infants

Blockages –
Generally in newborns, urinary disturbances spring up from birth defects blocking the urine’s flow causing organs to swell.

The urinary tract comprises of the Urethra, the urinary bladder, the ureters and the kidneys. Often due to blockage in the urinary tract, the urine begins to flow backwards in the infant, causing the organs of the tract to swell.

The WAIMR researchers, who reported their findings online in the Journal of Cell Biology, claimed they have restored muscle function in mice with one type of FBS by replacing a missing muscle protein.

“The mice with Floppy Baby Syndrome were only expected to live for about nine days, but we managed to cure them so they were born with normal muscle function, allowing them to live naturally and very actively into old age,” Kristen Nowak, the lead author of the study, said.

At this age, the infant is quite strong in grasping things into his/her hands, and almost all of them can also pass things from one hand to the other. Infants at this age enjoy interaction games a lot and like to have the attention of their parents on them at all times.

Defective TMEM216 or transmembrane protein 216 was known to cause Meckel-Gruber and Joubert syndromes in kids.

The Hindu quoted lead researcher Colin A. Johnson, professor, Leeds University as saying, “These findings may ultimately lead to treatments for more common related disorders, such as spina bifida and polycystic kidney disease.”

“Spina bifida, for example, is one of the most common birth defects, affecting one in every 1,000 children,” added the researcher.

Lead researcher, Cria G. Perrine, Ph.D., Centers for Disease Control, division of nutrition, physical activity and obesity said, “Vitamin D receptors are present in almost every type of cell in the body. Most infants, starting at birth, will need a vitamin D supplement.”

“We have to educate moms and the health-care community that vitamin D supplementation is something that they should do (and) recommend,” added Perrine.