Editor's Corner

Taking Care of The Youngest

A message from
Dr. Ralph D. Feigin
President, Baylor College of Medicine and Chairman, Department of Pediatrics

When I walk through the Level II and Level III nurseries at Texas Children’s Hospital and at Ben Taub General Hospital, I do not always see the babies born too sick or too small. I see the adults they will become and realize that the care given to these infants, though costly, is also often the most cost effective. If we are successful in caring for these youngsters, we have given them the possibility of full lives that can extend seven, eight or even more decades.

Care for these tiny infants has progressed significantly over the past 30 years, and premature infants for whom there was no hope in the 1960s often leave the hospital now with bright futures and few, if any, sequelae. That is why the closest attention must be paid to every detail of treatment while they are in the neonatal intensive care unit and why only professionals with experience in their care provide their treatment. It is a task that continues 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Every aspect of an infant’s stay in the intensive care unit is monitored, from the temperature and noise levels to nutrition and respiration. Baylor College of Medicine neonatal specialists have pioneered many of the advances in nutrition and respiratory care that have made it possible for these infants to survive. Among these are high frequency ventilation, treatments with surfactant, nitric oxide therapy and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO).

Parents play a vital role in the care of these children, and mothers are encouraged to provide breast milk for their infants. Enabling parents to visit these infants and to participate in their care makes it much easier when they are able to take their babies home.

That of course, is the aim of everything we do, enabling children to have healthy and productive lives.