provides grants to public agencies and nonprofit organizations, including Indian Tribes and Tribal organizations, for demonstration programs and projects” (childwelfare…
-
Knowledge Is Power, and More Is Readily Available through Neonate Screening for Drugs of Abuse
Every single baby born in the US is required to be screened for phenylketonuria (PKU), which is “a rare condition in which a baby is born without the ability to properly break down an amino acid called phenylalanine” (Medline). Annually in the US, 1 in every 10,000 to 15,000 babies born is diagnosed with PKU…
-
Syphilis or FASDs? Why Not Address Both?
Wisconsin is having a spate of congenital syphilis cases, so much so that Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services issued a memo to healthcare providers, including health departments and tribal health clinics, about the need to test pregnant people for the bacteria that causes the infection. The memo indicates that “The number of congenital syphilis cases…
Guided by Guida 