Love them or hate them, everyone* has one. The umbilical stump is all that remains of the physical bond the neonate has with their mother. We’ve looked at the importance of the umbilical vessels as a means of oxygenation, but the time must come to cut the cord. The normal umbilical cord For those of you familiar…
With an impending new arrival I was excited about the educational opportunities that would arise. I’d read up my fetal physiology and was eagerly awaiting the chance to write a series of posts on what normal babies do. I had planned to take pictures of meconium filled nappies and film normal neonatal reflexes. I’d made…
The imminent arrival of another Tagglet (not to be confused with aglet*) has prompted me to go back to my textbooks and refresh my knowledge of what to expect. One of the problems of being a medical parent is being expected to know the answers to the most random of medical questions that are thrown out…
Melbourne is the coffee capital of the world (according to me at least). It’s the city that is home of the deconstructed latte and coffee bars can be found on most street corners. Every morning I am woken at 5-ish by one of my children calling out to me. After the yell of “Daaaaaddy“, the…
A report has been released by the Chief Medical Officer, NSW, outlining the finding of the recent events in Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital, where a baby died following a neonatal resuscitation. There are lessons to be learned for all of us from this tragic case. Here, we summarise the findings. The full report can be read here….
The fortnight has seen two hot off the press articles by a group from the Basque Country. They are challenging the existing paradigm in the investigation and management of febrile infants with their “Step by step” approach. The approach questions the relative supremacy of the Rochester criteria as a basis for investigating and managing infants under…
Like almost every other human entering a pharmacy in the ten last years, I was offered some probiotics when I collected a prescription recently. On my walk back to the car I mused about the evidence behind the shop-assistant’s attempted up-sale. I reminded myself of the use of probiotics to prevent necrotising enterocolitis, and was…
Freezing breast milk – whether you’ve seen it done during your NICU time, or done it yourself as a parent, it’s probably something that we’ve all had to consider. General advice is that it’s ok to freeze your breast milk for 6-9 months. But is that really true, or does freezing damage breast milk? Cite this article…
6 year old Ella has been sent home from school as she has been itching all day. When her mum, Val, picked her up she noticed a few spots and thought she better get them checked out. You see the classical rash of chickenpox and reassure of the relatively benign nature of the illness and…
Having braved international flights half of the team from DFTB (Andy and Henry) have made it to SMACCDub. For those of you not in the know the Social Media And Critical Care conference is in it’s fourth year now and partly inspired us to start Don’t Forget The Bubbles. Although the editors regularly chat online…
Alcohol use is common in Australian women with surveys suggesting that around 90% of 18-45 year olds have had a drink in the last year and that around 39% of these are unaware of the health implications of drinking on the developing fetus. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is a leading cause of preventable intellectual disability. An…
Poop Patrol
It’s the one question that all parents seem to ask about their newborn – “Is this normal? How can such a small thing create such a lot of mess?” One of the things that stood out to me from Ross Fisher’s presentation on “What every Paediatric Surgeon wished you knew” was the line “There is…